Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Pink Slipped

I believe that blogs (or at least mine) are the perfect escape from the stresses that invade our day to day lives. I try to follow that particular mantra and for the most part, I do succeed. I blog about almost everything and anything that my warped little imagination can conjure up. However, there are times when I simply have to write about the stresses that can cause me to become slightly unglued in the real world, which in turn can cause me to become unglued in the cyber world.

Today is another one of those times.

Over the past couple of years, I have blogged about the current economic woes that my state is going through. I'd last blogged about this two thousand pound elephant about several months ago, and I was of the opinion that our labor unions should give serious consideration about the workers before they reject any kind of concessions out of hand.

My friends, zero hour has arrived. After the majority party did its best imitation of big brother in D.C. and passed a budget with no input from the minority party that had a gaping $2 billion dollar hole in it, the majority party's esteemed guv'nor began negotiating with the labor unions. With talks almost at a standstill, the first round of pink slips went out yesterday (not sure how long this link will last, so click while you can).

Now personally, I'm somewhat torn about this particular sequence of events, and I'll elaborate in a moment as to why. My view as a taxpayer is basically, it's about time and as a Republican, my view is: Why are the state Dems professing outrage that things have gotten to this point? In all seriousness, the Democrats have controlled our General Assembly since the early 90's and their head-in-the-sand approach to fiscal sanity got us here to begin with. You guys want to blame someone, then take a good long hard look in the mirror and you'll find the culprit.

Now, why am I torn about this particular sequence of events?

Well, on one hand, back in 2003, I got laid off from the state during the last economic downturn, and because I was a relative newbie, I never saw the layoff notice coming until I was having a face-to-face meeting with the head of the agency. In all honesty, I found it to be a very traumatic experience and it took me six months to become employed by the state again, and over a year and a half to recover from the financial hit. After I got back on my feet, I vowed never again to be put into that position. The next time this happened, I wanted to be the person who if need be, did the bumping on someone else to stay employed.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot (I have about 11 1/2 years of seniority), I should come out of this latest headache relatively unscathed. However, I do have friends and co-workers who I like very much, who will probably be affected by this. Some of them have less than five years in. Others have as much time as I do, if not more, but because of the particular union they're in, can't transfer the seniority from my particular bargaining unit (say clerical) to the one that they're in. In other words, if they have say, 12 total years in, but only five with that particular union, then according to the rules, they have five years of seniority, not twelve.

For those people, I feel their pain, because I was there eight years ago, and unfortunately, people have started to pick my brain to find out what it was like to go through that trauma. For the majority of everyone else, I either don't feel their pain or don't care. I know it sounds callous, but I'm looking at it from a realistic point of view: I'm the only breadwinner in my family. Thus, I'm more than willing to protect what I got by any contractual means necessary.

It really does suck having to experience this stuff again, but I'm hoping that somewhere down the line when the dust finally settles, I'll start enjoying my job again. In the meantime, I'll keep looking at my employer not through rose colored glasses, but with the crystal clear glasses and dorky Buddy Holly frames that make me, me.

And that my friends, is a sobering reality check if there ever was one.

13 comments:

  1. G - my heart skipped a beat when I saw the title of your post. You scared me - I thought you had gotten one. I hope you don't. Finding a job is hard and there is an additional burden if you are the breadwinner in your family. I hope it'll work out OK.

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  2. Keep plugging. Glad you should be safe.

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  3. Damn. I'm glad that you've got some seniority this time around, G. Keep us posted.

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  4. What a fiasco with these budget issues. It's too bad for the employees who'll lose their jobs in these times. But I think you said it, when the dust settles, whoever's left will appreciate being there.

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  5. You won't believe this - my word verification is union. No lie. How cosmic is that?

    It's scary times. If we ran our household budgets the way the governments do, we'd be out on the street, panhandling for loose change and robbing the guy beside us. And the streets would be very very crowded.

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  6. Lynn: Sorry, didn't mean to shock you that way. Just needed a sobering title for a sobering post.

    I should be good this time around. I have enough seniority in the middle range to comfortably stay emmployed.

    It's what lays ahead for possible concessions that scares me.

    Bearman: Thanks. Probably one of the few times that I actually appreciate being member of a union.

    Mama Z: Thanks. It's been a struggle all the way around to keep myself employed, and I will definitely keep people posted.

    Joanne: There is a lot of blame to go around with this mess as you and I both well know. Only time will tell whether or not things will really change for the better, or if its just comestic surgery being performed.

    Talon: That is cosmic indeed. I think somehow the second someone gets elected, the part of the brain that governs fiscal prudence gets excised.

    Man, oh man, no wonder everyone hates both parties here.

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  7. G, as you know, my husband went through 2 layoffs in the past 4 years. Job hunting is so hard. I'm glad that you're safe at this point.

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  8. Kelly: Thanks.

    Hopefully there'll be good news around the corner for you soon.

    As for me, I'm just waiting to see what kind of hit my wallet is gonna take once everything is all said and done.

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  9. That really does suck. Glad you should be OK though.

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  10. R: The beauty of a one party state is that eventually everyone pays for that party's incompentance and malfaesance.

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  11. Oh man, layoffs sure do suck. I've been on the receiving end, and it was awful. I'm glad to hear that you're as safe as anyone can be in this situation. It's better that you're not feeling broken-hearted for everyone, because that would only cause more pain overall. All you can do is make the best of a bad situation.

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  12. Unreal.

    My response from a couple of days ago completely vanished when Blogger went down for maintainence on Thursday.

    I will see if I can find it from my Gmail trash and repost it.

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  13. Found it.

    Lynn: Sorry, didn't mean to shock you that way. Just needed a sobering title for a sobering post.

    I should be good this time around. I have enough seniority in the middle range to comfortably stay emmployed.

    It's what lays ahead for possible concessions that scares me.

    Bearman: Thanks. Probably one of the few times that I actually appreciate being member of a union.

    Mama Z: Thanks. It's been a struggle all the way around to keep myself employed, and I will definitely keep people posted.

    Joanne: There is a lot of blame to go around with this mess as you and I both well know. Only time will tell whether or not things will really change for the better, or if its just comestic surgery being performed.

    Talon: That is cosmic indeed. I think somehow the second someone gets elected, the part of the brain that governs fiscal prudence gets excised.

    Man, oh man, no wonder everyone hates both parties here.

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G. B. Miller

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