A while back I shared that I was worried about getting laid off. I know some people were a little curious about how it all played out.
The good news, I guess, is that i’m still working. Back in like March, I was worried there’d be Layoffs in July. Then we had our quarterly sign up for runs, and to my relief my name was still on the seniority list. Then the concern was that there’d be layoffs in October. Well, now it seems like that isn’t happening either (sensing a posisble trend here…)
There probably WILL be layoffs at my job around the end of the year- our transit agency is cutting bus service. As before, a lot of senior drivers are throwing a lot of doom-and-gloom rumors about (constructive to no one, honestly, and rude to the people whose jobs are actually at stake). I still don’t know if I will get laid off though because based on seniority i’d barely squeak by even if they laid off ten percent.
But since the # of service hours isn’t changing until January I’m pretty sure I’ll be there until at least then. In the meantime, i’ll continue saving money like I have been for most of this year. If I get laid off in January, fine, my lease is up in feb for my apt so I’ll just swallow my pride and move back with my parents temporarily until i get re-hired. Between unemployment and savings i can stretch out my funds that would allow me to go back to school or travel overseas, since I’d certainly have the time
What do you do? Are you a bus driver? Honestly, I thought being a government agency that public transit never laid off or cut routes. And being union, if you are a driver, would mean that you would be bullet proof from getting laid off.
Glad to see you still have a job though, even if it is only a sure thing until year’s end.
Yeah I’m a bus driver. And unfortunately, we DO get laid off from time to time. A combination of the state pulling county transit funding contributions and lower-than-expected sales tax revenue put our agency in a pinch.
Not just for the fate of my (and my union brothers’) job(s) but also for the passengers who are not only going to have to deal with buses running less frequently but also fare increases.
All I can really do is be the Ant instead of the Grasshopper, so to speak. Right now i’m hoarding money and basically plan on riding out the unemployment. Because of my seniority, I’d be among the first hired back, so i’m hoping if I do get laid off it would only be for about a year.
The light at the end of the tunnel is that many senior drivers are on the verge of retiring- when they feel its safe they will retire in droves which will speed up my re-hiring and also propel my own seniority forward.
