What’s in your wallet? Is it over due bills or dollar bills? That is the common question being asked during these economic woes.
This morning I was checking the news and one of the headlines indicated that several very big industry names were doing massive job cuts, slashing off thousands of workers from their payroll. Some of my friends work for some of these companies and I could just imagine the cold feeling of fear and uncertainty that they must be experiencing this very moment.
I like watching the news everyday just so that I could be aware of what is happening around the world. Lately I noticed that bad news is plastered on every headlines both TV and newspaper. A special TV report last night showed common Americans going through the painful experience of hardship. The report showed the different stages of the worker’s sad fate: Being given a pink slip, working the last days of their employment, sorting through their bills, lining up at the unemployment office and finally facing the reality of life with so much uncertainty. Got Job?
It is hard for me to find people who are not affected by the economic debacle. Yours truly is going through some hard times too because the budget of the government agency I work for was drastically slashed. During the last quarter of 2008, all members of the agency were informed that cutbacks were eminent and we should brace ourselves for the inevitable. Last December, a long line of government programs were either trimmed down or just outright terminated. Several office buildings that were being leased by our agency were cancelled and the employees moved to smaller facilities. Then the most painful cutback came—layoff. On the 3rd week of January 2009, 213 employees of our agency were laid off. Almost all of them were employees who had not finished their probationary period. One of those who were laid off was my Japanese friend who was scheduled to get married this year to her fiancé. She felt really bad because she had only one month more to go before her probationary period ended. I am praying that she return back to her position once the economy recovers and the agency starts calling back the ex-employees that were laid off.
The board of directors of our agency is trying their best to save workers because it is a common belief that the best asset of any organization is its people. Instead of setting up a second wave of layoffs, the directors opted to have furloughs. A plan was drawn up stating that all employees of social services should have a total of 80 hours of furlough starting this coming February until the end of June, which is the end of our fiscal year. Everybody grimaced upon hearing the news but felt relieved a little bit because all of us felt that it is better to get a smaller pay check than a pink slip.
I told my wife, Joan, regarding the bad news. She gave a sad sigh but later on smiled telling me that we can still handle our family budget in spite of my smaller paycheck. All we need to do is to cut down on things that we deem are not really necessary.
The cold weather is creating a small havoc on our budget because I have to keep our gas heater on during freezing mornings and evenings. To control our consumption, I would just turn on our heater whenever my children start to call to my attention the freezing temperature. To my surprised, this is the first winter season that my children had not been hit hard by the flu bug. I am guessing that the hot beef soup and stew that I often cook for dinner has kept my family warm especially during the times when the temperature falls below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (About 4 degrees Celsius).
My good friends Peter Guballa (Seattle Washington) and Ramon Cervantes (New York, New York) are probably laughing right now upon hearing that I consider 40 degrees as being cold. The winter temperature at the place where Peter and Ramon live ranges between 0 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit. These two guys walk around in summer shorts and t-shirts on days when the temperature is 40 F degrees.
The weather has become kind of strange lately. There would be days when the sun would be blazing hot. After a couple of days of clear weather, heavy clouds would invade the open skies and rain would pour on us for 2-3 days. The mountains located about 50 miles away from us would turn into a winter wonderland every time it rains in our area. For weeks now my wife and kids had been bugging me to drive them to the mountains so that we can do some snow boarding. The rental price of snow boarding equipment seemed to be reasonable. But because we are a family of four, the total rental cost adds up to a hefty amount. This weekend seemed to be an ideal opportunity for us to drive to the mountains. I am debating with myself if I should stand along the side and just watch my children have fun riding their snowboard or embarrass myself doing thousands of crazy mishaps while trying to ride my snow board down the snow slope. Decisions, decisions.....I think I will do the latter. I figured that it is not always every day that I embarrass myself. Might as well do it in the icy slopes. Hopefully nobody recognize me up there.
This morning I was checking the news and one of the headlines indicated that several very big industry names were doing massive job cuts, slashing off thousands of workers from their payroll. Some of my friends work for some of these companies and I could just imagine the cold feeling of fear and uncertainty that they must be experiencing this very moment.
I like watching the news everyday just so that I could be aware of what is happening around the world. Lately I noticed that bad news is plastered on every headlines both TV and newspaper. A special TV report last night showed common Americans going through the painful experience of hardship. The report showed the different stages of the worker’s sad fate: Being given a pink slip, working the last days of their employment, sorting through their bills, lining up at the unemployment office and finally facing the reality of life with so much uncertainty. Got Job?
It is hard for me to find people who are not affected by the economic debacle. Yours truly is going through some hard times too because the budget of the government agency I work for was drastically slashed. During the last quarter of 2008, all members of the agency were informed that cutbacks were eminent and we should brace ourselves for the inevitable. Last December, a long line of government programs were either trimmed down or just outright terminated. Several office buildings that were being leased by our agency were cancelled and the employees moved to smaller facilities. Then the most painful cutback came—layoff. On the 3rd week of January 2009, 213 employees of our agency were laid off. Almost all of them were employees who had not finished their probationary period. One of those who were laid off was my Japanese friend who was scheduled to get married this year to her fiancé. She felt really bad because she had only one month more to go before her probationary period ended. I am praying that she return back to her position once the economy recovers and the agency starts calling back the ex-employees that were laid off.
The board of directors of our agency is trying their best to save workers because it is a common belief that the best asset of any organization is its people. Instead of setting up a second wave of layoffs, the directors opted to have furloughs. A plan was drawn up stating that all employees of social services should have a total of 80 hours of furlough starting this coming February until the end of June, which is the end of our fiscal year. Everybody grimaced upon hearing the news but felt relieved a little bit because all of us felt that it is better to get a smaller pay check than a pink slip.
I told my wife, Joan, regarding the bad news. She gave a sad sigh but later on smiled telling me that we can still handle our family budget in spite of my smaller paycheck. All we need to do is to cut down on things that we deem are not really necessary.
The cold weather is creating a small havoc on our budget because I have to keep our gas heater on during freezing mornings and evenings. To control our consumption, I would just turn on our heater whenever my children start to call to my attention the freezing temperature. To my surprised, this is the first winter season that my children had not been hit hard by the flu bug. I am guessing that the hot beef soup and stew that I often cook for dinner has kept my family warm especially during the times when the temperature falls below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (About 4 degrees Celsius).
My good friends Peter Guballa (Seattle Washington) and Ramon Cervantes (New York, New York) are probably laughing right now upon hearing that I consider 40 degrees as being cold. The winter temperature at the place where Peter and Ramon live ranges between 0 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit. These two guys walk around in summer shorts and t-shirts on days when the temperature is 40 F degrees.
The weather has become kind of strange lately. There would be days when the sun would be blazing hot. After a couple of days of clear weather, heavy clouds would invade the open skies and rain would pour on us for 2-3 days. The mountains located about 50 miles away from us would turn into a winter wonderland every time it rains in our area. For weeks now my wife and kids had been bugging me to drive them to the mountains so that we can do some snow boarding. The rental price of snow boarding equipment seemed to be reasonable. But because we are a family of four, the total rental cost adds up to a hefty amount. This weekend seemed to be an ideal opportunity for us to drive to the mountains. I am debating with myself if I should stand along the side and just watch my children have fun riding their snowboard or embarrass myself doing thousands of crazy mishaps while trying to ride my snow board down the snow slope. Decisions, decisions.....I think I will do the latter. I figured that it is not always every day that I embarrass myself. Might as well do it in the icy slopes. Hopefully nobody recognize me up there.
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