The “economic crisis” hits home

Author: Ashley

1 Oct

Well, I barely hit the “publish” button on my post about my fears regarding the economy and one of them is realized. And you guys thought I was being paranoid! (No, my husband didn’t lose his job… thankfully!)

My husband called me this morning at about 8:30. Which is strange, not totally out of the question, but strange since his mornings are usually pretty busy. Before he even says anything I can tell by the background noise that he is outside. Also strange, it means he wants to talk to me without his co-workers overhearing. All of this oddness makes me think something is up.

We chat for a bit about random stuff and I think ‘oh maybe it’s nothing, he’s just calling to say hi. Maybe it’s slow over there and he’s bored.’ But then he says “I got some bad news.” Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap!

I’m going to do explain this the best I can, which isn’t very good since I don’t fully understand it myself. Company A hired Company B to do a job. Company B hired Company C to actually do the work. My husband works for Company C but he physically works at Company A’s site. Does that make sense? Company A and Company B just recently signed a 5 year contract. Which is good for us because my husband just gets hired on to which ever Company C happens to be at the moment. It changes every few years and my husband has to go and interview for his own job again, which he always gets. While that is kinda scary who is better qualified to do the job than the guy who’s been doing it for the past 15 years?

But I guess part of the work that he does isn’t part of the actual contract. They just do it. Well, this section of the work got contracted out to Company D yesterday, because they will do it cheaper. So that means a big chunk of work that my husband and his three guys no longer have to do. Which is bad. It means no overtime. It means they don’t even have enough work for the guys who currently work there. My husband’s boss said that they will watch it for a month and see how it looks, busy wise. But my husband doesn’t see how they are going to keep the lowest man on the totem pole. Which sucks. Since it’s such a small team they are all pretty close. It’s actually my husband, his two brothers, and a family friend they have known since they were kids. It will be sad to see one of our friends get laid off. It also means that we are that much closer to having it happen to us. I feel like I’m standing on my front porch during a hurricane, and the flood waters just covered the bottom stair.

There is one small silver lining. My husband used to work at Company D and the person in charge of this new contract is one of his very good friends. I’m not sure how that will help us, but it can’t be bad right?

I really haven’t comprehended what exactly the whole “no overtime” thing means. It’s not good. I’m not quite ready to go there and figure out just how not good it is. That is a post for another day.

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Filed under: recession

7 Responses for "The “economic crisis” hits home"

Kristy October 1st, 2008 at 7:58 am 1
I am sorry to hear about this. Unfortunately, if I were you I would start looking for a job. I’m not sure how old your kids are, but it might help out financially. Good luck with everything!
Fabulously Broke October 1st, 2008 at 11:07 am 2
Ditto with Kristy’s answer. Time to hoard the cash for a possible job loss I’m so sorry about that!
LAL October 1st, 2008 at 8:01 pm 3
Sorry to hear that. Hope that things work out for the best. Right now without credit there is no liquidity in the market.

That means small businesses can’t make payroll because that’s how they finance payroll. UGH!
RC@Thinkyourwaytowealth October 1st, 2008 at 9:47 pm 4
Sorry to hear about the situation, sounds like your husband’s job may be OK, but someone close to you may lose theirs. Hope everything works out-Good Luck!
Bruce October 2nd, 2008 at 7:29 am 5
Blunt Money has a good peace about just this sorta thing. The advice she gives is sound. You know that I am sure.

Sounds like your income is about to change. We’ve never really talked about your tax situation, but now might be a good time to do that with your husband.

With the change (no overtime) how is that going to affect your year end taxable income? Lower it most likely. If he’s paid and receives a W-2 he might recalculate his with-holdings. If he is a contractor (I am guessing not by the post description) he should recalculate his quarterly before he sends it in.

Again, look at how it is going to affect your income, and your expenditures. You recently posted about how much you could cut back to just get by on X amount. Sounds like it might be time to work that in a bit.

Over all the roller coaster has just gotten started, and the ride is going to be rough, for a lot of us. Hold on as best you can.
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