Larger mission

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Those of us who are still employed need to look at the situation in another way, outside of the stress and workload. We need to realize that there is a job we're all doing, no matter what industry we're in. We are keeping or attempting to keep our business alive. That's a pretty important job.

We're not only working harder, we are making sacrifices, pitching our own ideas, and learning new skills so we can help out other teams who are also understaffed and overworked. The lines between the idea people and the worker-bees are blurring because we have less and less time for meetings set up to explain the stuff we want to accomplish. We don't have time to talk about it - we need to learn fast and do it. Otherwise, our company, whether new or established, will fail. It's more than just us losing out, it's valuable piece of the community that fails as well.

You just have to make your husband/wife/partner/children/friends accept it while not dissing them. If we can pull this off, we can help the economy? Fingers crossed.

by Still Employed at 8:26 AM  |  0 Comments

Taking care of the important stuff

Friday, April 24, 2009

My boss is recovering from what he thought was a heart attack - which leads me to even deeper consideration of what we're all putting ourselves through right now. Thankfully it wasn't a heart attack, but spending the night in the hospital having tests and finding out that chest pains are stress related is a pretty good sign that you're taking on too much.

My boss is that kind of person times a hundred. If anything needs to be done, he does it. If someone is messing up on something that he knows he can do right away, he does their job, too, just so he can move on with what's already on his plate. When he realizes how overloaded those of us on his team are, he does the work that we would normally do, just to help us clear our plates. It's too much for one person.

I'm thinking of course the obvious, what would happen to his family if it had been a heart attack? He is young and vibrant, and the thought of him having a heart attack, fatal or not, is tragic. He still should have many years left to live. That is also a selfish thought though because I was also thinking about how it would affect us at work. I'm not sure that we could make it, ourselves, without him around. We can make it with him doing less and having more time to relax and be healthy, but he does so much around the company that I'm pretty sure it would go down, no questions, without him there.

We're all pretty indispensable right now, anyone who is left to work after layoffs. There are certain people who know and do so much, though, that losing them would be the equivalent of laying off another ten people. For that person, it might be great job security but it's also too much stress for any single person to handle. It's gonna catch up with you. And sure, your co-workers will cry and miss you because you're an awesome person, but they're also going to cry over the stuff you did that they can't do.

Even though we all have to work longer and harder on the production line than we ever have before, we must take care of ourselves. Not only are we cheating our families but we're costing the company and coworkers as well. We won't be replaced...our work will just be absorbed into the already over-saturated work load. How's that for more stress?

Plus, if it had been fatal, I wonder if my boss would really want to look down from the netherworld and say, "I did this for mother-freaking work?"

by Still Employed at 5:26 AM  |  0 Comments

Workweek Insomnia

Sunday, April 19, 2009

I don't know about you guys, but for the past month or so I haven't been able to sleep during the week. I sleep just fine on the weekends - especially on Friday nights when I'm so exhausted from the long and stressful week that I just pass out by 7:30 PM or so. Weeknights though, different story. Here it is, Sunday night, and I'm too busy thinking about how I'm going to organize this next work week that I can't fall asleep.

I found a couple of sites about insomnia that are interesting - Help me to sleep has a huge amount of information about insomnia, it's causes and cures. Slumboo has a nice list of helpful tips for beating insomnia. Definitely need to give them a try.

Labels: insomnia, stress

by Still Employed at 10:30 PM  |  0 Comments

Layoff Survivor Syndrome

Friday, April 17, 2009

“If I hear ‘At least you have a job’ one more time, I’m going to physically injure someone,” said a 45-year-old software engineer at a Northern California firm who didn't want to be named for fear of further jeopardizing her job. “Yes, you still have a paycheck coming in, but sometimes I wonder if it’s worth the stress.”

“You have to keep proving yourself over and over again. You have to prove your existence.”

This article from MSNBC says it all.


I am beginning to think that having a job during this economic time is like playing Red Rover - at least for those of us who were not always chosen first. I used to think that it was the opposite of playing Red Rover, where the weakest were chosen first and the strongest chosen last, but now I'm beginning to wonder. It feels a lot like it used to, playing that game as a child. These things race through my mind all day, every day:

"Will I be next?"

"What do I need to do to ensure that doesn't happen?"

"I will not lose my dignity - I'm not an effing slave."

"I will do whatever it takes - my home and well being - along with that of my family - are on the line."

"I don't know why they got rid of the guy in the Art Department. I mean, at least he was a real artist - I'm not."

"How are we going to make it after taking a pay cut? Well, at least I have a job...right? Could be worse..."

"I need to spend my evenings and weekends building up a Plan B, just in case."

"I need to spend my evenings and weekends with my family - we need some fun and relaxation."

"If I don't spend evenings and weekends working, I will be that much farther behind."


It seems to never end.

Just finished a popcorn dinner and so now I'm going to sit around wondering what's wrong with me and how I can fix it and wonder if my name will be called on Monday or not. Or if anyone's name will be called. And maybe try to focus on a sit-com.

by Still Employed at 4:50 PM  |  0 Comments

I am a survivor...

Thursday, April 16, 2009

...of three rounds of layoffs. So far. It's a trip.

I am starting this blog with a disclaimer:

I am very happy and grateful to all of god's higher beings that I still have a job.
I have to say that and recognize it before I start a blog about the rigors of being employed during Great Depression 2. I have been laid off twice before, and I know what it feels like and how scary it is to be in a long line of other unemployed people who want a job as bad as I do. I was laid off in the dot com bust, and then again after 9/11. It's scary and demoralizing and frustrating.

I don't want to be unemployed and I am grateful that I am not unemployed at this time.

However, it's not a picnic for any of us who are still employed, and I think we need to pay attention to that before we all go postal. Divorces are up, frustration and depression are up, and we are all scared. It seems like starting your own company would be less frustrating and scary, at a time when there are millions of people trying to start their own company out of the same frustration and fear.

We all need to release our bad vibes and help each other out.

This blog is for everyone, but especially to my fellow human beings who are so grateful to have a job at this time that they think they would do anything to keep it - who are wearing themselves to the bone to keep their jobs. Like being unemployed, it involves mourning and loss, stress, sleeplessness, obsession with work, demoralization ...it's not a bowl of cherries.

Let's document this time in history and at the same time, share and release and get through this together, with humor and wisdom.

Labels: the beginning

by Still Employed at 6:01 PM  |  0 Comments