How is the economy effecting your career?

[Douglas E. Welch]

I am interested to hear how the current economy is effectiing your career -- bad and possibly goog.

[Mad Marv]

My job is running on inertia at the moment. Long lead projects will start to wrap up in the coming months and beyond that the workload is looking a bit light.

Longer term looks stable from my perspective. Of course, I shouldn't say that or else it'll change.

[John V. Fauver]

I'm in Lansing, Michigan, so the current state of the "Big Three" is the top of all the news. But Michigan has been in a slump for a couple years already, so it's going from tough to "hard as nails". I currently work as a job coach for the developmentally disabled, a job I started nearly 10 years ago to carry me through school and into a high-tech career. What I have seen lately is that all the employers - from larger companies to great restaurants to fast food joints - are very reluctant to hire anyone, especially the people I work with who have limited skill sets.

There is an air of fatalism in the local job market. Even though GM and Chrysler got some money from Uncle Sam, both companies put all the local plants on temporary layoff for an entire month. That really hits the Lansing area hard, since GM is one of the top three employers - along with the State Government (also cutting back again as property values fall), and Michigan State University. It seems that discretionary spending has stopped completely.

On the positive side for me, I've got nearly 10 years seniority and will not lose my job (or get a cut in hours) for a good long time. I'm close to vesting for a retirement, which will help no matter what. But, while I may have a job, it may not be the same job position. Having been in the job coaching position for a couple years and really enjoying the challenges of teaching both clients training for a new job and helping employers learn to accept the disabled as workers, it would be very difficult to go back to any other job. This one has a lot of freedoms (flexible schedule and greater responsibility than normal for my level, to name the top two), and I've said to friends that I'd rather quit and strike out on my own than go back to changing diapers (the worst part of helping adults with severe disabilities, in my opinion).

So, for me, it means spending as much time as I can plus a little more to quickly learn Flex and gain a deeper understanding of JavaScript and CSS (and...and...and...) while I still have a job.

Unfortunately, for my wife, who has less college than I do and works at a home office for an Internationally franchised moving company as the manager of a soon-to-be-outsourced "pro shop" (think: company swag and uniforms, etc), the outlook for another job that pays the same is bleak. Having been with this company for 12 years, she is very scared of the change and worried about what losing her job would mean for our household (especially what it would mean for our English Mastiffs).

[Douglas E. Welch]

Wow! Thanks for your post. I am always trying to stay in touch with what it happening in the world. I am originally from Ohio, so I understand the issues involved with being employed in the auto industry. I was mentioning to friends last night that it reminds me of my childhood in the 70's when things got pretty tight for our family due to the economy, energy crisis and the auto industry troubles.

Thanks again for sharing your view of things.

Douglas

[Rob Spahitz]

So far the economy is not "A"ffecting my job. Being in the medical industry, I guess it takes a lot to knock it down. However, I have several friends who were let go, and several others who are very concerned about their job. In addition, those others who were not directly affected have had changes in how their company does things, myself included. The most recent "casualty" is that my company has decided to do away with lunch meetings that include food. Previously there were about 10 or 15 daily meetings that included lunch, and at about $10 per person that added up...I guess $100 per day $500 per week, $2000 per month just for lunch that often went uneaten or was over-purchased.
Since we had a record year last year, and got decent bonuses to boot, it will be interesting to see the "E"ffect at year end in July.

[Douglas E. Welch]

Your story is very interesting as it is often the case that things like lunches and such could be kept if they were done with more control. Too many things that are seen as extravagances are actually not that bad, if done properly. Of course, there is also a deep symbolism to cutting back on something so visible. Of course, I am sure there are plenty of other wasteful practices that, out of sight, continue to occur.

Good job on the bonuses. I always consider them as direct contributions to my FU Money fund in case I ever had to leave a company, or was asked to leave. (SMILE)

[Mike McBride]

The legal industry as a whole has been ht pretty hard. There are a couple of century-old firms that simply went "poof" and no longer exist, and many other large firms have been laying off large numbers of folks.

That being said, most of the really bad news has been from BigLaw firms, the ridiculously large firms in NYC, SF, Boston, etc. that may have priced themselves out of business, or leveraged themselves to finance their hugeness. Most firms haven't been hit that hard, but are certainly seeing a lot of belt tightening. Lots of my peers have shared that their firms are cutting some expenses, limiting training budgets, and taking other steps to make do with less, without having to cut employees.

Of course, when they do that we all know the next step if things don't turn around is going to be hiring freezes and/or layoffs. That's just a fact of life, so you start trying to figure out ways to show your value to the firm, work in some different areas to provide more value than you currently do, and spend a lot of time networking, so if it does happen, you've got lots of people you're connected with and more options. In a down economy, no matter what industry you work in, you have to work hard to connect as much as possible so that you have some options!

[Adam Larson]

So far my company hasn't really been hit at all, in fact we grew through 2008. Our prediction is to remain flat in 2009 with little or no growth (people wise). I think we buckled down early and were prepared for the worse so that helped.

My wife's company has already had one round of layoffs and has frozen wages and hiring. They even have office people working in the shop 1 day a week now, so we're a little more concerned about that.

[Douglas E. Welch]

Can you explain a bit more about office people working in the shop? Is this a manufacturing business or are they working in a storefront?

[Adam Larson]

I can try (I just hear it second hand around the dinner table). Basically they laid off an assortment of people two months ago, now they are very busy in the shop (it's not specifically manufacturing more specialty products/printing... I don't know that I can go into more detail w/o people knowing what company it is, but their clients are big companies like Target, Best Buy, Universal Pictures, etc...)

Now they have asked office workers (my wife is a project manager) to work one shift in the shop every week, and there is a sign up sheet to work more shifts. As a bonus they get to dress down!

She kind of likes it as it's a change of pace and you do some repetitive tasks for 8 hours and you like your real job much more at the end of the day.

[Douglas E. Welch]

interesting. I was wondering as there had to be some rather repetitive task in order for the office staff to simply step in and do them.

[Karen Kreps]

Doug, et al,

Fred Casteneda, the podcaster, recommended me to you and this site. For the past seven years I have been writing a column on relationships, "Intimacies," for a local Austin monthly magazine, The Good LIfe. The magazine sponsored me as host of a monthly meeting at a local bookstore where 15-40 adults show up and we talk about issues related to "Intimacies." I'm often called a real-life Carrie Bradshaw, like in Sex in the City. I just never got her great salary or wardrobe. A year ago, I self-published a collection of my columns in a book, Intimacies: Secrets of Love, Sex & Romance, Getting an audience for the book has been a challenge and I've been developing a blog to build a market for it. See http://trueintimacies.com.

Yesterday I received the terrible and unexpected news that the magazine for which I do this work is folding. I have to decide if writing about "Intimacies" is something I want to continue to try to do on my own. I am looking for suggestions for other publications (in print on online) with established markets, that might want to pick up my well-established column. I have a large body of work and many copies of my book still to sell. I believe strongly that people really want to read and hear about what goes on in romantic relationships that works and what doesn't, that they long for more open information and insights into how people success in love, sex and romance. I have found it personally gratifying to write about these sensitive topics and to be instrumental in helping to inspire others in their romantic relationships.

Can anyone suggest a good publisher whom I might approach and how to go about pitching this idea?The bookstore will continue to host the group, if I can find another publisher to pick up the column. Having the monthly discussion group gave me credibility and a good reputation and an excuse to include TrueIntimacies.com in all the community event listings I'd post.

This Intimacies work has always been a sideline for me. My primary business is as an independent web content developer (see http://netingenuity.com), but for the past 7 years, covering "Intimacies" has divided my energies and distracted me from my primary business. And the web is changing so much that I don't know if I can be competitive. I hate to just step away from all the work I've done in this arena and now I need to replace the revenue lost due to the magazine going out of business.

[Douglas E. Welch]

Welcome Karen!

A similar thing happened to me at the end of the 2007, but I continued to write and podcast the column myself. I miss the income for sure, but felt I still had something to say. I have had limited to no success in finding a traditional publisher to pick up the column and have pretty much given up on that avenue. My next goal is to find a sponsor of both the column and the podcast. I think online is definitely the up-trending market, so I think I will continue to focus my attention there.

Douglas