Job security in the US?

Factual Questions
21

(Side note re: homeless unemployed.)

According to the Mental Health Statistics and the Department of Families and Children, the majority of the chronically homeless are suffering from some form of mental illnesses which does not enable them to hold a job of any sort. Most of these would have been in various maintenance institutions or hospitals but for the Mental Health Budget cuts in the late 70s, which dumped thousands of people just barely able to function on the streets. Those funds have not been restored. There are insufficient programs today to take care of the problem.

22

Please mention a few. BTW, your cause of poverty theory is only partially correct. Have you ever been ‘poor’? Have you ever experienced the ‘poverty trap’?

One example: A man, his wife and two children below the age of 8 live in a motel room because they lost their home and were booted out by the landlord. He works, she has to care for the kids. His salary cannot pay for anything but the basics (food, clothing) and motel rent. They cannot afford day care ($65 to $100 a week). They only have an older car. Neither parent has a high school diploma. Car insurance takes a monthly bite out of his check. Since they live in a motel room, they have a tiny room refrigerator so most of their meals are more expensive prepared foods. School costs for the one child takes another big bite out of his check. They are lucky if they have $10 left over each month, not including any unexpected medical expenses.

Think getting out of that situation is easy?

23

Am claiming that it is easy for someone to get out of poverty. The point I am trying to make is that it is a viscous cycle, based partially on my claims above. I site your example Serendipity28:

>A man, his wife and two children below the age of 8 live in >a motel room because they lost their home and were booted >out by the landlord.

First off, why did they get booted out by the landlord?
Possible causes are: Non conformance to the Landlords Terms of Occupance (I.e. couldn’t pay the rent, had a pet, etc)., or possibly, the landlord just didn’t like them. This relates back to education, if the man had a job with cost of living wage increases he could at least make enough to make rent and provide for his family.

>He works, she has to care for the kids.

This, is a major problem with poverty stricken people, they have a lot of kids, they can’t properly provide for them, they don’t want to give them up (who would?). In my experience, the kids have it worse than the parents to a degree, because they don’t have very many chances to excel and get out of the rut, due to their parent’s example. Some do though, but a lot just end up in the same position, or worse off.

>Neither parent has a high school diploma

This relates directly to education.

The rest of the example is all related to the above, if the parent’s had a high school diploma, and both were working, and had no kids, they would be doing a bit better. It’s a horrible thing to say, but most people don’t understand the burden, and costs of raising a child. Most of the children aren’t planned, and the mother’s don’t want an abortion or to give the child up for adoption. It’s a sad position, but the earlier you act, the easier it is to improve your situation, IMHO.

24

This comes up frequently in the Business pages. I believe 49 of the 50 states are “at will” states. (The exception, IIRC, is Wyoming. Or maybe Montana. Some place I would never move to.) This means your boss can fire you, any time, for any reason (or no reason at all). It also means you can quit, at any time, for any reason, or no reason at all.

That being said, there are a number of anti-discrimination laws. Your boss can’t fire you for being black, or pregnant, or Muslim, or something like that.

I know there are exceptions for certain government work, and I bow to the superior knowledge of other posters on Union and contract work.

25

Job security does come in many forms in the US. Summary of my work history to follow, could get long.

For the longest time I worked for a very large corporation, lets call them company A, which would only fire somebody after about a year of documenting wrongdoings and warning the employee they were screwing up. This drove me crazy as I was the one doing the work of said screwball on top of my own work. I worked with Company A in 3 different positions in 2 states over a 4.5 year period. At many times I was hoping (sometimes trying) to get fired. The rampant laziness coupled with the companies fear of a lawsuit made some places almost unbearable for me. I was extremely underpaid but could do little about it until I got a job where I could gain some very marketable skills, the risk of quitting was too high and the chance to obtain the skills too near. An employee who starts out on the bottom, displays good ability and work ethic can move up the ladder quickly, however to get more than a 10% raise in a year is virtually impossible (I did get raises of 10% and 17%) with this company. After getting a position in a great field and working for a year, learning some great skills that would make me very desirable to many, it was only a matter of time before I left the company. Last December the opportunity presented itself. I gave a 2 week notice, moved to new job, got $8,000 raise.

New job lasted for 7 months for me, Company B. I quit on the spot, no 2 week notice given or worked, a company that fires most employees that gives a 2 week notice isn’t going to get one from me. Couldn’t stand the business practices of this company, they were legal but far from what I would call doing good business. Company B went bankrupt and fired all employees on the spot 2 months after I left, seems I grabbed a snorkel and started swimming at the right time.

Returned to Company A 9 months after leaving them. The only reason I returned was the fact that my paycheck will be signed by another company, Company C in less than a year. I work basically as a full time employee of Company A under permanent contract to Company C now. That contract will expire in roughly 9 months (or whenever they finish the new office building).

My current situation at a glance:

Job security: great, I probably couldn’t get fired for shooting the Pope working for Company A.

Future outlook: In under a year I will be negotiating with Company C. I returned due to this fact only. We cannot discuss compensation now, boss has to get that budget approved first. I want to work for him, he wants me to work for him, this is all that is known.

What if: What if I don’t come to terms when this job shifts from Company A to Company C? I absolutely refuse to continue working for Company A, not an option for me. You may think this was a high risk but not really. Even with the tech growth slowing down, there are plenty of jobs for guys like me. I now fall under that category of having job security via my skills.

Now back to the OP. Much as the other answers, it depends on so many things. The big picture is that the American economy is working great, the American employee isn’t hurting too bad in most cases, the American company is doing pretty good.

In general it depends less on the state your in than the business your in. If your working for a big company they will have a whole roomfull of rules and practices to keep them from getting in court. If your working for a little company then perhaps your are gaining more benefit from the laws that protect workers. If your working in a factory your probably protected by the union.

Protection comes in so many forms.
You get fired from McDonalds for no reason, get hired by Burger King on the way home.

Reputation, both employer and employee usually take into consideration the effect of reputation. A company that gets a bad reputation is probably gonna end up paying more to attract the new employees it wants and needs. Employees to a lessor degree have this consideration as well.

Well hell, that got too long, sorry. Guess I better look around and see if there is any work I need to be doing.

Alantus

26

I was recently fired from a job thirty days into a ninety day probationary period, because I wasn’t “meeting the standards of service”. I was stunned. Inquiry revealed that some of the supervisors felt I had a “negative attitude.”

I had never been given any warning that my performance or “attitude” was not up to snuff, even though it is company policy to give an employee, even one who is still in the probationary period such warning. Apparently my “attitude” was so negative that they felt the need to circumvent normal procedures to get rid of me.

Which is fine, because I took my “negative attitude” a few miles up Las Vegas Boulevard, where I got hired for a better job with a better company, in an environment where being polite and friendly with customers and cooperative with co-workers is not considered to be a negative thing. So, yeah, being fired can be a good thing.

But job security is still a very ephemeral thing, especially in the state of Nevada. One company in town commonly fires people just as they reach the point where they would be eligible for insurance benefits. I know a guy who lost his job at the end of his ninety days probation- coincidentally, his wife was pregnant, and probably would have made use of those insurance bennies… at the time he told me the story, he was going through the paperwork process that precedes promotion at the place we worked together. Obviously, he was let go from the other place for inadequate job performance. It is also common for some companies to fire older employees, some of whom are only months away from retirement, in order to replace them with younger, less experienced, and less well paid workers, who haven’t earned such benifits as four weeks paid vacation per year after ten or twenty years with the company.

27

I signed a “we can fire you for any reason” document. It’s qute legal under our state’s laws.

28

Colorado is an “At Will” state. As of last Tuesday, the company I worked for decided that it was not their will to have me and about 50 of my friends working there anymore.

In short, be prepared.

29

In other words a few people have had it happen and alot have heard of it happening but its pretty rare.

30

Asmodean-

A lot depends on where you live, and what business you’re in. If you’re in Nevada, you’d best be watching your ass at all times. In this state, especially in Vegas, there are a lot of people moving here because they have heard that good paying jobs are easy to find- not true. But with the constant influx of new bodies, employers, especially in some of the lower skilled jobs where employees require minimal training, it’s fairly common for people to be fired in a day or two if they’re not performing as though they had a couple of years experience, and be replaced by the next body that comes through the door. At will employment combined with the ninety day probationary period makes many jobs out here revolving door type positions.

It’s happened to both me and my mom, and we’ve both been considered good, reliable workers in jobs we’ve had in the past, working for employers who are willing to invest a little time into training people.

In the midwest, where the value system is, um, different, most employers are willing to give you a chance to learn the job and improve rather than hand you the pink slip.