Seriously.
My boss has been a pain in the ass lately.
My company was bought by a U.S. company a few months back.
The economy is going to hell in a hand basket.
I’m not usually the worrying kind, but things are not looking very rosy for the time being. Canada has weathered the storm to date, but the stock market is getting pummeled and we’re slipping into a recession. The next 3 or 4 years will be very … interesting.
Anyone else (specifically outside of the U.S.) worried and losing sleep?
I big ditto on that one!
And considering I need to be up-to-date on the currency fluctuations for work, makes me just that much more depressed.
I’ve already started plotting my bail-out plan. Just need a job anywhere else and I’m gone from this island.
I do like my job in general though. It’s just the current situation that’s driving me nuts!
Yup.
Stockholders generally don’t like the idea of a company spending a few million dollars on infrastructure when the stock market is hemorraging. No more hiring, no OT without prior written approval from management, and now we’re sitting around with nothing to do but worry until the 2009 budget is approved.
I don’t even want to consider what will happen if they don’t approve the budget and this project gets canned.
(and on a side note, why did the Canadian dollar have to start sliding just before my first trip to the US since parity? Why why why? AAARGH)
Leaffan, you are not the only one. I work in the auto industry at the dealership level. As the Finance Manager, I’ve seen first-hand the credit tightening. We have no customers coming in the doors, and the folks who do want to buy cars can’t get approved for loans now without equity or money down. In a financial crisis most people don’t have extra cash laying around. Last month was one of the worst month’s I have ever had since I started 5 years ago. I am barely going to get paid enough to cover my rent and car payment this month. Good thing I didn’t buy that sofa that I’ve been saving up for yet. I might need that money to pay rent and buy food with next month.
I was up last night too. It’s a free floating anxiety with me at present. I don’t like my current job, but it pays well. I think I may be trapped for a bit…
I’m leaving my current job 10/17. I start my new job 10/27. Even though I am very unhappy with my current job, I am still stressed about starting a new position at this time. And of course, generalized anxiety about starting a new job. And I’m moving for it.
Of course, the up side is I am moving back to where I’ve wanted to be for years. Plus I’ll be close to family. And the job seems like a great opportunity.
But there’s still severe stress.
Susan
Oh, yeah - on the personal front, we move in three weeks into a house that isn’t finished yet, and where the schedule is now so tight that one delayed inspection could have us living in a hotel for a while. I have a to-do list that’s impossible to fulfill in the time allotted and I start a gig that may have me commuting to Hamilton on a daily basis next week. Add to that the almost certain reality that the RRSPs and the RESPs have lost money and I don’t know what’s up with the GICs. (I don’t think they can have lost money, but they might not have made as much as they’re supposed to.) The people that bought the ‘old’ house are obliged to cough up a whack of money in three weeks, but if they go broke, we’re kinda up a gum tree, and the new car and the piano depend on being on budget and on time with the house. (The car is desperately needed as it’s not a sure thing that it’s got another 1000km in it. I realize on some level that I may not get the piano of my dreams right away, like it looked like I would a couple of months ago, but it’s all that’s keeping me from crying uncontrollably in the corner right about now)
Add to that my anxiety about the current election (Not said to antagonize you - I realize we’re on totally opposite sides, Leaffan, but I’m sure you’re as worried about my side winning as I am about yours) and what the economy is going to do to the government input and philanthropy on which both our livelihoods depend, and the fact that it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to cycle in Toronto without a smog mask anytime in the near future, and you have some pretty sleepless nights in the Ministry right about now. My blood pressure is high enough that if I prick my finger, I’m going to spray paint the neighbour’s house across the street.
Employment - well, I’ve been self-employed in the Arts for 26 years now, and I’ve lived with a level of employment uncertainty that my friends and family can’t begin to comprehend. It may get worse, but it’s always been uncertain, even in the good times.
Still, my parents lived through the Depression and the Second World War (my father in Alberta and my mother in Glasgow) and they both said “It’s a fine life if you don’t weaken…”
If they could live through that, I can muddle through this.
Missed the edit window - when I said “… on which both our livelihoods depend”, I meant my wife, (La Ministre) and me, I didn’t mean you and me , Leaffan. Just to clarify.
I think Pink Floyd has something to say about the economy:
Oh, and about life in general as well:
Yeah, it´s gloomy.
But as Waters once said, this does not mean that the potential for the sun to shine does not exist.
Tough times, but they´ll get better.
Hah, I´m suh a Floyd Freak.
Have you tried drinking heavily?
Yup. Works for a few hours - but not really a long-term solution.
I’m glad I got out of the advertising world. I’m now working at a state University. I know lay offs can come at a state University, but I take comfort that it isn’t even a fraction of the threat posed by working in the ad industry. Advertising tends to be the first expense to get cut when times are tough.
Hey man, we’re on opposite sides because I work in the manufacturing sector and you work in the arts. If we traded jobs, we’d trade political affiliations, believe me!
I respect your views; that’s what democracy is about.
My parents were born in Scotland during the depression and grew up in WWII. If they could survive sugar rations I’m sure we can survive this. But still, it could really suck for a while.
I have enough equity in my house now that I should be fine regardless. But still, I worry mon ami.
I’m calling it quits for the night, but I’m feeling better. In the midst of packing, I was watching “Apollo 13”, ostensibly to vet it for later showing to the kids. (I don’t think they’ll appreciate it yet, but soon.) I caught myself time and again not putting books in boxes, and I finally stopped altogether to just watch. All time spent reading or watching movies is stolen time, anyway.
But I’m glad I watched it, even if it took time away from things I should have been doing. It reaffirmed my essential belief, that there is nothing that the human imagination cannot overcome when coupled with determination and passion. I intend to prosper in difficult times, if only to spite the universe. And if I fail, I will leave a tale worth telling.
And on that merry note, I’m falling asleep. Bonne nuit et bon courage à tout le monde - Good night and good spirits to one and all.
Is it particularly bad in Iceland? I did hear something a month or so ago, but it didn’t seem anything like what you hear now from Germany, and, especially, here in the U.S. Just for curiosity’s sake, I went to www.ndr.de, thinking I’d listen to/watch some German broadcasts and try to recover a little of my former skill in that language. The first thing the announcer said was that the rescue plan had collapsed, and I thought at first he was talking about the U.S. House of Representatives initially turning down the rescue plan here. Of course, it turned out to be a German affair, IIRC the Hypo Real Estate Bank failure.
Check the links I added in the “Iceland’s going under”-thread.
The basic problem with Iceland, compared to other countries, is that the banks are much bigger than the state. If I recall correctly, the 3 big banks owe 8xGDP. So the government cannot bail out the banks without Iceland going bankrupt.
This is the threadI meant.
And I retired six months ago and all my money has been invested. You think I am not worried?
I no longer worry about losing my nice, corporate job because that already happened to me, last November.
I no longer worry about losing my health insurance because that also happened in November.
Somehow, I’ve managed to pay the rent and put food on my table since, but I most certainly do worry about things getting worse.
I had to quit my Assistant Manager’s job a month ago for of a number of reasons and my new job isn’t permanent; it’s just something to keep money coming in.
On one hand I’m a bit concerned because I don’t actually like my new job. I don’t have the same issues with it that I had at my old one, but it’s not very fufilling and the hours are up and down like a yoyo; I’m as likely to work 45 hours in a week as I am to work 10. Makes budgeting and planning to do anything a bit hard. But with a potential recession coming, I don’t want to be jacking in what I’ve got in the hopes I might get something better, because I probably won’t.
I’m planning to go back to University next semester and finally get a degree, but at the moment the whole thing is making me feel pretty craptastic and I’m not optimistic about the next six months or so. 