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Question of the Day – How Safe is Your Job?
By JLP | November 10, 2008
I just saw this morning that Circuit City is filing for bankruptcy but plans to stay open while it reorganizes. This doesn’t look good. If I were a betting man, I would say that Circuit City is dead.
Anyway, this story along with all the others I have been reading about struggling companies, I wanted to ask you:
How safe is your job? Are you worried about your company?
I’m self-employed so I’m not worried. I also think my wife’s job is safe as long as the economy doesn’t get really bad.
What about you?
Topics: Question of the Day | 27 Comments »
November 10th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Working in Aircraft, I am alway worried. This industry is cyclical. Every 7-10 years it is expected to peak and valley. The last time was just before 9-11. Each can be attributed to the events of the day. This time is no different. Time will tell how bad it will get. In my opinion things will get better when the banks start opening lines of credit again.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Not worried at all. My job is extremely safe. My 401k is another story
November 10th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I work in a law firm, and the only thing I have to worry about is whether or not my attorney will retire. But my hope is that if he DOES retire they’ll hire a replacement for whom I’ll begin working. So I’m not *too* worried. My only worry would be if they decide he doesn’t need to be replaced.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I’m not worried about my employer, since they aren’t going anywhere. Even though we’re an investment company, people will still need retirement plan administration.
On the other hand, in a little less than 3 years, if things don’t improve, I would be concerned. We just renewed our contract for 3 more years with this client earlier this year, so there won’t be any cuts made during that time. But if things don’t recover, when it comes time to evaluate a new contract, I think there would be some legitimate concerns going forward.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
They are still bringing in new people at the same level that I am, so since we are hiring more, there really should be no reason that they would be laying anyone off that has been here. So I am not particularly worried. It does occaisonaly cross my mind however.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I think I have a pretty secured because I work in the mental health field as a QMRP. There will be always positions demand in this field due to the lack of people with experience in the field.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I am a not too concerned. I’m a 2nd grade teacher, so my only problem comes if kids start dropping out of school after 1st grade… then I am in trouble.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
My job is not entirely secure. We closed one of our manufacturing locations, the one I work at, last January, but most of the accounting department and some of the marketing department, as well as one regional sales person, stayed here. Everyone else was either let go or moved out east. They figure they can do accounting anywhere. But if I don’t remain jolly and productive, I’m sure they could decide that this position would be better off at the other location.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Somewhat safe for now. I work for a high end retail/wholesale company in the corporate offices. I am the only one in the company that is qualified to do what I do so as long as we are still creating new products I am safe, although I think that they could cut the hours I work.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
My job probably isn’t as safe as I’ve convinced myself it is. If I ever get caught blogging at work, I’ll find out right there exactly how safe it is…
November 10th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Terrified, and just waiting for the gavel to fall so I can get my package. I am in IT within the financial industry. One may say, a way to play this would be to be proactive and look for something new, but in my area of the country I have not heard a lot of positives about job prospects. And the risk of things getting worse, and being the last one in the door somewhere else seems like a high risk. Considering I was one of the first people in the door at my current job, not that it means anything. All of this is an interesting position to be in.
401k hosed
6 months emergency fund in place
no debt – defining debt as credit cards, we still have car payments and a mortgage.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I’ve spent my career in startups, so I’m always worried, although I actually like it that way. “Job security” means you’ve earned enough cred to not be layed off until the company runs out of payroll.
That said, my current company, which I joined in August, is in a relatively counter-cyclical business (automated fraud detection), which is a very good thing at the moment. We’re getting lots of new customers and will definitely get funded in the Spring, and may well be profitable in about a year.
Since I take risks with my career, I’ve always been conservative with money and lifestyle, and always have at least a year of living expenses set aside. I actually have quite a bit more than that at the moment since I’ve been deferring non-retirement investing for awhile.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I work for a commercial general contractor. Things have slowed, but the company is debt free and overhead control is great.
I am also a self-employed tax preparer. Things are looking GREAT! All these complicated credits and rules are gonna bring the business in like crazy!!
November 10th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Before today I was worried, then pretty much the rest of my team got made redundant earlier, and I survived, so I’m a little less worried for the moment.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I hate to get political, but I wasn’t worried about my job until after Obama won. If he pushes through with his campaign promises he will likely take the economy further into recession and possibly more (Jimmy Carter’s 2nd term?). You can already see how the stock market has reacted since the election – The DOW was down around 1000 pts in the following days…. I don’t see how punishes job producer’s success is going to help the economy in general or the job market in particular.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I think in this economy everyone needs to be worried about thier jobs no matter what company you work for. Once revenues start shrinking they will look for ways to trim the fat and that could mean you. There are lots of people getting laid off but yet the companies are still in business.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
We’re in the housing industry…so, yeah, we are always worried.
November 10th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
No job to worry about. I retired two and a half years ago. No debt. 401k could be worse. The bad news is I retired from General Motors. Bankruptcy would be very bad. Not a good time for retiree to look for employment.
November 10th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
They’ve been cutting back all year and just quit hiring. I’m moderately worried.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Glinka, I hear you about GM. Both of my parents work for GM and are approaching retirement in the next couple years, and my dad found out he will be out of a job come February. My mom has seniority and gets to keep working for a little bit longer, but there is a lot up in the air right now. It’s a shame they have all of their eggs in the GM basket as things turn south.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Not safe at all. Layoffs are extremely likely to occur. The question is not will there be cuts, but rather how many will there be?
November 11th, 2008 at 12:13 am
“You can already see how the stock market has reacted since the election – The DOW was down around 1000 pts in the following days…. I don’t see how punishes job producer’s success is going to help the economy in general or the job market in particular.”
Please. The market has been doing this for over a month. It isn’t Obama’s fault, plans, or programs that are causing the swings. Lots of people are getting in what they think is the bottom, it goes up a bit, and folks are getting out before fear of losing more.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
As a virtual paralegal for a liability expert, I think my job is safe! I don’t see litigation slowing down any.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I’m a small business owner with 50% of our business tied to the construction market. We’ve done a good job growing our account base but our revenues will be the same as last year. More clients, less revenue per client. Very concerned about next year. New and proposed construction projects are stalled due to lack of funding and lack of tenants. (i.e. Circuit City, Starbucks, Whole Foods…). It’s going to take strong leadership to get us out of this mess and I don’t see it in the President Elect. He has no experience in the private sector and, based on his economic philosophy, doesn’t seem to grasp how
business works. I’m budgeting for a tough 2009.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I’m worried about my job because our company sold to another that does A LOT of outsourcing. I’ve survived two major layoffs so far.
November 13th, 2008 at 12:42 am
Yay, my first post here! I’m worried for a lot of people but for myself I’m fortunate to be in a high level management position and the company I work for gets its revenue directly from the FCC which won’t change for another 2 years. So for me, as long as the FCC funds our company I’ll be okay.
But bad economy or not, I’m always treating my financials like the worse can happen any day. I’m stashing every cash I can find into my mortgage so I can pay off my house in 4 years (7 years total). After that, I’ll feel a whole lot safer and more willing to take higher risks.
Lance
February 4th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Well I hope to think I am safe for now I work for a small GC 20 employees
We build wireless communications sites so keep talking on your cell phone
But I really am scared yes I am young and what do I know not that much but I have a bad feeling
that things are going south not just a recession I am thinking
In a short time depression and there are a lot of people out there that wont get by
With out most of there stuff like if there car is broke or acutely all home repairs I can
Fix them all and I have my parents to thank for it all my Dad taught me a lot but in this day and age people just pay for those things I am 32 my wife works part time and we have 2 kids in school but we will pull together I will work for ever I know but I will teach my kids all that I know and always help them out we have the best family I think. Sorry to all I cant spell very well and my typing sucks but I hope you get what I mean
Thanks