'The Unemployed Will Not Be Considered'

[180gROC]

I haven't had a regular job since Aug. '08. It comes up.

"Why would you say you haven't found a job in nearly two years?"

"I wasn't looking"

"What were you doing?"

"Playing poker"

"Next!"

 

[mrpesca]

I haven't had a regular job since Aug. '08. It comes up.

"Why would you say you haven't found a job in nearly two years?"

"I wasn't looking"

"What were you doing?"

"Playing poker"

"Next!"

As you break out your pocket recorder and play a rimshot.

 

[Nicky]

It may not seem fair but as a business owner it's the right call. When times get tough, only the best employees remain. If you are too valuable to let go the slackers get cut first.

When times are good employees get away with way too much non productive activities. What's left when the cutting stops is the best of the best. Who wouldn't want those employees?

You're also free to apply for the position vacated by the newly plucked employees vacancy.

I've never been fired unless I was asking for it or daring them to do it.

Hmmmm. I got laid off in 2008, and I was one of the best executives in my company. But, I was an easy target - over 50, highly paid. They pushed my work down to less experienced, lower salaried employees. Guess what, all but one of my former clients left that firm and took their business elsewhere - about $10,000,000 in revenue.

Took me 6 months to get current job - I was "overqualified" for almost every job I sought...

 

[mrpesca]

Hmmmm. I got laid off in 2008, and I was one of the best executives in my company. But, I was an easy target - over 50, highly paid. They pushed my work down to less experienced, lower salaried employees. Guess what, all but one of my former clients left that firm and took their business elsewhere - about $10,000,000 in revenue.

Took me 6 months to get current job - I was "overqualified" for almost every job I sought...

Sounds like you need to start your own business. Starting with that 10M in clients.

I don't think that folks like you are in the majority when it comes to being let go. Sure, the high pay probably did it for you but there aren't that many of those positions to eliminate. Finding a job to replace that income makes it that much harder. You were trying to replace a really good job, a lot more difficult than getting a lower skilled job.

I know the "grey wall" of which you speak. It isn't fair but it's reality.

 

[Rich]

Sad but not surprising.

Ditto.

Anyone who has ever looked for a job knows that, in any economic time, it's always easier to find a job when you already have one. This is the first time I've ever heard of any employer coming right out and stating it though.

 

[MineGoesTo11]

Whenever they do the speeches at general meetings about how we must strive to push down costs, I never forget that they are talking about me.

 

[Nicky]

Sounds like you need to start your own business. Starting with that 10M in clients.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't have the resources to provide the services required by my former clients. I had a team of eight people, half of which were also laid off. My former employer cut $500,000 in payroll, and lost $10M revenue......fuck 'em.

 

[MineGoesTo11]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't have the resources to provide the services required by my former clients. I had a team of eight people, half of which were also laid off. My former employer cut $500,000 in payroll, and lost $10M revenue......fuck 'em.

Yeah but for that short term whoever came up with the plan was probably riding high for being the cost saving hero. That's what it seems to be about these days. Cut costs no matter what. Make it look good in the short term.

 

[Nicky]

Yeah but for that short term whoever came up with the plan was probably riding high for being the cost saving hero. That's what it seems to be about these days. Cut costs no matter what. Make it look good in the short term.

The good news - It does not pay nearly as much, but I like my current job a lot.

 

[MineGoesTo11]

The good news - It does not pay nearly as much, but I like my current job a lot.

Some of the jobs I enjoyed the most were the lowest paying, but that was because the people I worked with made it enjoyable. Nothing better than co workers you get along with and a boss that treats you like a person.

 

[Nicky]

Some of the jobs I enjoyed the most were the lowest paying, but that was because the people I worked with made it enjoyable. Nothing better than co workers you get along with and a boss that treats you like a person.

Amen, brotha!

 

[Deftone]

Some of the jobs I enjoyed the most were the lowest paying, but that was because the people I worked with made it enjoyable. Nothing better than co workers you get along with and a boss that treats you like a person.

Good point.

 

[rockstar232007]

This isn't just aimed at the unemployed. My fiance is a CERTIFIED medical biller, and she's been looking for a job (to no avail) in that field for the past 6 years! Companies don't want to spend the money to train/retrain anyone. Same thing goes for the restaurant business as well. I work with a few people who have 5 or more years of culinary school under their belt (some of them graduates), and because they don't have any "real" restaurant training, they are stuck in a corporate craphole!

 

[geochem1st]

It's a cold policy, but if you look at the bigger picture, it's a wash. A job opening is a job opening. If it gets filled by plucking talent from another company, that creates a job opening there which must be filled.

I don't have the figures but I am willing to bet its not a wash.

Business have been downsizing and doing with less for the past few years. Positions are being eliminated and no reqs for knew ones are being filed. This is especially true with mergers. Wachovia merged with Wells Fargo this year and 10,000 jobs were cut immediately. They are not ever to come back. Some were overlap, most were not as the detailed merger plans to see what business units overlapped weren't even in place yet.

If you want to make your bottom line look good you cut employees, whether they are valuable or not.... thats how corporate america works.

 

[180gROC]

I don't have the figures but I am willing to bet its not a wash.

Business have been downsizing and doing with less for the past few years. Positions are being eliminated and no reqs for knew ones are being filed. This is especially true with mergers. Wachovia merged with Wells Fargo this year and 10,000 jobs were cut immediately. They are not ever to come back. Some were overlap, most were not as the detailed merger plans to see what business units overlapped weren't even in place yet.

If you want to make your bottom line look good you cut employees, whether they are valuable or not.... thats how corporate america works.

Preaching to the choir here. The national homebuilder I worked for had 400 employees in my division in Feb 2006. When I got layed off in Aug '08, I left 22 co-employees still working there. Was there fat? Oh yeah maybe 10% but it went in the first couple layoff waves. After that we were cutting damn good people who made us strong. There were no easy decisions.

I'll tell ya though, those jobs would have been cut whether someone left for another firm or not. It wasn't about looking good to stockholders. There was no cashflow. Regional human resources was not sitting around going "We hope a buncha people quit so we won't have to lay anyone off."

I made my post knowing there would be some percentage of deviation. Conceded, not a true wash. In times like the last couple years, that deviation will certainly trend towards not replacing jobs when vacated. Same concept as not ordering new stock when the old stock is sold and the shelf is empty, another phenomenon being seen too commonly right now.

For the most part, if there is an opening, it counts as + one, and if there is a cut, it counts as - one. However you want to shuffle it around, it still works out in the end. During a recovery, the deviation will trend the opposite way.

So yeah, maybe not technically an exact wash, but close, and dynamic.

 

[mrpesca]

If you want to make your bottom line look good you cut employees, whether they are valuable or not.... thats how corporate america works.

I have had this discussion with my corporate CEO friend. His job is to produce a balance sheet that looks good to the stockholders. They don't really care how it gets done. I say corporations ought to have a bit of soul and compassion even if it means a smaller profit. As long as there is a profit.

The problem is, stockholders put their money there to get the most profit so if one compassionate CEO underperforms a more ruthless one, he's out on his ass.

This is why we need a return to more Mom and Pop businesses. Don't know how we're going to do that when the ruthless cutthroat corporations use their size to squash everything in their path.

Society as a whole would have to revolt and stop the urge to get the most for their money by avoiding the Walmarts of the world. I don't see that happening especially in a recession.

We also have to remember that a lot of these jobs that are gone were propped up by a fake, borrowing economy. The rest left our shores for good because we (corporations) decided it was a good idea to outsource everything to save a buck.

 

[180gROC]

Getting away from the Walmart mentality is tricky. Everyone hates them, but you can't help but shop there.

I stay away as much as I can. The fact that they give welfare paperwork in their hiring packages turned my stomach. But still, I can't say I never go. Things are tight. They just opened a new one on the corner, as if the three five miles away weren't close enough.

My job was a weird one, because I produced no tangible product. Keeping us from getting sued by fixing problems and keeping people happy was about as tangible as it got. Creating referral business and step up buyers buying second and third homes from us because they were wowed by good service was a focus. Our job performance was tracked through JD Powers and Assoc. surveys. On my sites we were successful at not getting sued often, and had many referral and step up buyers, so my salary ballooned to six figures. I made my own schedule, set my own appointments, and life was good.

My point being that while my job will comeback, the salary and schedule structure will be greatly modified. A customer service rep for a homebuilder could potentially save or cost his employer millions in lawsuits averted or created depending on his people skills or lack of. That was how my salary was justified, but I'd be willing to bet it will be a long time before someone with a job title "customer service rep" (a job title with an avg pay of $13/hr) makes a six figure salary around here.

 

[MineGoesTo11]

Aside from a few of the brands Walmart sells to pull people in, most of what they sell is cheap crap.

 

[PraXis]

Everyone doesn't hate Wal-Mart. I personally love low prices... more money left over to spend at the family owned restaurant down the street.

 

[LongBeach]

The good news - It does not pay nearly as much, but I like my current job a lot.

And that's the biggest trick in employment..IMO
Doing something you dont mind getting out of bed for in the morning
is absolutely a fantastic feeling. Up to 14 years ago, I hated every job I'd ever had.

Unfortunately, being hired these days can be tricky.
We (the Co. I work for) are somewhat prejudice to people trying to
get a job with us. No face pearcings, no visable tatoo's, keep your pants
pulled up (no sagging). That's about it. We do high end work, and I've seen
people thrown off projects that did not meet the discription noted.
So, getting that tattoo on your forehead when you were 19 didnt end up working out for ya in the long run! (nothing against tattoo's)