Three Hundred and Sixty Four Days

With just one day to spare before his offical unemployment anniversary, my husband has finally found a new job! Repeat: My husband is once again gainfully employed!


Bob's new company is an Indiana-based organization with locations in the midwest and southeast United States. This single fact - that they're large enough to have more than one location - pleases me greatly. It's been at least a decade since either of us has been employed by a company large enough to actually have a true "corporate structure". I pray he'll have more stability with the new gig than was afforded him in all those smaller businesses which came before. We could really do with some stability around here.


The day-to-day tasks Bob will be performing aren't probably his most favorite -- he'll be doing more engineering than architecture - but I do hope that he will find work environment comfortable. He's a pretty easy going guy, so I'm sure he'll do just fine.


I know the adjustments here at home will be great and strange for the first few weeks. I might actually need to mow the lawn before the mowing season has ended (GASP!), and Bruno is going to be really sore about having to stay in his crate for eight+ hours a day. I anticipate multiple evening walks to help the poor pup stretch his weary bones. He's used to the crate and doesn't have a problem being in it (he sometimes sleeps there with the door wide open), but because of Bob's unemployment it's been rare that Bruno has been cooped up for more than a few hours at a time.


All in all, I'd say great things are happening here in North B-Burg! At the very least, this new development leaves me a little breathing room to make (long overdue) changes in my own employment status.


Onward and Upward, people!
XO
Jodi

Timely Link...

Please read this Op. Ed. written by Michael P. Fleisher published in today's Wall Street Journal (Aug. 9, 2010). The article lays out far more precisely the points I wished to make in my last post. If you're interested in hearing from an actual small business employer about the ramifications of the current economic environment, you'll want to check it out.

XO
Jodi

First Time Ever

For the first time since I was sixteen years old (and that's roughly 23 years, for those keeping track), I have been forced to file a claim of unemployment.

Obviously I am not happy about this first-ever event. I would honestly rather stick hot branding irons in my eyes than go down this road, especially considering that my husband has been unemployed for what will soon become one solid year. But, the circumstances are what they are... my company, like SO many others these days is struggling to stay afloat.

As of today, my first-ever stint of unemployment is temporary. I will be "enjoying" two weeks off without pay so that my company might save enough to continue paying me when this furlough is complete. (Insert here gratitude that my job hasn't been eliminated altogether.)

I am SO sick of this shit economy and the barrage of "it'll get worse before it gets better" news small businesses like mine are receiving from the government. I can't even discuss the crap-ass "it's not so bad" spin from the media. In what world is nearly 10% unemployment "not so bad?"

I firmly believe that the health care bill's passage, combined with the potential passage of the Cap & Trade bill is what's driving our economy at this moment. Employers are faced with a giant question mark regarding their role in insuring their employees, and where their (potential cap and trade induced) taxes might fall in upcoming years. This inability to forecast income/outgo/employee expenses is paralyzing... especially so for small businesses.

There is a direct correlation to companies choosing to put their growth potential on the back burner. They have been given neither the hope nor the desire to expand their operations, because they're unable to forecast what regulations the government might set upon them next.

I don't pretend to have an answer for this mess. I am not an economist or a politician, but I am aware enough of my business and the surrounding environment to know that the current state of affairs isn't moving our economy toward growth.

I pray - fervently - that the voters of my country will decide that what we're experiencing now is not the brand of "hope and change" they wished for in 2008.

Completely Frustrated.
Jodi