OK, so this happened just yesterday afternoon, but I'm already freaked out about it.
Well, the roots of this actually started as soon as I started work there. I had been assured that, as a full-time job, there will always be work for us. I didn't realize until I began work there that they sometimes have to bend over backwards in order to ensure that. Once the forms we get are done for the day, there are other forms for us to enter -- usually. Sometimes those run out, and so we have to put these glass inserts into these small tubes. And sometimes we run out of that, so the next thing we do is fold up these Chinese-takeout-style boxes for the lab techs to use.
Well, what happens once there are no more boxes to fold? That has happened a few times already, most notably in that week between Christmas and New Year's, but I had no idea that it would also happen yesterday. But after afternoon break, coming back from training, they apparently were out of work -- completely out of work. In fact, while others were away from their desks -- presumably on break -- some of them stayed around to talk about the extraordinary circumstances the entire department was in. One of them, who has worked at this company for 15 years, says she has never, and I mean never, seen work peter out so early into a workday as it happened yesterday.
I could be wrong about this, but the other women at the department who I thought was out on break had actually been released for the day. These are full-time jobs. I was told these jobs were full-time. But, at least yesterday, it wasn't full-time for them.
For the others who stayed, there were some other boxes they found, but ultimately they were reduced to, ugh, fucking cleaning. The company has custodians for that. "It's been so long since I last interviewed," my co-worker said.
(gulp)
Do I really have to worry about losing this job? After less than six months on the job? Again, this might just be free-floating anxiety, but there are some signs out there. The work has been slow -- at least since the fall, according to my co-worker. I have heard in the corridors of work that upper management is at least acknowledging this slowdown. I just read that the company has had layoffs in some of their other locations. And, most important of all, there are too many economics and people in the know who believe the country and the world will be in a recession by the end of this year. That means layoffs ... and there is no reason to think this company would be immune to it.
Now, to be fair, I am paranoid as fuck. For all we know we could be assailed with forms that will keep us an extra 90 minutes after work like that one Saturday. We do a lot of work with the federal government, and so it stands to reason that this slowdown may be due to lack of money towards hiring people whose information we handle. Also, I am training in another department right now, and I doubt that they'll just pull the rug out from under me while I'm in the middle of learning something. Finally, my job requires me to put on different hats, sometimes throughout the course of a day. That flexibility is key in being a person who stays in the midst of layoffs. Well, that and my lack of tenure; when people get laid off, they go after the longest-tenured ones because they make the most money.
Still, I cannot guarantee, 100%, that I will have my job, and considering the massive switch in my attitude in order to commit to a full-time job, I am scared as fuck. Pissed, too -- committing to a job and putting my whole heart (OK, maybe half a heart) into it, only to maybe see it taken away from me, so I am back to being a temp after less than a year??
Oh, well. If that's the case, at least it's something I'm used to. And I still have yet to unsubscribe to all those online want ads I signed up for before getting this job. There is a use for them after all.
Well, the roots of this actually started as soon as I started work there. I had been assured that, as a full-time job, there will always be work for us. I didn't realize until I began work there that they sometimes have to bend over backwards in order to ensure that. Once the forms we get are done for the day, there are other forms for us to enter -- usually. Sometimes those run out, and so we have to put these glass inserts into these small tubes. And sometimes we run out of that, so the next thing we do is fold up these Chinese-takeout-style boxes for the lab techs to use.
Well, what happens once there are no more boxes to fold? That has happened a few times already, most notably in that week between Christmas and New Year's, but I had no idea that it would also happen yesterday. But after afternoon break, coming back from training, they apparently were out of work -- completely out of work. In fact, while others were away from their desks -- presumably on break -- some of them stayed around to talk about the extraordinary circumstances the entire department was in. One of them, who has worked at this company for 15 years, says she has never, and I mean never, seen work peter out so early into a workday as it happened yesterday.
I could be wrong about this, but the other women at the department who I thought was out on break had actually been released for the day. These are full-time jobs. I was told these jobs were full-time. But, at least yesterday, it wasn't full-time for them.
For the others who stayed, there were some other boxes they found, but ultimately they were reduced to, ugh, fucking cleaning. The company has custodians for that. "It's been so long since I last interviewed," my co-worker said.
(gulp)
Do I really have to worry about losing this job? After less than six months on the job? Again, this might just be free-floating anxiety, but there are some signs out there. The work has been slow -- at least since the fall, according to my co-worker. I have heard in the corridors of work that upper management is at least acknowledging this slowdown. I just read that the company has had layoffs in some of their other locations. And, most important of all, there are too many economics and people in the know who believe the country and the world will be in a recession by the end of this year. That means layoffs ... and there is no reason to think this company would be immune to it.
Now, to be fair, I am paranoid as fuck. For all we know we could be assailed with forms that will keep us an extra 90 minutes after work like that one Saturday. We do a lot of work with the federal government, and so it stands to reason that this slowdown may be due to lack of money towards hiring people whose information we handle. Also, I am training in another department right now, and I doubt that they'll just pull the rug out from under me while I'm in the middle of learning something. Finally, my job requires me to put on different hats, sometimes throughout the course of a day. That flexibility is key in being a person who stays in the midst of layoffs. Well, that and my lack of tenure; when people get laid off, they go after the longest-tenured ones because they make the most money.
Still, I cannot guarantee, 100%, that I will have my job, and considering the massive switch in my attitude in order to commit to a full-time job, I am scared as fuck. Pissed, too -- committing to a job and putting my whole heart (OK, maybe half a heart) into it, only to maybe see it taken away from me, so I am back to being a temp after less than a year??
Oh, well. If that's the case, at least it's something I'm used to. And I still have yet to unsubscribe to all those online want ads I signed up for before getting this job. There is a use for them after all.
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