Whisperings of Job Loss

Originally posted by ValentineWiggin

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by ValentineWiggin

 

I've gotten some disturbing invitations from friends, old army buddies et al, who take prepping seriously.

"Next chance ya' get, why not pay us a visit for a while?"

I laugh and say, "Gotta work, pay them bills."

They say, "Don't worry about it."

I'm glad I have such good friends.

I'm worried because I'm not in the states so I don't see much. Hell, I get more info from ATS than anywhere else about America.

My father, Army vet, retired college prof. said just the other day, "Stay in Europe for a while longer. You'll probably be better off."

What in the hell am I missing here???

My husband and I were saving to buy a new home, the home we live in is paid for but quite far out in the country away from our friends. A relative is involved in a job I would call ...err.... directly related to big financial establishments, this person called us and told us to absolutely NOT buy a home now or in the near future.

Stay quite far out in the country. You will be better off for it. ETA - Yes the picture fits me. Color keeps the gray away but not the years.

my job is cutting all employees down to 30 hours a week starting after the 1st thanks to Obama care. It will get to the point where the average American will be working 2 jobs just to survive.

Well OP, if a personal note helps...I'm not a 39yr old college student right now because I longed for experiencing what I may have missed by not going when I was half this age. lol... Nope.. I'd have been happy at this point in life never entering a classroom again. I've come to like it...but not enough to be there by choice on debt building if jobs could be had beyond seasonal and specialized.

I can't even get a job a Burger King. I'm overqualified! Actually, I think it's more about the fact I'm not a teenager and am well past the point of being afraid of telling a supervisor they're wrong if they are. I think they much prefer teens who they can cow and verbally abuse without getting it thrown back. I'd have loved to just get that far though.

Now here is the kicker to share...The people graduating college around here are in no better shape WITH degrees, in most cases, than those without them. Placement rates speak volumes if I didn't listen to the discussions around campus whenever I'm within earshot of the higher-ups. A lot of anxiety and hand wringing is going on at all levels, that's for sure.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


A lot of younger people around where I'm from are having a huge problem finding jobs because you go to fastfood, grocery stores, etc. that are common entry points into the work force for younger people. What do you find working there?

Globs of old people and middle-aged folks. It's odd to hear about it from the other side.

reply to post by AnIntellectualRedneck

I think I can explain that difference for my area at least. We have three 4 year universities, multiple Bible colleges and 3 Tech schools (ITT and the like) all within the general area. This part of Missouri is based on three things I think. Trucking, Schooling and keeping the tourists smiling on their way south to Branson.

Well that is good but not all old timers know whats going on. They my see what coming but they have no clue they are to blame for much of it. They are the ones that still vote for the idiots in office. I am sort of an old timer myself but not quite retirement age yet and I can't wait for some of the old timers to die off so we can get on with building a new better society...

I am sick of it. I just got a new job after 3 years of looking and I hate it and am considering quitting I hate it so much. I need the money to survive in this goddamned society but am to the point I don't care anymore and am about ready to chuck it all and try and live off the land as much as I can but I still need a little money to get set up and my beautiful wife thinks I am insane now...

So good for you for listening but don't accept everything blindly question everything and come to your own conclusions... Most people want someone else to tell them what to do whether they will admit it or not but few have any real answers...

Older folks who were idiots when young just become old idiots.
I never thought I would live this long myself...still young at heart but the body lets me know occasionally I ain't no spring chicken and should act my age...

Many old folk have lived through and survived things that a younger person may never experience; 'When I was a child" or "In the old days" can be the birth of many a good story. .Usually there is no ego in their stories just the facts as they saw them...Not the same as actually being there yourself but some of the stories are worth hearing and repeating for sure..

I remember flying with people who got their degree and never cracked a book afterwards; if you couldn't carry on a conversation about fishing, fighting, or women they had nothing to offer outside of those interest. On the other hand, many, many, more wanted to know everything about everything and were a true joy to be around.

We are losing our WWll generation, Dad is 87 (General Patton's army) and still leads an active life, but even he is slowing down. So I guess I could say, if you see an old person who you think would appreciate a hug, be sure they don't think you want to mug them, and go ahead; a smile, a hug, in a social setting might make you both feel good.

reply to post by AnIntellectualRedneck


It's probably because of the outward appearance of teens and early 20s these days.
When I was in retail management, I could not believe the way they show up asking
for an application. 9 times out of 10, with a friend or group. With cut off shorts and
wife-beater tees, pants falling off their hips, etc. Piercings and tattoos all over.

On days I wasn't there to pre-screen applicants, I would come in and peruse the small
stack that had accumulated.
To read them would be comical, if it weren't so sad.

The main thing is, these people should have been able to tell we had a dress code by our attire and should have recognized even if we didn't, that this was unacceptable.

When I left the company knowing the way the economy was headed, I thought, well here is an opening for a
fairly good paying job for somebody. Nope. They took my full time job and hired a 70 yr old man, and two
20 somethings to replace me, giving them each just 15 hours a week. The owner came in to do my paperwork
and scheduling.

Originally posted by oneness86
my job is cutting all employees down to 30 hours a week starting after the 1st thanks to Obama care. It will get to the point where the average American will be working 2 jobs just to survive.

Yes much discussion about that from many different sources. I guess the unemployment rate will be cut in half if everyone is working two jobs??

I am so lucky and retired well but I really feel for those who are busting their butts just to get by. Life is not always fair and can be down right mean sometimes. A friend of mine from Peru with one year of school left for her civil engineering degree was pulled over for her cars headlight being out. She was one block from her apartment. She was not driving drunk but the officer asked her if she had been drinking; very honest answer was she had 2 drinks. Not much body fat and she came up positive DUI. She now works for some electronic assembly line barely making enough to pay for necessities and also pays $125 a couple of times a month for some state sponsored class on the evils of driving and drinking..... Was she in the wrong; if the test was positive then she was...but what a waste of a very bright girls potential..life can be troubling at times........she is strong so I expect her to finish her degree but it will now take much longer for sure. One screw up for anyone can change a life in a heart beat.

Originally posted by seeker1963
I was at my parents on Christmas and my father absolutely blew my mind, when all he could do was parrot the things he has heard on television and the thing he read in the newspaper. I realized at that moment, just how much our MSM is being use as a form of mind control.

That condition isn't terminal, my friend. My dad and I had long, frustrating, argumentative phone conversations before he retired over politics and the economy. It struck me back then that he was largely acting as a recording device for the cable news he and my mom watched when he got home from work every evening. Amazingly, it took him about 2 weeks of being retired to get real bored of television real quick and, after roughly 6 months of him occupying his time outside and/or far away from a television, he began to see what most of ATS used to see.

What I do find scary, however, is that we are seeing a lot more people drawn into the mind control game who seem to get the majority of their information from the web. Issues that once would have had the vast majority of ATS' buzzing in concern are now virtually unspoken of, or in many cases, any attempt to discuss the issue is met with numerous blind regurgitations of support and faith in the controlling corporate and political powers that be. The MSM model of brain washing has clearly been enacted on the internet.

I am old enough to remember the day JFK was assassinated. I remember the days of the Carter administration. Those were bad times. Fortunately he only got 4 years. There has not been a worse time in my recollection than we are experiencing now. I'm afraid we have lost our balance and have fallen off the wrong side of the fence. I see no way to correct it now. When i was young i too had thoughts of changing society for the better. Each generation to come will have the same ideology. No matter what changes we will see, the next generation will strive to change it. Society has always had inequities and always will. We have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. People everywhere are guilty of doing the wrong thing for the right reason. We are living in a time that this statement has proven to likely be our undoing.

Originally posted by ValentineWiggin
This evening I was stuck on a bench waiting to pick up some medication at the Pharmacy and started eavesdropping on people's conversations as usual (I'm quite nosey). Everyone around me was much older certainly past the age of retirement. I picked up on some interesting conversations.

A man started talking about how he has heard talk of businesses here cutting all full-time jobs down to part-time. Many other people joined in agreeing with him that they had heard the same thing. The tone was that of deep concern, and honestly I got a bit concerned just listening to them. One man actually said "I guess I'll have to start digging ditches again if I have to" and he was on crutches.

I lived in a poor mountain town for quite a while and learned there to "always listen to the old-timers"...everything trickled down the phone tree starting with the phrase "The old-timers are saying...". I brought this up to a few people my age and their response was "That won't happen to me". I worry that people's egos have gotten to the point that they think this sort of thing couldn't happen, and worse, that it couldn't possibly happen to them.

This is a short little post I wouldn't usually make in a forum I do not frequent very much. I do believe that will change now, and wanted to pass on "What the old-timers are saying..." because in my experience, they are never wrong.

Thoughts?

edit on 31-12-2012 by ValentineWiggin because: (no reason given)

I am opening a business as we speak (management company, not owner). We carry a fairly heavy payroll burden. aleady, due to quite a few full timers (the few part timers we have are part time due to the hours of the location they are working in). We have absolutely no plans for any of that nonsense. Nor will we be doing it in other locations. The increased costs have already been budgeted, we know what it is going to cost, and it is still within reason for us, as employers.

Employees....thats a different story. They shouldn't worry as much about joblessness as the increased tax burden. Even moreso if they didn't have health care and are having to opt into "employee pay" programs they were shying away from originally.

You would be shocked at how many folks think that they have to have insurance (the "mandate"), and that it is the employers job to provide it for them. It will only cost employers more in the way of the matched FIT, SS, and Medicare increases.

Originally posted by PaperbackWriter
reply to post by AnIntellectualRedneck

 

It's probably because of the outward appearance of teens and early 20s these days.
When I was in retail management, I could not believe the way they show up asking
for an application. 9 times out of 10, with a friend or group. With cut off shorts and
wife-beater tees, pants falling off their hips, etc. Piercings and tattoos all over.

On days I wasn't there to pre-screen applicants, I would come in and peruse the small
stack that had accumulated.
To read them would be comical, if it weren't so sad.

.

I can attest to this. We even get them coming in in their pajama's and house shoes, with a spaghetti strap tank top. I kid you not. Roll out of bed, wrap your hair into a clip, and go applyin' for jobs.

Best news I've heard all day, now the government and their Cronies can skim some money off all the food vouchers people will be lining up for...

Starting another war would turn it all around. The good ol' days are right around the corner!

Originally posted by SpaDe_
This whispering that your hearing about is in direct correlation to the new health care law going into effect. If the employees are under 30 hours a week, employers are not required to supply health insurance is my understanding. Employers slashing full time positions to only part time positions was widely speculated as a possible outcome right after the law was passed, and now it seems that it might just happen.

Which means not only was the bill a fail to many as far as making sure they had a plan, but now they will be taxed for not being able to afford one.

Originally posted by sconner755
reply to post by ValentineWiggin

 

The economy is already terrible.

Many of the burdensome aspects of Obamacare are around the corner.

The US just elected a socialist-leaning President, and we're facing the fiscal cliff, or a solution that is based on raising taxes.

So is there one reason NOT to expect job losses?

and as far as raising taxes...the bush administration, along with the republicans in congress, passed the law with the sunset provision in it, back in the early 2000's....

Just a bit more to add as most of the prior posters in my opionion are spot on. My grandfather passed away back in 2005, and before his death he told me: "Make sure your ducks are in order as your going to see a depression that will make the great depression of 1929 pale in comparison."

I too went back to college from being a licensed plumbing contractor, however starting my plumbing company this month, as all i ever over- hear now is how state and federal agencies are laying off individuals. Which makes no sense for me to continue my MPA.

Times are going to get interesting I feel

I worked for a small communications company, 11 years- never saw it coming. Lost my job in 2010- lost my house, unemployment is over- filed bankruptcy- done

The only jobs out there are minimum wage, couldn't afford to live in NJ where I'm from- relocated to a poor town in WV just to get by with family. It's crazy to go from 70K+ a year to $10 an hour.

You can't live on the wages these jobs pay- On top of that I've paid into having health insurance my entire working career- and of course this last year without insurance I've racked up over 100K in medical bills I can't pay.

Going back to college to pursue degrees in computer sciences yet I feel it will be a waste as I'll be racking up federal student loan debt that I'll be forced to pay back with some crappy minimum wage job that I'll be suffering with just to survive.

This country is a joke, the american dream is dead- and the future looks very very grim.

And I'm 32-

Then you have the rest of the people telling you to work harder and be lucky you have a minimum wage job? Easy to say when your sitting on riches. Everyone can't have a high paying job, so what are the rest of us to do? Go somewhere and die?

reply to post by ValentineWiggin


Absolutely. We are being conditioned to not protest, to pretend that we are a peaceful and democratic nation. When infact we already are peaceful and democratic, it's our government who is a smidgen closer
each day to implementing army guards outside the toilets at Starbucks.

reply to post by ValentineWiggin


I heard a lot about this the past couple months - companies cutting all to part time to avoid having to pay the Obamacare fees for full timers, very sad. People will have to carry 2-3 part time jobs, what a mess. And I think of the poor kids who will never see their parents who are always working, and what THAT will do to society, too. It's bad enough teenagers cannot get work any more, a lot of them run around just having sex, drinking, getting high, playing Xbox or Playstation, smoking, shoplifting, etc. I don't speak from judgment, I speak from experience as I have my own teens and am always trying to keep them out of trouble but they have friends and these are the challenges they face wherever they go. The only kids getting out of the trouble are the ones with strong father figures and homes where they still can afford to give them things to do.