Six degrees of recession.

[bigredd]

How is America's current economic situation affecting you? Say the guy next door loses his job; how does that affect you? Me? The dude lost his job so he won't be buying a new home so the lumber and building materials I sell...won't sell, making my commission checks a lot smaller if at all.

[midwestjeff]

Circuit City was projected as 12.5 % of the '09 earnings at my job.

So, no more OT and everyone has to take a week off,
either vacation or unpaid for those of us without enough time in for vacation.

Could be a lot worse, a lot of similar companies are folding
and we are aggressively trying to pick up their old contracts.

[beachbum]

I own auto transport trucks.The economy being in the shitter means that people are not buying new cars.the ones who want to can for the most part not get financed.I therefore,do not have nearly the amount of work/income that I am used to pulling in.Thank god I'm not one to spend all that I make or I would have been done months ago.

[Gvac]

I've been in my profession for 16 years. Before this current economic downturn I could count on one hand how many times in those 16 years I didn't hit my numbers for the month and make commission.


I sell auto body parts and supplies, and with all the dealership closings coupled with people not spending money to fix their cars, it's been devastating.


As of right now I haven't drawn a commission check since September. Depending on Friday's sales, I have an outside shot of just hitting the mark for the month of January. I'll find out tomorrow morning in the Monday morning sales meeting.


Keep your fingers crossed! I'm broke!

[beachbum]

Keep your fingers crossed! I'm broke!

I feel you man.The auto industry going in the tank affects more of us than most people realize.

[Sinestro]

I sell auto body parts and supplies, and with all the dealership closings coupled with people not spending money to fix their cars, it's been devastating.







What you expect. They're leasing so that don't need to make repairs on cars they won't keep.

[PerryWinkle]

I not sure what is worse, the auto industry or new home construction? I operate a small family excavating company that got 90% of its work from new home construction. Things are so bad that I actually just started to work for another company, while all my equipment is sitting at our shop.

[Drunky McBetidont]

i guess it is a good time to switch careers. maybe try foreclosures/collections. i used to use a professional eviction company when i managed property, that also might turn into a nice living. kicking people out of their homes and repossesing their deliquent loan merchandise.

[Farmer Dave]

The price I get for my crops has dropped by nearly half since last summer. Inputs went up with the cost of energy and haven't come down.

[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

I work for a printer in Jersey City. Lehman and Bear Stearns used to be our customers. We did A LOT of printing for them and we'll never see that money.

Merrill Lynch is still our customer so at least we have that.

We had a meeting a few weeks ago; a sort of "what's going on with the company" meeting. I don't know much about business, but the way my company decided to do business in 2007 and 2008 means we are still afloat. Instead of going for more financial customers, they decided to take on printing for pharmaceutical companies. Granted, there were MASSIVE lay offs, but I still have a job.

On a side note-- I am getting SO sick of PB&J.

[El Mudo]

My finacee was laid off back in October and has been working Temp jobs since then...her contract just ended Friday, and she's out of work

Don't know how we're going to pay the rent next month, but we're trying...hope she gets a new job soon

[Ritalin]

As a photographer, it's been solid waste for about 4 months now. My work depends on advertising, which is way way down. Clients are using existing film or shooting crappy images in digital studios with hack local guys.

If it's any consolation, my business is one of the first to start picking back up - because retailers still have to separate themselves some how, and it's starting to pick back up.

[celery]

I didn't get any Christmas bonus for work, not even a card. I'm in IT and my company is usually pretty generous.

I know - woe is me...I honestly am thankful I have a job. But I generally blow that money on something for myself, even home improvements. I won't be doing that this year, so the cycle continues.

[Thebazile78]

I feel like I am on the front lines of the recession some days. Other days, I'm thankful for being isolated from it.

My company is in such wonderful financial shape that they (1) stopped the divestiture of one of our units because the pricing wasn't working out and (2) decided that my entire department is comprised of overpaid Americans, therefore it makes sense to send our work functions overseas.

No announcements for the next wave of layoffs have been made, but we've heard rumors that it'll be in June or July, probably hitting our indexing department first (as if they weren't short-handed already) and working its way up through the rest of the production-end departments.

In my department, I don't have seniority, but I do have a reputation for a strong work-ethic (which is funny because I describe myself as a slacker 99% of the time) and a quick study. Meh.

Now I have to go sign up for a soft-skills training program that will blow out an entire day's worth of work ... and the course is a time management course.

[badorties]

i'm in corporate sales, and our clients have changed their spending habits ... but even with a horrendous 4th quarter, we just missed plan ... as the job cuts continue, the prospects seem a bit dim

my parent company (macy's) closed 11 stores a few weeks ago, and eliminated 7,000 jobs yesterday ... last week, there was a rash of cuts at my company (bloom), and we've been told that the rest of us are safe (for now)

with yesterday's news of the 7k released, we were re-asssured of our job safety (our benefits & perks are being reduced)

on one side my title is unique in my pyramid, but i'm support and have no sales

for now, things seem okay ... but i have a one year old son and hope things really stay the course

[MHasegawa]

I've been lower class all my life, I aint worried about shit really.

[spoon]

I've been lower class all my life, I aint worried about shit really.

Indeed Oiler fan.

[Caseyelan]

Dad and Grandpa lost their entire retirements.

My pops was going to loan we some money to pay off some debts but now.... I'm on my own.

Not gonna stress about it.

Instead I plan on stressing about this:

http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/report-sirius-xm-in-advanced-discussions-over-debt.html#more

With $174.6 million in debt due in just about two weeks, word has come out that Sirius XM Radio Inc. are in "advanced" talks about taking on that debt.

According to the Wall Street Journal, people familiar with the matter are saying that Sirius XM is in advanced discussions with "several investors" about taking on the debt.

WSJ also points out that some - but not all - of the participants hold existing Sirius debt.

If Sirius XM can clear this hurdle, there's still $350 million due in May, $400 million due at the end of the year, and another $230 million in convertible notes come due in 2011.

"It's a long road back," given the economic conditions, says RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank.

[DarkHippie]

I TA for BOCES, and BOCES is laying off teachers and TAs. special ed is always the first to go

Also, I may not be eligible to get financial aid to complete my master's degree, so I might be stuck being a TA for a long time. all things considered, it could be worse. I have very little right now so i have little to lose