Survey on the Economy

[Concillian]

I was just wondering how the current economic upheaval in the world is affecting other loungers.

Myself and my family have seen an impact. Less directly on economics, but more indirectly socially, emotionally and even a little from the health standpoint.

I dodged the layoffs at my company (hard drive manufacturer,) though all salaried employees were forced to take a 10% pay cut (with increasing amounts for high level executives and President / CEO 15-->25%).

Retirement investments from myself and my wife obviously took a large hit, but we are so far off (both mid-30s) that's a virtual non-issue at this point.

Shorter term investment, I have a certain amount tied up in options that lost some paper value, and an employee program for company stock purchase. you set aside 10% of your after tax income for company stock that gets purchased at 85% of the stock price at the beginning or end of the 6 month term (whichever price is lower). I had some of that unsold, and obviously that took a negative hit as the stock dropped from low 20s down to 3s. However on the rebound, we got a beginning date that set the price near the low, and now it's almost 4x higher. Since it's a fixed $ investment, the sheer number of shares have offset almost all losses there.

The factory I used to work at (the last US manufacturing site of any company for the discs inside hard drives) closed late last year, and this is where I've seen the most impact. 2 people I worked with committed suicide. One who I worked with quite a lot and one who was more of a friend of a friend. As much as I try to not think about these kinds of things, they definitely have an effect.

Less seriously, I've seen a few friends out of work for a year or more, others get laid off, find a new job, and get laid off again all in les than 3 months. My in-laws both got laid off, but mother in-law got re-hired a month or two later (as a temp). All of this, even if not directly experienced, still has an emotional impact.

My wife also dodged layoffs at her work, however the reduction if force without an equivalent reduction in workload has meant additional stress for her. Since she is partly a data entry clerk, it has also meant a re-emergence of her repetitive stress injury issues in her shoulder and neck. She comes home stressed and is a little bit of a hypochondriac, so sometimes she blows her potential health issues out of proportion and I am the one who has to clam her down on that stuff.

We were very lucky to have kept our current jobs, but it still had a pretty dramatic impact overall. If I had lost my job we had enough savings that with the severance packages that went our + unemployment we could have lasted over a year with no changes, but we have a house in California... I was a little worried about being able to find a job that would pay adequately to be able to afford our house and child care and food, etc... We have no debt (aside from the house, which is quite enough) but just the daily bills are quite a lot of cash flow when you think about it.