Chance I'll get laid off tomorrow

I've made it through quite a few rounds of layoffs before, but tomorrow a big one's coming. So many people will be laid off from government jobs (as part of an austerity program, aimed at avoiding a currency devaluation) that the country's employment rate will drop by over 1% overnight.

On the plus side I've probably got the best pay-to-productivity ratio of any government worker, so I have that going for me, and if I do get laid off all that really means is I can't pay for my hobbies. On the downside I've just blown my savings on the AE92 project and I'm now in debt over it, my Samurai needs to go down for maintenance really bad and the offroad rally season's starting in March - this year I was going to make a serious attempt at the novice-class championship now that I have a sponsor and dependable navigator lined up; and IT job opportunities were rare enough before the recession reached here.

One of my backup plan ideas is to see if I can get work at the shop where my AE92 is to pay off that debt. The mechanics there know I have basic wrenching skills, they're apparently short on labor, and it would be a walkable commute.

All I know is the IT department has orders from high up not to order more computers for any reason when we are desperately short on spares...that suggests that some will be freed up soon. And my boss has been pushing me a little more on documentation projects recently and hasn't said a word about reports for this month even though the due date has passed...not good signs.

When I saw your reply, before I opened this thread I said out loud "Hahaha he's come to gloat."

if single day government cuts will result in a 1% lowering of the employment rate, then maybe the government is too big to begin with.

Datsun1500 wrote: Can you blame it on a rich guy? Will raising the minimum wage help?

The overleveraged ones that berked the system?

It's been almost an annual thing since the recession hit. It's to improve the national budget numbers.

Why did you go in debt for a project car in a employment climate with layoff threats?

Anytime I think I'm at risk of being laid off or losing my job I start scaling back on spending, start saving, start selling stuff I don't need or costs me money. Uncertainty is a bad time to have fun.

What's unemployment compensation like on the island?

Where do you live?

In reply to Enyar:

He lives in Grenada......remember, that little carribian island we kind of invaded back in the 80's to "rescue" college kids.....yea, that one

PHeller wrote: Why did you go in debt for a project car in a employment climate with layoff threats? Anytime I think I'm at risk of being laid off or losing my job I start scaling back on spending, start saving, start selling stuff I don't need or costs me money. Uncertainty is a bad time to have fun.

And that's why I never get any more projects. But we look real busy right now....

PHeller wrote: Why did you go in debt for a project car in a employment climate with layoff threats?

I did it because the car needed a new engine, and the employment climate had been crap for a long time with no guarantee of getting better any time soon, so why keep waiting? And I went into debt for it because I was aiming for long-term savings and I know that doing it right the first time saves money in the long run. Well, I didn't quite mean to go into debt over it but I got hit with a surprise medical expense late last year. Health insurance should cover it but I haven't heard back from them yet (on most of it).

PHeller wrote: What's unemployment compensation like on the island?

Enough to survive, in fact it's a big fraction of what you can make working a decent job around here. We have lots of voluntary unemployment because of that (not that I think it's too high).

Enyar wrote: Where do you live?

Barbados.

yamaha wrote: In reply to Enyar: He lives in Grenada......remember, that little carribian island we kind of invaded back in the 80's to "rescue" college kids.....yea, that one

if i'm remembering my historical documents properly, i think Clint Eastwood and Mario Van Peebles rescued those college kids, right?

Alright heading home for the day. Just made sure all my stuff is in my "collect your things" envelope just in case it's tomorrow morning instead of tomorrow evening. That's a thing you keep when your job security is crap.

We have a hookup on rum on this forum and no one told me??

Here's hoping you make it through unscathed!

In reply to Enyar:

Haha! Suddenly Gameboy has a backup plan.

In reply to Enyar:

QFT

In reply to GameboyRMH:

Oops, my bad......IDK why I was thinking Grenada. Barbados was the answer......damn silly carribean islands.

Good luck today, thinking of you

Dammit it looks like they're going to delay the date again...first it was the 1st, then the 15th, then the 31st which was supposed to be an absolute deadline after the IMF got involved...a local politician has been quoted in the news as saying "today is not the last day of the month." I'll double-check with some locals that we're still using the Gregorian calendar.

GameboyRMH wrote: "today is not the last day of the month."

Damn, I know life is laid back down there and time tends to stretch, but I didn't know you'd stretched it to the point of extra days. You guys could make up for the monetary short fall by selling your extra days to other countries!

Seriously. Good luck, thinking of you. I live through an old company I worked for going through many stages of downsizing and through bankruptcy. I live it down from about 1,500 to 400. Ironically once it got bought out and was stable and growing, then I quit and moved to the US

Good luck, though if you have to be out of work that's a better place than most.

GameboyRMH wrote: after the IMF got involved

Damn, they even got the Impossible Mission Force down there.......make sure to kick Tom Cruise in the beans for all of us.

Are they deliberately trying to give everyone ulcers by postponing the other shoe dropping as long as possible? Sorry to hear you're being kept in suspense; best wishes on making it through this.

MadScientistMatt wrote: Are they deliberately trying to give everyone ulcers by postponing the other shoe dropping as long as possible? Sorry to hear you're being kept in suspense; best wishes on making it through this.

yeah dude! Let us know!

Having been laid off a couple of times and having to move cross country both times to get a new job, I know how much this sucks. Good luck to you.

I often wish I was entrepreneur enough to start my own business just to avoid that crap, but just didn't get born with the risk-taking gene.