Today was quite the unusual day. The first day back to work after Christmas Shutdown is always a strange day anyway. Nobody is motivated to get back to work and everybody is wanting to still be on holiday. However, today was even more unusual.
After two weeks off for the Holiday's (a week longer than normal) I went into the plant this morning at 7:00. On a normal Monday morning the parking lot would have been full of cars and once in the plant, I would have been welcomed by bright lights, sounds of injection molding machines pushing out parts, laughter and music on the shop floor and numerous "good mornings" in the office.
Today was different.
There were two cars in the parking lot, the lights were all off, not a single machine was turned on, nobody was there to laugh, and although the two people at the plant did say "good morning" there wasn't much behind it. You see, on January 1st we laid off 235 of our 242 employees for most of the month of January. I was lucky. I am one of the 7 people who get to work from Jan 5th to Jan 20th. On the 20th, we bring back 15 or so more folks. There is another batch coming back on the 2nd of Feb and then again on the 2nd of March. Why? We don't have any sales.
It has been amazing to watch the impact of the global economic crisis as it moved from the banking industry to automotive manufacturing to general manufacturing to who knows what else. It was tough leaving for the holiday's, telling my employees that I expected them to come back at some point, but I could not guarantee it. Most of them are going from what is considered a great paying job to just $255 a week of unemployment pay. Most of our production employees haven't gotten 40 hours of pay since October (59 lost their jobs in October) as we have been running production only 4 days a week due to weak vehicle sales. Unfortunately, the data doesn't indicated this trend will improve anytime soon.
Retta and I have been greatly blessed. We have adjusted our purchasing strategy for "big ticket items" but have not had to "give up" anything to make ends meet. How has the economic crisis impacted you? Has it brought about changes in your workplace? How about your spending habits? Are you seeing the same impact in your towns that we are seeing here in the Birmingham area (Automotive, Steel, Heath care, Banking, Construction, Sales, etc. all affected).
EDK
6 comments:
We are seeing it in the housing market. We are still trying to sell our old house. We have a contingency offer on it right now and I know from the talk around town that there are 2 other families interested in it as well. Our realtor says that a few years ago people would've made an offer so it wouldn't get away, and then put theirs on the market. But in today's economy no one wants to go ahead with an offer until they know their house is sold. Nobody wants to be stuck with 2 house payments (like us). Interest rates have gone down recently and we have had some new lookers in the last couple of weeks so we're hopeful and prayerful that it will happen soon.
Fortunately,at the hospital on the night shift, I am the only OB/OR tech that is scheduled, so my job is not suffering. However, many others are feeling the crunch, as we are working as low staff as possible and most are told to stay home at least one day a week, and are sent home if we aren't busy. It's amazing how people find something to do to look busy and lots of little jobs are getting done on the unit, even down to cleaning out drawers. Anything to not get sent home. The only way it affects me is that I feel bad sitting there reading a book when we aren't busy just because I know I can't be sent home...so I, too, try to stay busier. At home not too much has changed as Dave has had his finger on me for the last couple of years anyway.
So sad for your company, Eric, and I'm glad that you are so far saved from the lay-off. I told Obama he should give $15000 auto coupons to the American people to be spent only on a new American vehicle. That would cause a boom in the auto industry and make Americans happy. So far he hasn't listened to me.
Eric I understand some of what you are going through. As someone said before Christmas "You have survivor's syndrome since your good friend lost her job and you didn't." I don't think I feel guilty about having a job right now just incredibly sad that I don't get to work with her anymore. My company laid off about 200 office workers and more than that took a voluntary separation the week of December 8. Supposedly production layoffs will be this month.
My building at work is being closed so this month groups are moving out to other locations. We are one of the last groups to move which means office are being torn down all around us as they need these offices to put people in other places. I had to move offices so they could tear down a set of four which means I'm in a location for 5 weeks before we move. It's sad to know that other groups are moving to other locations and although we work at the same company, we probably will rarely see them. It's been fun to get to know people in an engineering department although we are accounting.
While most of us don't like the idea of moving to a different building everyone who complains tends to end their statement with "but I'm glad I get to move which means I have a job."
Thanks to Christmas I still made a couple of big ticket purchases which has been nice.
We are okay at this point and are very thankful for that. Mike will not be laid off as they are already shorthanded and training for his job takes literally years--minimum 6-8 years. You just can't put a man in a nuclear reactor control room overnight. Anything could happen, of course, but things look secure right now.
The biggest area for us is in employment for our high schooler and college student. Mary Lee had a nice job at a jewelry store - we expected it to at least last through Christmas, but she got laid off the first week in December. They just didn't have the business to keep her on. Andrew had a job in retail clothing, the same job he's had for a year whenever he comes home, but he got very few hours this holiday season. Last year he worked right up until he went back to college, but his last day on the job was last Saturday, a full 10 days before he leaves. So they're just not able to earn spending and saving money like in the past.
We are often asked, "How's business?" since people are expecting it to be slow. We have been threatened with the closing of the Pontiac prison and possible closing of Interlake in Pontiac (which would lay off hundreds of people)--- so we don't know what to expect.
But we are very thankful to God that our December sales were actually up 14% over a year ago (although our annual volume was virutally the same). January is usually our busiest month, so we'll see what happens. Perry works very hard making sales calls to keep our volume up.
I feel saddened by the economic downturn and how it will impact so many.
I'm glad you still have your jobs, Eric and Rhoda!
The housing market in Morton is very slow. However, we were very fortunate to sell Ken's house in one day. The first person to look at it bought it. Keith feels that we got a fair price for it. We sure didn't want to hang on to it all winter. The auction sale of his furnishings did not go very well. After giving 35% to the auctioneer, there isn't much left. But we are doing fine and are thankful every day. God is good.
Post a Comment