You are at netAirspace : Forum : The Combustion Chamber - Off-Topics : General Off-Topics

Go into whatever level of detail you want in this thread, but tell us how your job is faring in this economic climate.

If you've paid attention to mine, I've been sent on "vacation" a lot. We have a retention board that we sit on when we can't hold jobs for a long duration, which can become furlough if it gets too bad. On retention, we get $2k/month (minus union dues--and the union is a horrid, atrocious, scummy waste of money--taxes, insurance, etc.) plus our benefits. We're allowed to do whatever we want wherever we want, but we have 48 hours to return to work if we get called back.*

*Actually, my theory is that it's seven days. I've gotten back at around the 92 hour mark and no one has ever said a blasted thing.

I've been on the retention board a few times now. Each time I've gotten called back, I've done just about nothing, because they didn't actually need me. Once, I got called back and sat on the "bump" board for a week, meaning that I got paid 0.00 dollars. We've had a few people quit because the job is bleeding them dry.

Our current traffic projections show little need for personnel for the next 12-18 months. That could change at any time, of course, but they're usually accurate enough. We especially forecast a continued decline in domestic coal traffic on account of EPA regulations.

For this reason, the company is spending money now on upgrading our crappy rail lines, since we have the time secondary to a lack of trains.

I might be going back on retention tomorrow. We were temporarily called back because of Memorial Day vacations...I've not worked at all since being called back, though. Many people bought expensive tickets to come back, only to find that there was nothing for them to do.

The sad thing is that we're usually inundated with traffic about now, but our only glimmer of hope is for increased, permanent-assignment work trains to fix our tracks, and for a drought in South America to result in a month or two of increased grain traffic.


So how's your work doing?

Haven't had a raise in 3 years.

New uniforms were rolled out, we're going broke trying to put everyone in them.

Totaled a vehicle that hasn't been replaced.

Wish I hadn't left the force based on $$$. Glad I left the force based on EVERYTHING else. I enjoy what I did, til a week ago, and will do again, but there ain't no $$$ in it. I do love it though . . . .

But the State is still screwed, Alaska's unemployment is lower than the national average, and will 'appear' to be better in the summer because of seasonal employment. Come back in Oct and have a look . . . dismal. We'll be at 30% or better . . . .

No raise in three years!?! Is that because you're totaling cars?

I did get a raise this spring, to the annoyance of the engineers. Of course, it isn't meaning very much when one can't work and thus be entitled to that pay.

I'm hoping for a temp job in WY again if I'll really be gone for so long. The thing is, a lot of employers don't want temp workers who are at the beck and call of BNSF.

ANC, one of my friends has a cousin who is an Alaskan and owns a fishing boat, so he's up there doing that right now. Darn out-of-staters.

Lucas wrote: Darn out-of-staters.

We cacll them Outsiders . . . . .

Well, as most of y'all know, I recently became a Site Supervisor at "Sekuritee-R-Us." Taking the promotion, though, meant moving back home. Not really all that bad of a deal, but I miss the "big" city. The payweek that began today marks the first one (save for the first week, which was training) that we'll have no overtime. We're nearing the end of our first month and things are getting easier. Last week I actually had days off where I didn't have to do anything work related. I only eat Tums for breakfast now.

I'm leery about my future with the company. Aside from the normal "I wanna new/better paying job" type things, "Sekuritee-R-Us" has made some cutbacks in Management. Also, said managers (that are left) are manning posts due to a lack of Officers. Given the state of the economy, and the fact that clients often drop their private security contracts in tough economic times, it's to be expected, but does give me pause.

Further, the client is in an industry that isn't looked upon too favorably by the current Presidential Administration. Said client, though, is a large one and the contract is for all their facilities nationwide, so that is of some comfort. These types of contracts tend to last longer and pay more.

ANCFlyer wrote:We cacll them

Sounds painful.

I'm about 1/3 way done with my two year contract here.

The pay isn't great for Singapore, as its very expensive here, but they pay for my condo 3,000 or so US a month plus my salary.

Plus I typically pick up 4-5 OT shifts a month so I am surviving quite well but not saving much. At least I am traveling.

My job is entry level in the company and I really don't know if I want to consider an extension or renewel of my contract in the same position.

I think that about 1.5 years in I will start throwing my resume out to various charter companies to see what I get, all the while I will weigh that against what my company offers me after my contract is up (if anything).

I'm doing pretty much exactly what I did before, talking to the same people, only now I do it in Finland because the UK can't afford civil servants. Which is just fine with me - as far as I'm concerned, anything that gets me out of Blighty at the moment is a promotion.

Kind of lonely here, in that I'm the only one in the department who mashes a keyboard for a living instead of committing mass murder on E.coli There are the two sysadmins, but no programmers. Should probably make some friends in the Computer Science department.

But I really need some more training. My expertise is in the top layers and now I'm getting really down and dirty with the Java and messing with the underlying databases. I didn't put enough effort into learning that stuff in my last job, figuring there'd be no extension at the end of it (right) and I'd never see it again (wrong), which has left me bloody good at a particular skillset that any newly-minted PHP monkey who'll work for half what I will can embellish on his CV

Doing reasonably well financially... but if the Euro does break up and the pound becomes stronger as a result, I'll be doubly boned. (Paid in euros, lots of credit card debt in sterling.) Unless, of course, Moominbuck 2.0 turns out to be especially strong... At least there's someone in the UK flat paying the mortgage, for now. I really hope the UK crashes harder than the eurozone, but - while it does seem to be a race to the bottom - that doesn't seem likely.

Will I stay at the end of the three years? (Well, three if they get funding for the last one.) Anything can happen between now and then, and I think the next winter will probably decide it for me... but right now, I'd stay.

Self-employed, currently on a rolling contract with a music/promotions company and a bit of a jack of all trades at the moment. Last week I helped organise a couple of festivals that will take place next year, this week I'm standing in for the accounts manager of a promotions company (all under the same contract).

Having a child with a lot of extra needs at home means the flexibility of being able to take on/turn down work as I please is priceless. I have looked at a couple of jobs back in the aviation industry but the money never outweighs the advantages of my current set-up. Besides, I have a book and a degree to finish, when I can fit it all in.

Both gigs are doing pretty well..

Booze wholsaler: Picking up thanks to the summertime. Our company also just got the rights to distribute all of Constellation brands in Massachusetts. It's going to add about 20 high volume products to our line up. Our home office near Boston is considering expanding our warehouse as well as adding 1-3 drivers. Considering last year they wanted to downsize, we're doing alright


The funeral home is alright too. Calls are about where we were last year. We're also getting busier at a 2nd place we own. We've actually tripled our calls there from last year. I'm being trained to run that place once I get my license which is going to be a nice arrangement. I'm optimistic

I'm self employed and the poor economy has hit me and a lot of my friends pretty hard. I still have about the same amount of work, but for the last couple of years, people are slow to pay.

There are still lots of people getting sued, dying, getting arrested, breaking up with their spouse, etc., but very few of them can pay for what they need up front, except maybe the dead ones. Especially in criminal law, the unwritten rule is to get your money up front. After we go to court, no matter the outcome, there is absolutely no incentive for the client to pay me.

I hear the same story all the time. Business people need me, but they can't get paid for work they've already done. The reason is the people that owe them aren't getting paid either. Everybody up and down the line has lots of accounts receivable that won't pay the bills.

I had a former client come to me a couple months ago; he's a contractor who got dragged into a very messy lawsuit for somebody that got hurt on the job three years ago. Anyway, he's trying to get paid on a few jobs that he's completed. It's a pretty complicated case that I'd usually get at least $7,500 retainer. (If you're not familiar with the legal business, that's not my fee, I put that money into my trust account and don't pay myself from it until I've done the work.) This guy could only come up with six hundred bucks. I signed him to a contract, and he's paid me a couple grand more so far, but I know for sure that if this happened 3 or 4 years ago, he'd have just stroked a check for the retainer. I'll probably get paid in the end, but that doesn't help pay the current expenses.

I've got other people that send me $100 or $200 a month toward their bills. I appreciate that a lot more than just ignoring the bill, but when you owe me three or four grand, a hundred a month isn't quite what I need. The problem is, I know for sure they simply don't have the cash.

I barter with some people now and then. For instance, I've got a regular client with a car repair shop. He keeps my vehicles running and I do his legal stuff. I might get the contractor I talked about to fix some stuff on my house.

The bottom line is the economy sucks, top to bottom, and it's hurting everybody. Everything is costing more, from gas to food to insurance, while most everybody has less cash to spend. It's not getting any better, I don't care what lies the government is spreading...

I shouldn't have picked up 3 extra shifts this weekend. They're in addition to my regular weekday shifts. They're not so bad if you don't consistently get called out during sleep time. I can see how you can become sleep deprived quickly.

I'm used to black-and-white rules and in the world of paramedics, things are more of a grey blur. Gotta figure out how to shift my way of thinking.

Got called to a "full code" call to find the nursing home patient sitting up and talking. I miss being an administrator, because I wanted to pull the nurse aside and tell her that "full code" in nursing does not mean the same to a 911 dispatcher. Took hours to kill the adrenalin surge and get back to sleep.

Boris, you hit the nail on the head. It's the same at the funeral home. Thankfully most of our calls are preneeds/prepays. We still have more money outstanding than my boss would like, but most ARE trying to pay. One family sends him $200 a month. They owe about $5k (estate was tied up in probate/family feuding). But the way he looks at it, is something coming in is better than nothing. We've had to put off doing a couple things on the property/ buying a new coach. But otherwise we're still solvent.

Boris wrote:I'm self employed and the poor economy has hit me and a lot of my friends pretty hard. I still have about the same amount of work, but for the last couple of years, people are slow to pay.

There are still lots of people getting sued, dying, getting arrested, breaking up with their spouse, etc., but very few of them can pay for what they need up front, except maybe the dead ones. Especially in criminal law, the unwritten rule is to get your money up front. After we go to court, no matter the outcome, there is absolutely no incentive for the client to pay me.

I hear the same story all the time. Business people need me, but they can't get paid for work they've already done. The reason is the people that owe them aren't getting paid either. Everybody up and down the line has lots of accounts receivable that won't pay the bills.

I had a former client come to me a couple months ago; he's a contractor who got dragged into a very messy lawsuit for somebody that got hurt on the job three years ago. Anyway, he's trying to get paid on a few jobs that he's completed. It's a pretty complicated case that I'd usually get at least $7,500 retainer. (If you're not familiar with the legal business, that's not my fee, I put that money into my trust account and don't pay myself from it until I've done the work.) This guy could only come up with six hundred bucks. I signed him to a contract, and he's paid me a couple grand more so far, but I know for sure that if this happened 3 or 4 years ago, he'd have just stroked a check for the retainer. I'll probably get paid in the end, but that doesn't help pay the current expenses.

I've got other people that send me $100 or $200 a month toward their bills. I appreciate that a lot more than just ignoring the bill, but when you owe me three or four grand, a hundred a month isn't quite what I need. The problem is, I know for sure they simply don't have the cash.

I barter with some people now and then. For instance, I've got a regular client with a car repair shop. He keeps my vehicles running and I do his legal stuff. I might get the contractor I talked about to fix some stuff on my house.

The bottom line is the economy sucks, top to bottom, and it's hurting everybody. Everything is costing more, from gas to food to insurance, while most everybody has less cash to spend. It's not getting any better, I don't care what lies the government is spreading...

Pardon my ignorance here, but why is our legal system so expensive?

Mark wrote:Got called to a "full code" call to find the nursing home patient sitting up and talking. I miss being an administrator, because I wanted to pull the nurse aside and tell her that "full code" in nursing does not mean the same to a 911 dispatcher.

Very true. Having taken quite a few calls just as you've described, my experience is that it's usually medically-unqualified receptionists told to call with little to no information from the care providers, and being in a somewhat panicked state due to a medical emergency, they just answer all the call-taker's questions in the negative ("Is (s)he awake?" No! "Is (s)he breathing?" No!) to elicit what they think will be the best response from paramedics.

(In the above instances where there is a nurse or doctor with the patient, our dispatch protocol is to let them determine/handle whatever pre-arrival care may be necessary. But in all other instances, answering in the negative to everything could cause a husband to ask his wife why she's trying to do compressions on him...)

-----

Anyway, the job...

What can I say, but when times are tough, people change. Domestic abuse and random acts of violence increase, theft and robberies increase, thoughts and attempts/acts of suicide increase. And every single one of these requires a butt in the seat to take the call and/or give it out.

Throw in the moderate to high turnover rate of dispatchers, and it's not fairing too bad. Someone's gotta do it.

I'm in the process of getting a new job. I don't have to, but there is what looks to be a good opportunity, and I am very much set to take it. Already informed my current employer (for whom I have worked for 10 years now) that I plan to leave the company by end of August. We shall see.

No problems in the bus industry right now; my company has been recruiting pretty much constantly for almost 12 months now, though I think it has stopped now. Inevitably there is natural attrition, though I think part of the reason is also down to the Olympics and building up enough drivers to maintain service during that period.

Basically my company has a contract to provide transport during the Olympics, and are sending buses and drivers from depots nationwide. As one of the largest regional operations, my company is sending a lot of drivers and vehicles from our 4 depots around Manchester. However, as we are required to maintain services during this period (though during school and university holidays we operate fewer anyway) the company has to have enough drivers. during the main 4 week Olympic period I've volunteered to work 6 day weeks - £££.

There are a few rumbles from people about what will happen after the Olympics as we might be overstaffed - though until anything official comes out I'm not bothered, and am unlikely to have anything to worry about even if redundancies were to occur.

graphic wrote:
Pardon my ignorance here, but why is our legal system so expensive?

Boris, Halls, etc would know better but a big part of it is the legal system itself. There are so many I's that need to be dotted and T's crossed and you have to cover every base that its getting harder and harder.

Cadet57 wrote:

graphic wrote:
Pardon my ignorance here, but why is our legal system so expensive?

Boris, Halls, etc would know better but a big part of it is the legal system itself. There are so many I's that need to be dotted and T's crossed and you have to cover every base that its getting harder and harder.

The legal system feeds itself. Sorry, but I'm a firm believer in not feeding the beast. Not everything needs a lawyer. One Saturday around 1990, my dad asked to borrow a neighbor's single-axle trailer for a few minutes to haul out a load of leaves. The neighbor wanted to wait until Monday so his lawyer could draw up a contract.

Mark wrote:The legal system feeds itself. Sorry, but I'm a firm believer in not feeding the beast. Not everything needs a lawyer. One Saturday around 1990, my dad asked to borrow a neighbor's single-axle trailer for a few minutes to haul out a load of leaves. The neighbor wanted to wait until Monday so his lawyer could draw up a contract.

Being totally selfish, I wish more people thought like you.

I make far more money from people that "didn't need a lawyer" than I do from people like your Dad's neighbor...

ShanwickOceanic wrote:Unless, of course, Moominbuck 2.0 turns out to be especially strong...

So does this make you...a Snork maybe?

It sounds like most of us are doing ok on NAS...well, I guess I'm probably about the "worst" off right now, which really does mean that everyone else is doing fairly well.

KFLLCFII wrote:
Anyway, the job...

What can I say, but when times are tough, people change. Domestic abuse and random acts of violence increase, theft and robberies increase, thoughts and attempts/acts of suicide increase. And every single one of these requires a butt in the seat to take the call and/or give it out.

Throw in the moderate to high turnover rate of dispatchers, and it's not fairing too bad. Someone's gotta do it.

My friend who's still working in EMS (and who isn't Mark, in this case) says that the number of suicides is up, and that PFMA is way up.

Boris wrote:Being totally selfish, I wish more people thought like you.

I make far more money from people that "didn't need a lawyer" than I do from people like your Dad's neighbor...

And people wonder why our society is in the sh!tter?

graphic wrote:

Boris wrote:Being totally selfish, I wish more people thought like you.

I make far more money from people that "didn't need a lawyer" than I do from people like your Dad's neighbor...

And people wonder why our society is in the sh!tter?

How'd you reach that conclusion?

I have a feeling what Boris is saying is that the people who don't "need a lawyer," usually don't think about the legal implications of their actions, and they can get into legal trouble through negligence.

Nosedive wrote:

graphic wrote:

Boris wrote:Being totally selfish, I wish more people thought like you.

I make far more money from people that "didn't need a lawyer" than I do from people like your Dad's neighbor...

And people wonder why our society is in the sh!tter?

How'd you reach that conclusion?

I have a feeling what Boris is saying is that the people who don't "need a lawyer," usually don't think about the legal implications of their actions, and they can get into legal trouble through negligence.

I wasnt trying to jab at Boris, but the whole idea of needing a lawyer or a contract to borrow your neighbors trailer for a day speaks volumes about our ability to solve our own problems. In that we have none.