He’s Only Mostly Dead

I was called around twelve o'clock about a meeting at three (an hour before my "normal" shift was supposed to start.)

 

When I got the call I also got a chill… the meeting was with the head of HR, and lately the Head of HR has become the harbinger of unemployment. Needless to say I didn't get to relax too much before work.

 

When I arrived I found that it was the entire "2^nd Shift" crew waiting for the same meeting. We lined up single file and headed into Conference Room 1. The nervous look on everyone's faces reminded me of the shower scenes from holocaust movies. We waited to see if the showers were going to spray water or unemployment gas.

 

The meeting started out with the head of the company reiterating the financial situation with the major car companies and how it effects. (This wasn't good).

 

Then he told us about how we had extended out holiday shut down (from two weeks to three) in December to match the customers. What he informed us of was that the auto companies we supply to had decided to change up their orders while others had simply extended their shutdowns. What it all boiled down to was that while only two weeks into January, we're already done producing everything we need to produce.

 

The only solution the higher ups have at their disposal is to close the plant down again for a week in order to rebalance things out. What it boils down to is the simple equation No Orders = No Jobs, No Jobs = No Work.

 

Their way of keeping this from destroying the company by having everyone quit (because the employees are starting to get very nervous now), is that they're setting up a program through the government to give us "unemployment" for the week that we're going to be off.

 

Now, for those of you new to unemployment, such as my self (well, I've been unemployed, but never filed) you don't get your full check while you're out. Instead you get a percentage of your check based on an average from your highest paid quarter of the past year. (They use an Ojai Board). So next weeks paycheck is going to be a bit slim, especially seeing as though I've been pulling massive amounts of over time lately (with trying to fill in for the loss of an entire person from our department.)

 

To try and break even for the week I'm hitting my Dad up for extra work. (Building fences, digging trenches, yadda yadda yadda). I also told him that my boss could use some extra cash too (that's gotta put me in good graces, right?)

 

The thing running through my mind is what a friend of mine who was laid-off a while back told me. "You know [that company] is going under, right?" I don't know if those were the words of a bitter ex-employee or prophecy, but it is putting a bit of fear in me.

Now, according to the head honcho, our company supplies to so many car manufacturers that if we go under they won't be able to start up again for a long time. It's not like just anyone can make this stuff, it takes years for a company to get the parts just right (that's why they all come to us.) the loose translation is that the company may need to hibernate for a bit, but it will survive.

 

But during said hibernation what about use wage slaves? I'm not financially fat enough to hibernate but I'm to fiscally heavy to fly south for the winter.

 

(I'm rather proud of that metaphor)

 

 

 

 

 

On A Positive Note: Over the past couple days I've had a couple guys from Resistance 2 add me as "buddies" on their PS3s. (when I play a mission I take full command and give out tactical support via my headset.) of the people that have added me I've compared my trophies to theirs (yeah, guys do that) and it turns out that while I'm in fourth among me and the guys at work, no one on the network is anywhere close to how many I have.

 

Big fish in a little pond bitches!

exile

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