Author Topic: The Axe Fell Today! (Read 1903 times)

mirage1988 · « **on:** January 14, 2009, 12:19:48 PM »

The machine shop I worked at laid off 38 employees today. Can't really blame them though, they've been running below the break even point since the second week in November. They lost $250,000 in Nov, and $500,000 in December. Not looking forward to trying to find a new job in this market though

-Wish me luck

lrs · « **Reply #1 on:** January 14, 2009, 12:24:12 PM »

Best wishes to you. I hope something good comes along soon, and I'm sure it will.

I have a lot of respect for machinists. One of the million and one things I did working my way through college was to work in a fabrication shop as a welder. We had some machinists, and those were some of the sharpest folks I've ever been around.

ms · « **Reply #2 on:** January 14, 2009, 12:33:12 PM »

Good luck.

mirage1988 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 14, 2009, 12:33:48 PM »

Thank you lrs,
I have a couple of leads to follow up on tomorrow and a cabinet shop I used to work at might have a week or two of work for me.

clodbuster · « **Reply #4 on:** January 14, 2009, 01:01:50 PM »

"I feel your pain" the same thing happened to me in 2001 a few days after the twin towers went down. Stay positive and I hope your younger than I was then as few opportunities for a senior to restart a career. Your skills are probably more in demand than mine were. Good luck to you

powderman · « **Reply #5 on:** January 14, 2009, 01:21:38 PM »

MIRAGE. Real sorry to hear that. My hours have been cut for 4 weeks now, 10+ hours a week. Only scheduled to work 3 days next week. Lots of folks out of work, lots of cut hours, more to come. POWDERMAN.

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #6 on:** January 14, 2009, 01:48:20 PM »

That just stinks. Good luck with the job search. Dale

mirage1988 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 14, 2009, 01:58:04 PM »

Thank you all-
The thing that sucks (can I say that here?) is that I worked there for 10 years, left for 4 years to work construction, they were happy to have me back last year, then lay me off with the rest of the new-hires.
Guess ten years mean nothing.

Spanky · « **Reply #8 on:** January 14, 2009, 02:11:35 PM »

Good luck and join the club.

I got it a while back too.
The job market around here is dead.

At least I have more time to play with my Handi's

Spanky

handi243 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 14, 2009, 02:16:25 PM »

That sucks hope you guys have good luck finding one good jobs are hard to find in this day and time. We will say some prayer something comes along soon!!!!

Cheesehead · « **Reply #10 on:** January 14, 2009, 02:44:08 PM »

Sorry to here that.

Cheese

SM Bob · « **Reply #11 on:** January 14, 2009, 02:59:44 PM »

Mirage1988,
Sorry to hear that Pal. I'm a machinist myself and believe me, I've been there and done that!
I've been in the business for over 30 years. Hang in there. Put your resume on all the usual
sites. (Monster.com etc.) A guy I work with told me something that I though was right on.
He said "I have never left a job where I didn't eventually end up getting a better one." When
God closes a door he opens a window.

Robert

mirage1988 · « **Reply #12 on:** January 14, 2009, 03:00:07 PM »

In 2006, I was diagnosed with optic neuritis after I lost the vision in my left eye (optic neuritis is one of the first symptoms of ms). The neurologist wanted me to go on ms meds then but I didn't because I told him I didn't have any other symptoms of ms although I did. I could have gone on disability then but I didn't because I didn't feel I was sick. Wish now that i would have.

LONGTOM · « **Reply #13 on:** January 14, 2009, 03:01:53 PM »

Buck up my man, something will turn up!

I think the only thing worse is to be like me, a self employed small business owner with no business coming in.
JUST BILLS!
I would lay myself off but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Hang in there.
The same goes for all of you who are having a hard time of it now.
What am I saying, THAT'S EVERYBODY!!!!

LONGTOM

Elijah Gunn · « **Reply #14 on:** January 14, 2009, 03:14:06 PM »

I'm a machinist also. We just had some guys laid off last week. God blessed me and I didn't get axed. (this time) We had our shop meeting today and management said it's getting scary out there. They are very concerned about what Obama is going to do. Especially in regard to health care, and lack of secret ballot should a union try to get into our shop. We also won't be getting a raise till business picks up.

It was very nice of your shop to keep people working through the holidays. I'll pray that you find work.

Cheesehead · « **Reply #15 on:** January 14, 2009, 04:00:01 PM »

My company laid off half of my co-workers. Makes me feel like a goldfish in a blender with the managers looking at the on switch.

Cheese

nomosendero · « **Reply #16 on:** January 14, 2009, 04:04:23 PM »

Sorry to hear that, I hope you find something soon.

Cement Man · « **Reply #17 on:** January 14, 2009, 04:30:19 PM »

Sorry to hear that. I hope you find something. Good luck to you.

Swampman · « **Reply #18 on:** January 14, 2009, 04:50:08 PM »

Sorry to hear that, my company had it's 3rd layoff yesterday. I survived once again.

jumpsteady · « **Reply #19 on:** January 14, 2009, 07:28:15 PM »

I know the feeling guys. I am the 2nd shift supervisor at a machine shop, and we went through round 4 of the lay offs 2 weeks before christmas. That cut our personnal in half. But we have 2 very big customers that are keeping us above water. We have just started bringing guys back. 4 in the last week. But times are tough. I hope that all of you machinists find jobs, I hate to see fellow chip-makers out of work.

Jumpsteady

williamlayton · « **Reply #20 on:** January 15, 2009, 12:08:37 AM »

I have a hard time with all of this. I am retired but that doesn't insulate us from these effects.
I, too, went thru one of these in '92 and it was hard.
God knows and is in control, this life is not the end. Find what God has in store for you and trust Him, and you can trust Him.
I am praying for all of you.
Blessings

magooch · « **Reply #21 on:** January 15, 2009, 03:31:25 AM »

The lesson in all of this is that if you're going to work for someone else and you don't want to have to worry about the business cycle, it might be a good idea to work for the post office, a toilet paper manufacturer, or as a hair dresser. Those three things continue, no matter what. Or you could become a teacher, politician, garbage collector, sewer worker, water works specialist...hey, there are jobs out there that never quit.

I heard one yesterday that gave me pause. A fellow told me that his 19 year old grandson went to the Navy recruiter and did some testing. It seems he qualified to be sent to a nuclear school of some type. According to the feller I was talking to, his grandson was given an enlistment bonus of $40,000 and an immediate E-6 rate. That all sounds a little too good to be true, but what do I know.

I guess I was lucky during my working years. There were business cycles, but I worked for a large industry that was never that badly slowed down. It also helped to be in maintenance where we took advantage of slowdowns to catch up on maintenance and constuction projects.

Anyway, I hope you guys that are feeling the pinch have a better year in 2009. My wife and I have been doing our best to boost the economy, which I think would be much better if the politicians and news media would quit telling us how bad it is.

Sourdough · « **Reply #22 on:** January 15, 2009, 03:53:34 AM »

My friend that I am visiting is not having a good time with his business. He laid off two workers before the new year. Now he is looking at laying off someone else, or a 10% pay cut for everyone. He and his two work leaders discussed it yesterday and came up with the pay cut. When he informed the crew of his decission, they accepted it with no complaints, especially the two low men on the totum pole. Times are geting tough for all businesses out there.

Tommyt · « **Reply #23 on:** January 15, 2009, 04:21:26 AM »

When one door closes another opens ,sometimes more than not we don't find the opened one for a while ,kinda like the tree through the forest the statement below may have somewhat of a door right now ?
The disability you spoke of ,If you had checked into it back then and its documented,If you become eligible you may get Back Pay from the time you where Diagnosed . this takes time but it may be the door
All the Best
Tommyt

Quote from: mirage1988 on January 14, 2009, 03:00:07 PM

In 2006, I was diagnosed with optic neuritis after I lost the vision in my left eye (optic neuritis is one of the first symptoms of ms). The neurologist wanted me to go on ms meds then but I didn't because I told him I didn't have any other symptoms of ms although I did. I could have gone on disability then but I didn't because I didn't feel I was sick. Wish now that i would have.

ms · « **Reply #24 on:** January 15, 2009, 09:41:56 AM »

Quote from: mirage1988 on January 14, 2009, 03:00:07 PM

In 2006, I was diagnosed with optic neuritis after I lost the vision in my left eye (optic neuritis is one of the first symptoms of ms). The neurologist wanted me to go on ms meds then but I didn't because I told him I didn't have any other symptoms of ms although I did. I could have gone on disability then but I didn't because I didn't feel I was sick. Wish now that i would have.

I have ms your the third member I know who said they have ms I hope you don't .

mirage1988 · « **Reply #25 on:** January 15, 2009, 01:11:00 PM »

At that time I had 9 lesions on my brain and had numbness that would come and go only on my left side though-my fingertips mainly but noticed it sometimes in my leg also. Now I notice numbness in my fingers on my right hand too. I hope I don't lose my right eye too. Was left eye dominant and had to learn to shoot right handed-gun was easy but archery was tough. Haven't noticed any flickering in the vision in my right eye yet though.

Troyboy · « **Reply #26 on:** January 15, 2009, 02:34:45 PM »

I repair heavy equipment. Now down to one customer and had to cut my rates 20 per hour. If this keeps up I am gonna have to find a job. In 20 years i've never seen it so slow.God doesn't have anything to do with it.

ms · « **Reply #27 on:** January 15, 2009, 11:31:55 PM »

Quote from: mirage1988 on January 15, 2009, 01:11:00 PM

At that time I had 9 lesions on my brain and had numbness that would come and go only on my left side though-my fingertips mainly but noticed it sometimes in my leg also. Now I notice numbness in my fingers on my right hand too. I hope I don't lose my right eye too. Was left eye dominant and had to learn to shoot right handed-gun was easy but archery was tough. Haven't noticed any flickering in the vision in my right eye yet though.

You need to call your doctor tell him you want to try one of the ms drugs. I have 6 lesion on the left side of my brain Try to stay +.

Graybeard · « **Reply #28 on:** January 16, 2009, 04:58:30 AM »

Ya know it seems like almost every day lately another GBO member or more drops the bad news on us that they are now out of work and that things are looking really bad for them and their families. This theme sure is becoming common place. The economy for sure is in a severe down turn and sadly I feel that what the government is doing supposedly to fix it is only going to make things worse.

It will not be long now until we have a new prez in office and my fears are that very shortly afterward things are really going to begin spirally downward at an increasing rate. We're on a long steep slippery slope and the voters in this country just added more grease.

I'll be surprised if far more of us aren't affected very soon and in fact will be surprised if we all aren't. I know I have been tho not so severely as those of you losing jobs. I'm retired and do have a pension coming in that's a pretty good income really and since it's from Federal Civil Service should continue to flow unless and until the government goes belly up and if that happens then there isn't much going to save any of us. Still it doesn't pay all the bills and allow me to do the things I like to do in the manner I like to do them.

I got notified that my income will suffer around a thousand dollar a month cut for this year as well. It doesn't do to me what losing a job does to those of you reporting that sad news to us but sure is gonna curtail my spending and travel.

We're all going to have to pull together as best as we can and all are going to have to help family and friends to get thru the hard times ahead. The ride is getting bumpy and gonna get a lot worse before it gets better. My condolences to all losing their jobs and falling on hard times. Best wishes to one and all of us in getting thru the times we are facing. I suspect darn few of us will be untouched by what is coming. May GOD help us all cuz the government sure isn't going to even tho they claim to be doing so.

BBF · « **Reply #29 on:** January 16, 2009, 05:20:47 AM »

Holy Mackarel !!
If my income was cut 1K I would need to be looking for a rope !!
With the new President. There are a lot of folks out there that voted for him that will be disappointed very quickly when he can't deliver. His honeymoon may be very short lived