View on the Ground

princessamy86

My OH has been made redundant, as has his brother in law and 2 close friends. I have a pregnant friend who recently got a job, but they will not give her a contract until she has been there for 3 months so I'm guessing that when that time elapses they will let her go so they don't have to pay maternity. My sister in law has survived 3 waves of redundancies and taken an 18% pay cut. It's all looking pretty grim!! Mind you, I'm an EA and we are surprisingly busy at the moment, on skeleton staff in the office though. Also, I'm oop north so it's raining!

StevieJ

princessamy86 wrote: »

My OH has been made redundant, as has his brother in law and 2 close friends. I have a pregnant friend who recently got a job, but they will not give her a contract until she has been there for 3 months so I'm guessing that when that time elapses they will let her go so they don't have to pay maternity. My sister in law has survived 3 waves of redundancies and taken an 18% pay cut. It's all looking pretty grim!! Mind you, I'm an EA and we are surprisingly busy at the moment, on skeleton staff in the office though. Also, I'm oop north so it's raining!

I know :eek:

lostinrates

princessamy86 wrote: »

Also, I'm oop north so it's raining!

oh, goodness, I hope it does here soon. I'm having to juggle the grazing ATM, our well draining fields suffered flash floods over winter and recovered admirably, but are yellowing now

mewbie_2

Interesting set of replies. It seems that if you haven't lost your job everything is brilliant, but for those who have it must be terrible. Not much grey area in between - you are either 100% ok, or not. I guess that's the way recession always is, for the majority (hopefully!) who stay in work the talk of lay offs is a distant story on the news, or a third hand anecdote from a friend of a friend.

No one has mentioned Max yet, so I will.

GeneHunt_2

purch wrote: »

I havn't got any mates

Thanks for the mention in your signature;)

harryhound

Those acquaintances cruising towards retirement are being made offers to go. In the old days it would have been "here is your full pension now" but that is not so easy.
Also the "here is a years salary tax free to go quietly" option has tended down towards "statutory" redundancy plus a contract on a self employment part time basis. (Don't tell the tax man).

Meanwhile those already retired are growing vegetables rather than going for their third Spanish holiday. It is a sort of face saving arrangement now that savings pay half the interest of a couple of years ago and the share portfolio is down 35 - 45 %.

No self evident evidence of poverty yet.

Meanwhile out at the white van/privater hire alternative to JSA, it is "b*gg*r this I've been sitting about all day waiting for a job. It was after lunch before I got anything and I've earned 25 quid all day:mad:"

It is obvious that so far the companies still in business have got rid of the easy targets:
agency workers, early retirement, recruitment freeze, natural wastage, hired in transport, flash travel expenses.

If it gets worse, then there will be no more fat to trim and they will have to go for the real meat of the organisation.

Meanwhile in the public sector ........................la la land?

misskool

lostinrates wrote: »

People in acedeamia are struggling: a very close chum can't find a placement ANYwhere, another family member just getting doctorate is struggling too.

And academia is about to get bleaker. Where I work, there's been cuts across the board, support staff leaving are not being replaced and academics are being asked to consider voluntary redundancies. A consultation period is to begin soon.

tomterm8

Why is academia struggling? You'd have thought that it was quite protected compared to industry?

lostinrates

tomterm8 wrote: »

Why is academia struggling? You'd have thought that it was quite protected compared to industry?

Well, for a start industry often funds. For example, back in the days I could spell my research was sponsered by industry.

Also, academia, at some level, has an international element. In countries with a less extensive state sponsered higher education programme realtion to acedaemia with industry is even greater.
Family member has been at NYU, is now applying to anywhere within States (as would like to stay there really) UK and is reluctantly considering elsewhere in EU.

misskool

tomterm8 wrote: »

Why is academia struggling? You'd have thought that it was quite protected compared to industry?

Academia is funded by the government. If the government has less cash to splash then academia has less money to research. Funding for universities (in the UK) through student fees are negligable.