Economy Provides a Convenient Excuse

Losing your job seems to be par for the course these days. I've certainly had plenty of them over the years, but I have never been fired. Well, there's a first time for everything. Getting fired certainly isn't a pleasant experience, and it generally feels like betrayal. Having some random person come along and cost you your job sounds like a cruel joke, and it doesn't say much for the employer either. Time to take advantage of JobVent.com once again.

At the same time, I am glad to have this opportunity to move on. While this is not a good time to be jobless, especially considering that my wife lost her job over two months ago and still hasn't found another, I am trying to maintain as positive of an outlook as possible. Realizing that every end is merely the beginning of something else, I choose to think of this as an opportunity for something better. We'll see how long I can maintain this position.

In the bigger scheme of things, this is just another story of unemployment in the current economic downturn. The news is littered with accounts like mine, and the unemployment office is inundated with claims. Each day a line goes out their door to the sidewalk. Next week, I'll be standing in that line too. Things are steadily going downhill for everybody, and we are all left wondering when this is going to end. I know it won't be for a while, but we've already been tightening our belts over the last few months. I'm not sure just how much more we can tighten them, but other options are still available at this stage.

Finding the above pictured comic strip in the paper a while back made me think about whether some of us are really losing our jobs for legitimate reasons. Sure, there's always the official line. The company has to cut costs, the economy is bad, blah blah blah. Yet I'm not sure if things are really adding up under closer scrutiny. I'm not seeing the managers, directors, and CEOs giving up their summer houses. Or their third Mercedes, or their Harley, or the boat. I don't see any cuts to their six figure salaries.

Like the comic strip says, the only place that they can find to cut back are those expendable positions under them, and the economy seems like a perfect excuse right now. God forbid they take a cut to save their employees jobs. I mean, who cares if us lowly underlings can pay rent or buy food tomorrow. Not their problem. So while they continue to spend company money on business trips, superfluous equipment and "improvements" to the facilities without checking to even see if it's the most economical solution, some of us have to contend with loosing our places of residence.

We all want the economy to level out, and start improving so we can go back to the way things were. Somehow, I just don't see that happening. It's "the way things were" that got us into trouble in the first place, and until a good chunk of the population stops wasting resources, I'm not sure that there is going to be much of an improvement to our situation. So far I'm lucky not to be on the street yet. But I have to consider the possibility that I'm going to have to start selling everything I own and move someplace where I'll have the prospect of surviving more sustainably.