In January, one of our folks that was laid off talked to one of our remaining crew (who happened to be laid off today!) Gracie said her life was much better now, that she was collecting unemployment, and was cleaning 5 houses for cash under the table. Instead of working 50+ hours a week, she now gets to see her husband on a regular basis and their relationship is thriving, where before it had been really rough because of her hours. My point is, it may suck in the short term if all we're looking at is " what am I going to DO??" but if you remain flexible in your mind, stay positive, it can work out alright. Keep a broad focus, and remember that work isn't everything, it just pays the bills, and you can't get blood out of a turnip...

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How many were laid off at Viracon Statesboro, GA today? My prayers are with them.

Fight Back with Homemade bombs, Sniper Fire

My condolences to you all. I feel we need to create laws to protect workers rights & make employment situations more transparent. Now on my 3rd RIF, I researched my Fortune 100 company and found they were in good fiscal standing - however if I had had more transparency, I would have learned they weren't. For those of us trying to re-enter the workforce, we are the most vulnerable to layoffs and dirty RIF's (reallocation to a lower paying job) due to the lack of seniority. Here is what I would like to see:
* Collective work history score for the employee: If you have been a good employee then you would receive a score from employeers that travels with you from job to job, much like a credit rating based on criteria that reflects a good employee. If your RIFed over and over, it would not count against you or make you look unstable if you had a score proving otherwise. It would make you a valid canidate for the next opportunity.
* Collective score for employers: Score would reflect criteria giving transparency to fiscal strength, RIF's, layoffs and employee terminations, & employee promotions. Employees interviewing with a company would be able to determine risk for accepting a position with the employer.
* Re-write state statutes that repeal the "termination at will" and ensure there is a legal contract in place for new hires that guarantees them an alloted period of time that they may remain in the job given they meet performance expectations. If there is a challenge to this, bring in a 3rd party to review the situation and ensure there is a valid reason to terminate the employee.
* Make it illegal for employers to intimidate workers to step down into lower paying positions to keep their job. Per the contract above, an employer must validate with emperical data that they can not afford the position and re-negociate the contract with a 3rd party overseeing.
* We middle class carry the rich & the poor on our backs. Our responsibility should be to ourselves

I worked for Bill Hagen and Doug Bennet at their ad agency in Flagstaff, AZ. It was nothing but a horrific experience! They treated their employees like crap by either yelling at them, demeaning them in front of other employees, or flat out harassing them until they quit. Mr. Bennett sexually harassed female interns they brought in from the NAU campus. Bill Hagen actually met with us and told us how to manipulate and deceive local business owners to do sales with Overdrive Media. They worked the employees well past 8 hours a day and would say since we were on salary we had to do it or else! Salary was basically minimum wage compounded into 40 hours. So you actually made less money than you were being paid. They were completely unethical and used profanity in front of us on a daily basis. I finally decided to quit! The worst job I ever had in my life!