Is your job affected by the credit crunch and current economic conditions?

oldMcDonald

No, I have no fears about job security.

I don't 'work' as such - I am a carer for my disabled child. DH is a bus driver and his job is reasonably safe. He works for a national bus company and has done so for many years, in the last recession they got much busier due to people not using their cars so it is probable that he/we should be OK..

neverdespairgirl

No, I have no fears about job security.

giruzz wrote: »

If it makes a difference we just joined the workforce and just arrived in the UK.

Are you here on HSMP?

lostinrates

I may be affected, but only if we go it all gets much worse than it is now.

I'm a housewife ATM, but dependant on DH who works in corporate law. His irm have NEVER made a lawyer redundant, and take few trainees etc, they are big on retention and have a good reputation and enviable work. Furthermore, DH has been with the firm for three years, is under the wing of several well respected partners and works like stink. I feel that his job is as safe as anyjob in his setor can be, but that times are scary and it would be foolish to be over confident. As such I picked 'only if gets much worse as it is'.

AdrianHi

Friend of mine is senior at an estate agents. They deal with the top end of the market in terms of house size and value, so chains tend to be bigger which means higher risk of failure.

In the week that Icesave collapsed they had 5 properties (so 5 chains) on the go.
When Icesave collapsed, either someone in each chain had money there they needed to complete or at least one person in each chain just got scared.
They all fell through that week, they will now have 2 months without a single sale completing.
Yesterday the Directors of that business took a 25% pay cut, everyone else took a 7% cut and voluntary redundancy is on offer. Not compulsory....yet!

ess0two

No, I have no fears about job security.

No fears,i work in the 2nd largest oil refinery in the UK,if we run out of oil fair enough,but then everyone suffers.
When Ineos shut Grangemouth for a week the ripples were felt down south with supply of products etc.
I'm also considering ventures in Qatar but feel i'd miss old blighty too much.

Max_Headroom_3

I feel my job is at risk as a direct result of current economic conditions.

I work in very high end retail (you know, those people who aren't supposed to be affected by a downturn?)

It's very quiet, quiet as I've ever known it. It isn't necessarily that our level of customers don't have the money, just that they're not spending it.

Am just keeping my head down really, cutting personal expenses and desperately overpaying the mortgage.

My motto: Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

SandC

I feel my job is at risk as a direct result of current economic conditions.

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

I'm pretty much the same working for an insurer (not life - P&C, A&H). Our focus is on cost cutting too.

I also work in HR and let me tell you ...... no-one is immune. Even if you think you work in a "recession-proof role, in a recession-proof company in a recession-proof industry", you are not immune. Belt-tightening is the order of the day and in any business, when you look at which costs can be cut easiest, with the biggest payback, it's people. (And, just for the record, I don't believe there's any such thing as a recesssion-proof role, company or industry but many do).

In our business, premiums have to remain competitive and underwriting has to be prudent so cost cutting is the only option.

I think that cutting jobs is a false economy, though. Where redundancy/severance is paid, then the company is just "advancing" you x months pay which is little different to keeping you employed for those x months. The difference is that redundancy/reorganisation changes are below the line, but cutting your overheads delivers immediate benefits to the bottom line

All that said, there's nothing one can do about it. If jobs are to be cut, it will be a clinical, impersonal exercise (it's all about money, not people). We don't enjoy the job of firing people, but it's simply got to be done. And all the while we're firing people we have to bear in mind that we could get the "could you step into my office?" call at any time, ourselves

Absolutely. I answered that I feared for my job because quite frankly I don't believe any position in this company, no matter how indispensable you appear to be, is safe. I am one of 2.5 PAs (one is part time, retiring completely in January) in a manufacturing company. So you might think, well they are bound to lose sales people before only having on PA? Hmmm, I'm not so sure myself........ maybe they want to retain sales to try and drum up new business and let the office dwellers cope with fewer staff?

Anyway, not convinced I am ever safe.

You remind me of when I was made redundant some years back. It was so upsetting but it did make me feel better when talking to the HR officer who was charged with doing all the follow up stuff told me she'd been made redundant 4 times in the past. Then explained she would be involved in large numbers of redundancies and be working all the hours under the sun, then when that job is completed she would then be the one surplus to requirements and out she would go.

myhooose

I feel my job is at risk as a direct result of current economic conditions.

I work for a manufacturing/design company. We just had a staff briefing today warning us that our order book has all of a sudden plummeted. Although there are to be no redundancies before Xmas, reading between the lines things are pretty bleak. We run quite a tight ship and I think the company strategy is to weather the storm and to try and pick up our competitors business when they go bust.

lostinrates

I may be affected, but only if we go it all gets much worse than it is now.

Max_Headroom wrote: »

I work in very high end retail (you know, those people who aren't supposed to be affected by a downturn?)

It's very quiet, quiet as I've ever known it. It isn't necessarily that our level of customers don't have the money, just that they're not spending it.

Am just keeping my head down really, cutting personal expenses and desperately overpaying the mortgage.

My motto: Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Hmm. I hear things were good till Ramadan. V high end retail in London has long relied strongly on Russian, Aisan, Middle eastern money - with fashio the seasons and other luxuries, christmas. Christmas, I guess, is likely to struggle, Chistmas playing a less vital role in Russian culture than easter, and the Islamic money presumably is also less extravagantly splashed then.

I asked my 'contact' who says sales figures are still OK, but the tourist buck (green and gold biscuit boxes would be a good example) is certainly down. Would you concur Max?

HelpWhereIcan

I am a mortgage broker! :eek:



Having said that, I find that peoples' perceptions of my future are very different to mine.

As an example, the lease on my premises expires on 30/11. In July I sent my section 26 notice to give my landlord notice that I did not want the lease renewing.

Another tenant left larger offices in the same building in June and I attached a cover letter to my notice asking that the landlord tell me what on terms they would let those offices to me.

After much too-ing and fro-ing with the agent, never really getting a 'real' answer and mutterings about a (slightly) overdue adjustment to service charge payment of £300, I rang the landlord direct last Thursday to pin things down.

"Not beating about the bush" he says "the name of your company tells me what you do."

"yeeees?" I rely a little puzzled.

"Well, the outlook for you isn't very good and you want to take bigger premises on a higher rent."

"and?"

"Well, how do I know you are going to pay?"

"Other than the fact that I have paid for the last 3 years and you will have a director's guarantee?"

The upshot is that this landlord would appear to prefer to let a half empty building get emptier still than take the risk on a financial services based business.

Thing that he does not realise is that I have never been reliant on the sub prime market, have clients that are mainly 'better off' looking for low loan to value albeit higher loans, never had any links to an Estate Agent and have a network of local Accountants, Solicitors and IFAs that refer all types of work to me including commercial.

Not to mention I have recently secured an angel investor, am about to complete (fingers crosssed) on the purchase of an IFA with larger client bank and also run two other businesses that will actually do well in a depressed housing market and restricted credit.

His perception of my place in the market and the future of my business has only served to annoy me enough to accept an offer elsewhere and lose himself a tenant.

I am glad I am not employed and reliant on someone else for a job and I genuinely feel for the many who will lose their jobs through no fault of their own.

Those of us who are self employed (in whatever industry) however have a choice and can do one of two things:

1. Cry and complain about the lack of business and continue to preach the self fulfilling prophecy that will be our demise.

2. Find a way to take advantage of the current situation (plenty of IFAs and Mortgage Brokers looking to get out and asking for less for their businesses; finding a way to solve the issues of restricted lending for some), tighten our belts, streamline our services, look after our customers (sometimes at no profit) and plan what we will do when we come out the other side. Even a perfect storm comes to an end.

I have no way of knowing what will happen to me or my business. All I do know is that it will not fail because I let it. If my business fails it will be after I tried everything to keep it going - as they say:

"Fortune favours the brave"

and/or

"There's no point in going a little bit bust!"