I still wonder if the people I used to share a house with managed to make it out of the bathroom after I left - I swear they believed in the Toilet Paper Fairy....

When I was an undergrad, my suitemates would never chip in for good toilet paper. So I started buying pink and light blue TP. Still didn't chip in. Then I would only bring in the good stuff if I was using the toilet...left them with the school-issued sandpaper. Then they started chipping in.

There were *no* right choices. With the sole remaining pain in the ass girl off on maternity leave, every single person with whom I work is a solid professional, and damn good human beings to boot. Seriously. And even the pain in the ass girl has improved greatly over my first year and a half there. But she's out of a job now, too. She just doesn't know it yet.

Today, my boss let go the nicest of the nicest, the most pro of the pros, the lady who trained me. It was traumatic, I shit you not.

The saddest part, and to answer your other questions...I *am* safe, as my boss finds me indispensible. The people he's laying off are the ones that I proposed, because it had the most minimal effect on running the business based on job descriptions, and how much of their tasks could be absorbed by those of us who remain.

So in the end, *I'm* the one who selected the losers, based on no criteria other than business. It is perhaps the most immoral thing I've ever done in my life - and that includes having fucked my cousin once - so you know how shitty I feel now. In my defense, I told my boss what the pure business course should be, and then I also told him what the moral course would be. The moral course left *me* out of a job, BTW, because Cheryl, the lady who got laid off today, had ten years on the job, and was stellar in every way. I've been there only 3.5 years now, albeit at what was once a separate branch from Cheryl's.

This has been a really, really shitty week.

Dude , Sorry to hear this , but at least you are safe !!!

But I would keep my eyes open just in case !!!

Is this due to an industry downturn, or just bad times in this organization? A national downturn or just something regional?

Sorry man.

Nationwide, housing industry starts are down nearly 25%. More in some markets, less in others. Our sales are off by closer to 30-35% over this period last year.

We have the same problem. Same with Email. No email of any kind except government email on their own net. :evil3:

You probably make less than Cheryl. There are no morals in business, only accounting.

Exactly what I thought. :thumb:

I've given this more thought. Cheryl was just as indispensible as Elspode, but his mouth is prettier.

Yeah, I'm sure I do make less than Cheryl did, but I chose to believe my boss's sunshine up the ass. I should know better. Sigh.

I sure do have a purty mouth, though.:love:

I am sorry you are in this situation, spode. I have experienced similar things in the job I had at a corporate computer giant just after it merged with a similar corporate computer giant. I came in to work one day and was one of 2 on a team that had previously been a team of 6. It seemed like the place was shutting down. I was suddenly doing the work of 3, and feeling guilty about it.

Now, still in the industry, I am looking for ways to get out and do something different. We are toying with the idea of starting a business painting houses. I think my ultimate goal is still to make a living painting canvases, though.

What regions do you believe this to be worst? Are sub-prime lender problems (that mean less available customers and more houses coming on market) adversely affecting business, do you think? And if so, are people suggesting this is short term or long term?

tw...ponzi scheme
 

Tom,

The great Ponzi Scheme of large rewards for little or no work in the Real Estate industry has come back to roost. Just like with tulips, tech stocks, and oil, the following has happened:

1. Someone figures out that the housing prices go up faster than the rate of inflation.
2. People start buying houses for the purpose of investment.
3. Some people get incredibly wealthy from this.
4. More and more people start "flipping" houses.
5. Meanwhile, the price of real estate goes up dramatically.
6. This means for people to afford houses, the mortgage companies have to get incredibly creative in financing houses, as the dollar doesn't go as far as it used to.
7. This also means that people who want to "flip" houses on a low budget also start taking out crazy financing (50 year mortgages, Adjustable Rate Mortgages, negative equity mortgages) to afford housing they don't anticipate having in 5 years from sub-prime lenders, and sub-prime arms of prime lenders (and this is where it will hurt the most!).
8. Housing starts slow, and the 5 years comes due for both groups.
9. Lots of foreclosures and personal bankruptcies.
10. Home construction companies and mortgage companies start laying off people and going out of business.
11. The effect spreads to supply houses, banks which bought the mortgages as securities (I used to do work for one, and even the Goverment-sponsored/owned banks like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae do, else why would Freddie Mac hire the former lead trader for E-Trade Bank Capital Markets, who specialized in mortgage deals?), and the economy in general.
12. The next thing you know, recession happens, unless the government steps in like they did with S&L's in the early 90's (and bailed out one run by Neil Bush as well!) with the Resolution Trust Co..
13. Combine this with the effect of creative auto financing from the sub-prime auto lending industry (ever wonder how a 20-year-old affords a Hummer H2? :)), and we have an even bigger problem (Ford Motor Credit, GMAC, and the other biggies in that industry) that can spiral and hit the manufacturers of cars where it hurts.
14. Unless that's checked, we have a really huge tax problem. Two words: Pension Funds. Those are administered by the gov after companies go insolvent, and those people end up on a combination of Social Security/Welfare/Government-Adjusted Pension. GM and Ford are already teetering at the brink, and the Chrysler unit of Daimler-Chrysler is doing so badly that Daimler wants to sell it (and the pension fund goes with!).

In other words, welcome to a potential depression.

Mitch