The Downsized

Short - City of Vallejo looking at more cuts

The Downsized Staff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:11:41 +0000

To quell a budget shortfall of $18 million dollars in the upcoming year, in addition to a variety of cuts being considered across the board the likelihood of a reduction in force action becomes greater. While not set in stone, hearings on the upcoming fiscal year budget in addition to several workshops will probably lead to 20-30 positions being eliminated.

Why is this important? So far, Vallejo is the largest city in the state of California to file for bankruptcy protection (2008).

Stay Tuned.

Los Angeles Unified School District Approves Layoffs - 9000 Affected

Fort Lauderdale: Layoffs: Broward School District - More Teachers Face the Axe

The Downsized Staff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:57:14 +0000

Teaching is a hard enough job, and it used to be a secure one. As evidence we have word of another pending layoff for teachers, this time in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Broward School District reports today that they will layoff as many as 400 teachers. Of all the professions being looked at by municipalities, this is one that likely makes the least amount of sense for cuts. Though the possibility exists that these teachers could be rehired by the district, for the time being these teachers are likely to be without jobs come the beginning of the next school year.

This is nothing particularly new, as far as cost saving measures go, teachers close to the staff at the downsized.com have noted that annually, in low years, teachers without tenure and support staff are frequently given notice in the late winter/early fall that their positions may not be renewed.

All we have to say is, what a scary thought for people working on behalf of the community to provide what the state deems to be compulsory education to the masses.

The Broward School District serves 304 schools, a quarter of a million students (Pre-k ~ 12), and employs some 28,000 full-time staff members.

Read about the Broward School District: http://www.fldoe.org/eias/flmove/broward.asp

Unemployment statistics, just another ill defined value

The Downsized Staff — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:03:42 +0000

Reported unemployment isn’t everything. Everyone seems to have a different definition for unemployment and how that number is reached. For states issuing checks it is the number of people reporting claims for unemployment insurance checks. For others it represents the number of jobs lost.

But what does it really mean? Does it count for the number of people who are underemployed? The underemployed are people working below their skill level in jobs that they are probably over qualified for. It most likely doesn’t count them. Why? If it’s for any reason at all it’s because they are employed, they have job(s), income, and an employer paying the taxes. Does it include people working two part-time jobs to make ends meet? It most likely doesn’t count them either for double the same reason.

Take an arbitrary number of say 9% as an unemployment rate. It doesn’t include people who are not actively searching for work, people who are unable to look for work due to circumstances in their life that prevent them from working, or any of the people working multiple jobs or whom are under employed. So that number that gets bounced around in newspapers, on TV, or online is likely higher than anyone would like to admit. And why shouldn’t it be reported that way? We at the downsized would like nothing more than to hear that unemployment is down or rose less than in months prior. HOWEVER, when it is used to give everyone a warm fuzzy it’s less than what we need. As a false sense of hope it much much less. We as a people need to know what we’re facing and rise as individuals and institutions to meet the challenges of the day that has been presented to us and move forward.

Needless to say, we present this information to provide the greatest amount of knowledge to the people with which to evaluate the deluge of information that we have in our lives. Yes, parts of it are scary, being without a job is scary. It’s not ok out there at the moment. But we have an opportunity to reshape who we are, and what we will be known for as a national economy… We have a chance to be better than we were and if we fail to recognize it, if we continue to prop up business as usual practices WE may not survive it. It’s up to all of us to innovate and to capitalize on the things/services/needs of the world as it exists today. In the words of the catchy Kaiser Permanente ad campaign, “Thrive”.

Tracking the Unemployment Trends

Surviving a Layoff

The Downsized Staff — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:12:17 +0000

So you just got downsized. Depending on who you talk to, it was going to happen to 4-12% of us in this economy. That’s quite a few people. Here’s what it’s doing and what you’ll need to know as you approach finding a new job.

#1 -Register with your state for unemployment benefits as soon as possible.

It may sound like a no-brainer, but with the numbers of people who are seeking benefits today there is likely to be a backlog on the processing end. The good news is that many states have these resources and forms available online. Get in and get what you paid in to the system. The only thing that we at the downsized would have wished for was that the entire benefit could have been paid out at once.

#2 - Know what the recent stimulus package has done for you.

Great articles have been published that give a breakdown of what is and is not coming as a part of President Obama’s stimulus package. See Yahoo’s Article as an example. Misconceptions about the stimulus:

Misconception #1: Most people will get their stimulus money as a check this year
Misconception #2: The adjustment to withholding will have to be paid back when you file your tax return next year.
Misconception #5: You need to apply through the government to get the COBRA health-care subsidy.
Misconception #6: You can receive the COBRA subsidy the entire time you’re covered by COBRA.
And many others. Read the balance of the article at yahoo.com

#3 - Give your resume a good look

If you saw this coming or not, your resume could use a good polish. Take a few hours and think about what you’ve done in the last few years and make sure that those things are clearly, let me say that again, clearly called out on your resume.

Consider using a service to place yourself competitively in your chosen market. Using a service like Monster’s Resume Writing Service allows you access to experts who can guide you through the process and perhaps insight in to what’s happening on the business side of the job posting site.

Once you’ve written it get it out there so that employers can find you. Never doubt the efforts of a headhunter or corporate recruiter, the more people they place the more they make, and these times have been rough on them too.

#4 - Give serious thought to the job openings that you find - Cover Letters Could be Your Key

With more people out of work and actively seeking employment and fewer jobs available competition has increased for the limited number of positions. Find a way to stand out from the pack and give that hiring manager or recruiter a reason to call you. You need to shine.

How to SEO Your Resume

The Downsized Staff — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:30:40 +0000

Be Found!
http://www.wegerbauer.com/how-to-seo-your-resume.html

The Fast Track to Resume Writing

RumorMill - UBS Laying off Brokers?

The Downsized Staff — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:35:23 +0000

We just heard about this. Are more white collar workers facing the chopping block? We’ll report back as soon as we hear more. No related posts. No related posts.

Sun Microsystems to layoff workers

The Downsized Staff — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:46:29 +0000

Looks like the tech sector is taking another hit. Sun Microsystems has announced a further reduction of 1,500 workers from it’s payroll worldwide. This represents an 18% reduction in staff.

This reduction in force is in addition to some 1,300 employees laid off earlier this year. Whether they are acquired or merged with IBM doesn’t change the fact that the total layoffs for Sun during this economic downturn is now between five and six thousand.

Sun Microsystems manufactures computer hardware, and software such as java, and mysql.

UPDATE
Sun was acquired by Oracle on 4/20/2009

General Motors - Layoff Notices to White Collar Workers

The Downsized Staff — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:17:05 +0000

It’s not just line workers being affected by the economic slow down in the automotive industry anymore. On Tuesday March 24th, white-white collar workers at General Motors Corp were informed that their jobs were being eliminated next week. While this cut is reportedly only 160 positions, mostly engineers and support staff at the Warren Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, it comes as a part of nearly the nearly 3000 US jobs lost throughout the US for the automaker, and 47,000 around the world. Roughly 20% of the total global workforce.

While sad that so many American jobs will be lost in this heavy season of layoffs, corporate restructuring, or whatever the flavor of your euphemism may be, this is something that we may have seen coming. Back in 2007 General Motors posted enormous sales worldwide but maintained an operating budget that placed the company at $38 BILLION loss (3rd quarter 2007). Even a year ago news of trouble at the automaker forced the company in to over 70,000 buyout offers to keep from hemorrhaging cash.

Today the giant has seen cuts in salary, elimination of health care benefits, and suspension of dividends to shareholders, as well as widespread cuts in hourly positions, idling of assembly plants, and huge setbacks due to high energy prices, and the “credit crunch” which affects the GMAC lending arm of the company. During the Bush/Cheney administration General Motors and Chrysler were granted $17.4 billion dollars in government loans to continue operating. Background and Impact: General Motors is the second largest producer of automobiles in the world (second to Toyota in 2008). It had previously been the reigning global leader for the 77 years preceding. Around the world GM employs a quarter of a million people (give or take) across 34 countries. The company encompasses the following brands, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC< GM Daewoo, Holden, Humer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling (Thank you Wikipedia). 2008 saw total revenue at $148 Billion dollars with expenses and sales resulting in a net loss of $30 billion dollars. Sources:

Site Review: Glassdoor.com - A look inside

The Downsized Staff — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:19:44 +0000

For those with a job and for those in the process of negotiating a salary, Glassdoor.com provides a look inside companies and provides a view in to current salary and employee satisfaction. Glassdoor was established in 2007 to provide a community built for users to anonomously share information about their respective workplaces for the benefit of the whole. Users register and provide information on their workplace and then receive access to collected information about other companies shared by other users.

From Glassdoor about what makes them different:

Detailed company reviews. See what employees on the inside really think with reviews that hit on the good, the bad, and a lot more in between. We encourage constructive feedback in our company reviews and ask respondents to provide “pros” and “cons”, along with “advice to senior management.”

Employee ratings on workplace factors and leadership. We know people have different motivators for work, so we ask users to rate a range of workplace factors (work-life balance, career opportunities, communication, compensation and benefits, morale, recognition and feedback, senior leadership, fairness and respect). In addition, we also collect & calculate a real-time CEO approval percentage to provide a pulse of how employees think the CEO is doing at any given time.

Real-time salary/compensation details by title and company. We don’t roll-up our salary information by job category or by industry like many sites and sources. You can see details on salary, bonuses, commissions and more for titles within companies that you’ll immediately recognize. See exactly what a Software Engineer at Google or a QA Engineer at eBay makes. With information posted everyday, users can be sure they’re seeing the latest.

It’s all FREE. The only cost to see all this information on Glassdoor is to post an anonymous review or salary of your own. We’re using this “give to get” model to get started, and since it will only take a few minutes to complete and get access to what’s behind Glassdoor we hope you’ll give it a try. Source: Glassdoor.com/about/index.htm

At the end of 2008 Glassdoor.com polled it’s members to find the best company to work for. The employee choice awards for 2008 revealed that General Mills, Bain & Company, Netflix, Adobe, and Northwestern Mutual were the top five employee choices for best places to work. Popular Queries on the site include:

To get involved with the glassdoor community, sign up, share what you have, and see what else is inside. That’s it. At the heart of the site it really comes down to people helping people. Whether you’re down on your luck are at the top of your game there will often be a situation where a little more information makes all the difference. We at the downsized.com commend this effort and hope that it is a sign of things to come. Honestly, you’ve made it all the way down to the bottom of the article, the least you could do is sign up and help out.

No related posts.

Entrepreneur Magazine - A welcome resource for the downsized

The Downsized Staff — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:08:20 +0000

Looking to make your own way in the down economy? It’s likely that the thought of opening your own shop (for whatever your talents provide) has crossed your mind and it’s also possible that you may now have some extra time to use towards that goal. Every good person needs good resources and for you Entrepreneur magazine could be the key to honing your ideas into a solid business.

Finding good resources such as Entrepreneur Magazine (especially at $1 per month) can mean the difference between an idea that finds an audience and an idea that send the unprepared to the mat beaten and broke (we at the downsized.com prefer the first option). Often just being referred to places that show off a collection of good information is enough to get your business off on the right foot.

Good Information to start

Take for example an article that is on the magazine’s website entitled: “Get Smart(er) Taking stock of the best places for entrepreneurs to learn.” The article progresses through reviewing top traditional four year programs at major universities such as the University of Miami, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Rochester, and Washington University in St. Louis with a brief overview of highlights in each program.

Getting in in less time: The Two Year Option (or less)

Often the amount of time that we have within a down period is short, lending itself to a truncated accelerated learning span by necessity. Associate degrees or Executive MBAs might be the ticket to finding the guidance and networking needed to hit the ground running.

What if I have even less time than that?

Sometimes the opportunity is right in front of us and we’re ready to bootstrap the load of starting up and learn on the job. If that’s the case we’d like to recommend that you not go in blind. Take a guide from their respect line of business start-up guides. As an added bonus by visiting them from here you can save $10 Off Any Entrepreneur Magazine’s Start-Up Guide.