OT: Anyone else worried about being laid off?

[bella]

We had a spur of the moment meeting in our office Friday morning and our Practice Manager, who actually started this practice about 5+ years ago with her husband (doctor), told us she's been canned by the hospital system we became "affiliated" with a few years ago.

I am probably next on the chopping block because my work can be outsourced to some other country on the cheap and I am so worried that I can't even think straight. Any other time I would consider this the good kick in the butt I needed to get out of this nonchallenging/noncreative/nonfulfilling job and get a move on finding a job more in keeping with my creative sensibilities. But, looking at jobs online in our metro area, there is NOTHING out there. No one is hiring and now I am shaking in my shoes. I don't have a husband to support me if I'm layed off and looking for a new job, and this is the most insecure I've ever felt about my future.

Thanks for listening. I just had to release this heavy heavy darkness that is enveloping me right now.

[Spec A!]

It worries me, especially since both the wife and I work for the same business. It's a family business, and we've always been told how secure we would be in this sort of event, but it still makes you worry when both your incomes come from the same place. Especially now that our three biggest clients have all voiced concerns over costs since the beginning of the year.

Bella would it be feasible for you to move?

[njperry]

Oh, bella. So very sorry to hear about that.

S_A!, hope it works out. Very stressful.

Both my wife and I have very secure government jobs that can't be outsourced or contracted out. We could both be making al ot more mmoney outside of the government but the security is great for us.

A good fried of our got laid off last year and hasn't been able to find anything. Very terrifying.

[bella]

[quote="Spec A!"]It worries me, especially since both the wife and I work for the same business. It's a family business, and we've always been told how secure we would be in this sort of event, but it still makes you worry when both your incomes come from the same place. Especially now that our three biggest clients have all voiced concerns over costs since the beginning of the year.

Bella would it be feasible for you to move?[/quote]

Hope the best for you, Spec A. Yes, I could move anywhere, but I don't want to be too far from my parents. They are up there in years and I am very very close with them and do a lot for them, and vice versa.

I just get burned up thinking about them outsourcing my job, because part of it already is and the work they produce sucks, but hey, it's cheap and I guess that's more important to the man than actual patient care.

.......OMG. Our NP (nurse practitioner) just came in and he could tell I wasn't in the best mood and I just unloaded my worries on him. The poor thing. He was very reassuring, but then, he's just the NP.

[Jschoel483]

Bella and Spec-A. . .I hope everything works out for the best. I think that if there ever was a time to change career directions and do something creative, now would be the time. Some of the best small businesses were created by people who got laid off.

Best wishes whatever happens.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Crossing all available fingers for you, bella & Anthony. You're far from alone - I just got another one of those gut-wrenching financial statements in the mail yesterday.

Not gonna be doing a lot of travel this year or spending even a penny I don't have to. In fact, I'm thinking about returning to a Federal government job - I have eight years in, which would give me a little bit of vacation time and medical leave. But it would require some sort of painful tradeoffs. We'll see how it goes.

On the other hand, was just reading an article this morning that things may be, if not turning around, at least not continuing to plummet.

[bella]

Jen, you are so right, but I'm a big wussy, scared to make that change, take that leap of faith....in myself.

Dive, thanks for the crossing of all fingers. Whew, I feel much better just having gotten this out and then even the blubbering to our NP. I usually have a hard exterior at work, so I know he was caught off guard. yikes.

One good thing, though. I did just pay off my car Friday, so that's one payment down, two to go. If I didn't have credit card payments (which aren't much compared to some, but still enough to worry me) I wouldn't be as worried. It's my goal this year to pay them off, at least within the next 15 months. Just getting all these concert updates from pollstar doesn't even thrill me. My perspective has completely shifted knowing that my job could be on the line.

I'm also kicking myself for not having gone back to school full time a long time ago. I could have been done by now. I have an associates degree in commercial art, but can't do poopy with that because right after I graduated (centuries ago) the world of design became computer based and my schooling was all old school with one primitive computer graphics class thrown in for good measure. I just never had the drive to work full time and go to school full time. I've taken one computer graphics class a couple years ago, but that's it. Always afraid to get a school loan, because for some reason they think I'm rich enough to not need financial aid, and I am scared of having that to pay off. I mean how do you do that? Anyone who has? How do you work full time and go to school full time? Or can you live on school loans and work part time? I'd do it if I knew it were possible. I guess I just need to actually speak to someone in financial aid and ask for help instead of trying to figure everything out on my own.

okay, now I'm just rambling, but I gotta say, it's good to get this out of my system.

[TheEqualizer]

Wishes the best of luck for everyone. We all need it in these historic times.

Vegas seems to be hit very hard as we depend on the world's discretionary income, which no one seems to have. We went from being the fasting growing city in the US for several years to one of the most abandoned (according to yahoo).

The other day, I made a call to someone I regularly deal with. She worked for a company that has been in operation for 100 years. For Vegas, that it incredible. Anyway, apparently they just had their first layoffs in their company's history. And the lady I trying to call had been one of those axed. She had been with the company for "just" seven years. Yikes.

It is seems like no one is safe. Some people that are very near and dear to me work for billion dollar corporations in seeming high positions and thus seemed pretty secured, but now those corporation have gone bankrupt or teetering on the edge.

I then have another class of friends. People whose clients are (or otherwise depend on business with) troubled corporations such as the above. They have worked with these companies for many years, never having a problem with getting the bills and invoices paid. But now, the bills and invoices are not getting paid and it looks likely that the past due amounts will be wiped away by bankruptcy. It tough when you've devotedly worked for a client for years, that client now owes you into the six figures in past billing, and now you face having all that work and time go to naught due to the client's bankruptcy.

Not to long ago, many people I know were wondering how they were going to retire. Now, more and more are wondering how they will make it through the month. Its scary seeing how many houses in my neighborhood are bank owned/ in foreclosure.

Again, yikes.

[Rusty James]

I’m concerned about being laid off. The recession is hitting very hard in Vancouver. A lot of commercial print business that was being driven by local real estate start-ups has all but disappeared. Paper mills are closing; forestry is in perpetual doom and gloom. To compound this downturn in manufacturing, British Columbia taxpayers are on the hook for exorbitant cost overruns from the impending Winter Olympics we will be hosting in 2010.
I know of at least a half dozen friends in my trade that have been laid off, some are considering relocation to Alberta for work and/or a lower cost of living.
My wife and I don’t live beyond our means. If push comes to shove I will have to accept the fact that my career in commercial print for the last 20+ years will be done. We will likely put our house up for sale and close the door on Vancouver as there would be no getting back into this over-inflated real estate market once you leave it. My sympathies go out to anyone struggling through this shit storm.

[TOWOS]

Thank you, Rob, and good luck to you all.
As self-employed people, we cannot fire ourselves, but even if we are both working (my job has a global range and Mr. T. works with government project) we are finding that clients take a looooonger time to pay us (still, as Divah says, the financial statements are VERY punctual, so are the taxes, and if YOU are not punctual, they don't give a damn about charging interest if your client hasn't paid you yet).

I had to put my trip to Italy on the back burner. In June it will be 2 years since I have seen my family, but what can I do when the Euro still seems to do better than the $???

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Yeah. I'm going on a trip this weekend (Santa Fe) that I planned and mostly paid for last fall before my investments plummeted 50-some percent. I'm going to try to enjoy it, since it's the last one I'm going to be able to take for the foreseeable future.

The worst part is really being trapped. The housing market is a little better in Nashville, since the bubble didn't affect it all that much, but there are plenty o' houses for sale on my block as well. We've actually discussed putting things in storage or selling them and renting ours out if it comes down to it...AFAIK Mr D's job is safe, but it's not like you really get a lot of warning when you get laid off, usually.

Well, and having the market plummet AND the housing market tank AND unemployment skyrocket is really tough. Take any one of these three factors out of the equation and people would likely be less nervous, but it really sucks to contemplate being out of a job, unable to sell any investments at a reasonable value to pay your mortgage *and* to be unable to sell your house.

I think people are just psychologically unprepared for this. I know I am. But in a way, it's making it worse....everyone freaking out and nobody wanting to invest anywhere...so far I've managed to resist the impulse to sell my holdings at a loss, but it's getting pretty tough.

[TOWOS]

"I think people are just psychologically unprepared for this. I know I am. But in a way, it's making it worse....everyone freaking out and nobody wanting to invest anywhere..."

Word. We have had decades of this type of economy in Italy, and worse - trust me - but since we have a more socialized system and a "no worries" attitude we always weathered it better. Nobody stopped spending altogether. As for investing, Italians in the past decades were more savers than investors. So I believe are most of the other Western European countries.
I noticed that Americans literally freak out. I get mixed signals about this, and the media are NOT helping.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

And so much of it is psychology. I was just reading a pretty good article:

http://www.fool.com/investing/value/200 ... ottom.aspx

(you may have to be a member to see it), the comments of which had a good suggestion. Maybe the media should cover which companies might lead us *out* of the depression, so people can go buy them and help out. Otherwise, everybody's just sitting on the sidelines tearing their hair out.

Frankly, I depend on the income generated by my investments and it sucks not to have any idea how to plan. On the other hand? 1932 was the single best year to buy stocks in U.S. history. But I sincerely, strongly doubt it appeared that way to the average investor at the time.

[sockii]

I work for myself, so being "laid-off" isn't an issue...however...

I have 2 of my 3 rental apartments recently vacated and unlike past years, it is taking *forever* to re-rent them. Which is a huge financial stress on me, every month (hell, every WEEK) they go by empty. I've showed them more times than I can count, but either get people wanting to haggle down the rents (which has never happened before) and/or saying they'll get back to me enthusiastically--and then they never will.

I get lots of (well, for my neighborhood) people coming in my gallery but sales are slow to the point of being beyond pathetic. If I wasn't using it as an active work space at the same time, there'd be no point in putting in the hours there. I'm working on setting up an electronic storefront at the moment, but am not hopeful at this point as far as how that will help...nor how my show and convention sales will be this year.

It's very tough. I'm seriously struggling at the moment as I can't even go to my investments for a backup fix as they're so in the toilet, there's no way I'm going to sell except for a few of my stocks at these prices...

[conroy]

My heart defintely goes out to everyone in these scary times. I've never seen so many people affected like this.

The media has done stories around here about where jobs are growing (government and medical being the most common), but they could definitely be doing a better job. BTW, to check federal government job listings, check here: http://www.fedjobs.gov/