I lost my job at Microsoft today...thanks to a wonderful economy... (page 2)

Confucious

Regrets to Dolph.

But to play devil's advocate for a moment. And again, appologies to Dolph for the following state opinions. Don't mean to hijack your thread...

But the economy is getting better and consumers smarter.

The same money is getting float'ed around. It's just going to somewhere else.

People make better product. Improve old ones and give better service than their status quo.

This drives the market. And we win by getting better service and better products.

Imagine if the Japanese never made cars. Here, you (not you, but figuratively), but you complain already about how bad American cars are. Toyota was the best thing to ever happen to Michigan.

It makes them work harder than to feed us the crap they gave us before the Japanese stormed the market.

Since when was supply and demand a bad thing.

Elsewhere

I kinda feel we're teetering on something pretty bad. Hope I'm wrong.

To me it feels like a very long correction after a very long boom in the economy. All of the gains we experienced in the past have to be balanced out.

Sometimes I also wonder if all of the credit spending of the Baby Boomers is starting to catch up and now it is time to pay up. If this is true, then we can expect significant increases in inflation for another 20 years or more.

Bush's policies most certainly did not help... As a result of his tax cuts for the very rich the income difference between the middle class and the rich got much wider and the government deficit got much larger.

Abaddon

Shit dolphman, that's terrible.

I'm really sorry to hear it. I know it's a lot tougher in the US when it happens; my company (a call centre) were looking at taking over a call centre in mid-America that was currently part of a company we do support work for, thus taking over their US support as an out-sourcer.

We got to know the standard terms of employment, salaries, tax law etc..

In Holland, you've really got to screw-up to lose a job after you've got a proper contract (two years at the most). If a company closes or lays staff off, they pay through the nose and if it's a significant number of people have to justify it, negotiate with the local welfare agencies, and assist financially in finding the staff new employment including tyraining under certain circumstance. And the welfare here is apparently quite good, free health care (and it's dirt cheap when you are working; $50 a month including some dental).

I shudder for the poor people in there, as my company probably isn't going to take over and they all will be sacked in December. Merry Christmas.

I can't believe there's such a thing as 'at will' employment. In Europe, employers pay a sum equilalent to a certain percentage of the employees salary to the government. In additon to infrastructure and consumable costs of each member of staff you have a tax burden.

So, especially with the exchange rates as they are, employing Americans looks cheap.

A company outsourcing to foreign countries are doing it because they can. They don't need to. They weren't able to do it ten years ago as the infrastructure didn't exist. Now it does.

Unless other companies do it and it has to follow them to be commercially viable, a company will only out-source offshore to increase profits. When you get a call answered by someone in Karachi (who I know from experienec provide accurate and extremely courteous tecnical support, the money saved is not getting you better products. It's getting happier share-holders.

I don't know if the Democrats really ARE all that better in social policy and protecting the rights of the individual against the interests of business. They couldn't be much worse than Bush.

So, I really wish you the best.

Special K

Sheesh.

I thought working in the computer field would be a very secure place to be.

Layed off from Microsoft!.. That's just awful, Dolphman.

Sorry about your job layoff.

Special K

Sunspot

((((Dolphman))))

So sorry to hear your bad news. All I can do is send a few hugs your way......

Annie

RR

I think Dolphman would look good in that little blue vest ... can you say "Welcome to Wal Mart?" Or how about "Would you like that order super-sized?"

I was unemployed for 18 months once, in the very early 90s during the Reagan recession. Best time of my life, during that time I researched the JW's.

My friend is in the computer field, he just recently found work after 3 years of nothing. Now he has crazy hours to which he rarely sees his wife.

RR

Satans little helper

dude, I am sorry. Happened to me 2 years ago at Logica and I have been seeing the same shit for 5 years through Lucent, Logica and now Agilent. Everywhere is sending work offshore, especially development work - maybe you could move to Bangalore??? Hope you find something soon, it may be for the best and may prove to be the kick you need to put into place plans you have been putting off for a while. For me it pushed me to finally cut whining about how bad it was in the Uk and put in my emigration papers for Australia. Sometimes you have to look damn hard for the silver lining but it is always there.

Nathan Natas

Has anyone else here heard of the Kondratieff Cycle?

no, it's not a mode of transportation...

dolphman

Thanks for the support. I'm more shocked simply because I just didn't expect it. I'm going to ride out my severance package for as long as possible and work on film and other art projects I've been wanting to do. Hopefully, I can establish some sort of freelance self-employment deal so I don't have to worry about what CEOs need to do to cut costs. I did an independent film that made it into a few festivals. It led to me getting financing for a couple of new scripts I wrote. We'll see what happens. here's my last film's website. I shot this thing for a 1000.00 dollars. http://www.mcbeerbong.com

codeblue

(((Dolphman))) so sorry to hear about your job loss.

Be sure to hook up with some temp agencies that deal with the specific computer qualifications you have. I use to work at a temp office when I lived in California, and some businesses do not deal directly with the public.

Do you have an up to date resume?

Can you start your own business?

Here's hoping it won't be long before you are back at work!

Codeblue

I lost my job at Microsoft today...thanks to a wonderful economy...

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