TubeNet

Half your pain. I took the cut 2 years ago with my company and I have yet to get back to that level. No raise this year , but they did at least pay out the bonus and they still match 3% dollar to dollar in my 401k (or is that 200.5k?).

After my aunt died last summer, who was office manager of my family's firm, my uncle treated me to cutting off all my overtime and surcharged my health insurance, which the firm had picked up the premiums before. I effectively took a 20% pay cut. Again, I'm still happy to have the job, as the industry journals are constantly reporting downsizing in the industry across the country, and I can still (barely) make my house and other payments. But again, like you, the family stress is, well, to be polite, I have to remind myself it is family and that I could be out of a job altogether.

iiipopes wrote:But again, like you, the family stress is, well, to be polite, I have to remind myself it is family and that I could be out of a job altogether.

You must remember. You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. Well, that's almost true.

no cut, but I didn't get the normally no-questions-asked raise LAST May. I really doubt it'll come this year either. No retirement either, which makes it tough on me to actually contribute to my TIAA. Discipline...Discipline....

I'm betting military recruiters are loving the current economy trend. I'm sure they are having no problems with their numbers right now.


I heard an interesting interview on the NPR show "This American Life"--on a segment about the closing of Circuit City. At the store where they were holding interviews, they said there were military recruiters there all the time in the weeks approaching the demise of the chain.

well...for us, we had a short furlough this fiscal year. The BoS is trying to renegotiate all the collective barganing aggreements to a) increase the amount of furlough available, b) do away with the negotiated Cola increase, c) reduce holiday, sick, and vacation pay and some other things in that nature. The counties budget challenge is really only in the general fund, which is only about 30% of the total county budget. The division I'm in (the dump) is completely supported by our fees, no tax revenue is in our budget....so all this crap does is hurt us, both individually (5% or so this year, more like 10% at least next), and as a unit since people feel a lot less like working together to get the jobs done.

With no warning, the automation firm for which I was a sales engineer 'bit the dust' in February of 2003. Basically, my customer base was also trashed. It pays to always have somewhat of a plan and be a bit flexible.

I've realized that working for a utility is one of the more secure jobs out there. But even at my company, there is a hiring freeze and quiet letting-go of some contractors whose parent company refused to lower their price. I really feel for the people who have families and mortgages and who are living paycheck to paycheck or falling behind. It really is time for those "victory gardens" again.

MA

my wife lost her "collij" admin job in Dec., applied for a few new ones and had a few interviews but to no avail. Right now we are not doing too badly thanks to some timely extra gigs and PA unemployment compensation but we had to cut the budget pretty drastically and the PAUC runs out in June.

She got a little part time gig at the local Body Zone, Tuesday and Thursday mornings 4:30 to 11 AM, 13 hours a week at $6.50 an hour. BZ told everyone today that they will be cutting their time down by 1/3. Not sure if it is worth getting up at 3:30 AM to work 3 hours.

Got a daughter applying to collij now. FAFSA says we can afford 30 grand a year....... my college mutual fund balances are 50% less than they were a year ago......life sucks sometimes...thank god for tubas...
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