Trading Places
Inside views on the jobs market
Car technician sees “short-time fever” at Texas dealership
This is part of a series of personal accounts about how people are surviving the recession. The writers are contributors to Associated Content. For more stories in this series, click here.
by Eloah James
My husband, Jason, an employee at a Saturn dealership in Texas, says co-workers are experiencing “short-time fever.”
Jason has worked for Saturn and GM for nearly 15 years as a service technician. For the last 10, he’s worked at the Saturn of Austin dealership.
With a steady decline in repair work over the last year, GM’s looming bankruptcy is not a big surprise for our family. With Saturn’s demise coming two years earlier than we anticipated, and the announcement of 1,200 GM dealership closings, it looks like his job may be a lost cause altogether.
At my husband’s dealership, folks are not bringing in their cars for repairs as frequently. And when they do, the repair work is often under warranty, so Jason is paid less for his work. This means he may only get paid for two hours worth of work for an eight-hour job because most of the work is under warranty. That leaves a technician like Jason making $50 or less for a day’s work.
Unlike autoworkers in Detroit and at plants, service technicians at Jason’s work are not unionized. If the dealership closes, he won’t receive a severance package or other compensation; he’ll simply lose his job. He told me he thinks about doing something else “all the time.” He says he knows if he sticks it out until Saturn of Austin closes, he may have to rely on unemployment.
Changing attitudes about contract labor
This is part of a series of personal accounts about how people are surviving the recession. The writers are contributors to Associated Content. For more stories in this series, click here.
By Steven Bryan
For years, I clung to the “Leave it to Beaver” business model, in which the breadwinner worked at an office for 40-plus years before quietly retiring with a gold watch and pension. Unfortunately, the eroding American economy has made that particular fantasy more of a pipe dream than ever before.
But recent economic news isn’t all doom and gloom. For me and other working Americans, it took, as Jimmy Buffett is fond of singing, changes in latitudes plus changes in attitudes. After working 12 years for A.G. Edwards, a brokerage firm with headquarters in my hometown of St. Louis, I abandoned the security of a permanent position to become a contract employee at a new firm.
My hand was forced a bit. Wachovia Securities purchased A.G. Edwards and made massive staff cuts, including yours truly. My original “out date” was March 31, but I chose to leave early to become a contract employee at what is known as a “pharmacy benefit manager.” My co-workers and I like to joke that we are legal drug dealers, making sure that people who are injured on the job get the proper medications.
I was one of the first new contract employees to come into that firm. Within the past two months, at least seven technical specialists have joined our department, each with an employment contract.
Flying without the safety net of a salary and benefits is not all bad. I’m paid by the hour with a generous amount of overtime thrown my way; my monthly income has seen a sharp increase in recent months. I’m also constantly learning new things that look good on a resume.
One of the great benefits of contract work is that you become very versatile, the more skills you master the better and the more recession proof you become.
Mom goes green in the recession
This is part of a series of personal accounts about how people are surviving the recession. The writers are contributors to Associated Content. For more stories in this series, click here.
Written by Sylvia Cochran
Bills are piling up, creditors are calling even before the grace period has elapsed, the kids’ college funds are virtually zero, and I hear a drum roll whenever I open the IRA statement.
Welcome to a day in the life of a Los Angeles-area stay-at-home mom.
After my husband made it through the latest round (third round? fourth round?) of the cable industry’s layoffs, we were relieved. Nevertheless, California is hit hard by the sudden loss of home-equity capital, rising food and gasoline prices and state sales-tax rates that just went up by 1 percent — now about 9.25.
Frugality started small. I learned to ferret out money-saving billing options from the utility companies. For example, Southern California Edison offers customers the opportunity to apply for a level payment plan. Summer electricity use is higher, and winter use is significantly lower. SCE takes a year of charges and averages the amounts, making the monthly bill predictable and easy to budget for.
Then something interesting happened. To pinch pennies, we learned to go green. We rarely glanced at the Home Depot and Lowe’s displays about energy-saving innovations. But with the cost of energy going up (SCE announced in March that it would raise rates by 2 percent), these displays suddenly held great interest.
I just can’t make the switch to those bulbs containing mercury. I have had two break and felt like I needed a hazmat suit to clean it up. It makes me wonder if in 10 years or more, we’ll be causing environmental problems from these in landfills?
During times of great stress on finances, Americans persevere and are actually quite creative at saving money and pinching pennies when push comes to shove.
The economy’s effect on small-town America
This is part of a series of personal accounts about how people are surviving the recession. The writers are contributors to Associated Content. For more stories in this series, click here.
By Heather K. Adams
Living in a small town has its advantages, especially during an economic crisis.
Take a walk down the main street of Harvey, N.D., and you will find a menagerie of small businesses that are thriving. When the town has only the essential businesses, what’s left to close? Despite the recent economic downturn, Harvey manages to survive.
How does Harvey remain unscathed in a recession? Residents shop locally. When money is tight, who wants to fill up the gas tank and drive 75 miles to the nearest big city to go shopping or go out for lunch? In turn, local shops are stocking a wider variety of goods so consumers stay satisfied.
As a community-conscious consumer, when I made the decision to purchase a newer vehicle with my tax refund this year, I went car shopping here in Harvey. I spent $3,200 at Country Motors for a 1999 Buick LeSabre. Maybe I could have found a better deal in a bigger town, but I know the car dealer. I knew I could help Harvey’s economy and his small used-car dealership by spending my tax refund locally.
I work for the local weekly newspaper as a bookkeeper. In that capacity, I have noticed that local businesses are advertising more. They aren’t relying on word-of-mouth methods. Instead, the shops are getting more aggressive, trying to draw outside money into the community.
As the economy has softened I have noticed more and more in my own business that people are a little tighter around the pursestrings. I think that good will come out of all thin, small town or large city. More people will be saving money and reducing debt. In the end we may all feel poorer but we might be richer both in wisdom and in our own ssavings accounts.
Daniel Simmons
Love in the time of caution
This is part of a series of personal accounts about how people are surviving the recession. The writers are contributors to Associated Content. For more stories in this series, click here.
By Kristen May
It worries me how oblivious I was to this recession. I knew bad things were happening. But then I blinked and suddenly this country is in the worst recession in my lifetime.
I do have something to blame my lack of attention on: I’m in love.
I got engaged Dec. 24, and my fiancé and I are planning a wedding for June. This is not the best time to be making big changes intentionally. But I’ll be giving up a paying job and moving to a city where he’ll be in school. Then I’ll have to find a job. We’ll be dealing with the intricacies of being married while trying to pay the bills with nonexistent money. Maybe it’s just the rose-colored glasses, but I’m confident it will all work out.
My parents are graciously paying for the wedding, but my fiancé and I have been keeping costs low for their sake, knowing that they are living under financial stress. (They had retirement accounts that were hit hard, and we haven’t started saving yet.)
We decided to reduce costs by serving cake and hors d’oeuvres at the reception instead of the traditional sit-down dinner. That way, we can still send out 200 invitations and expect 150 guests without too much cost per person.
When I got married, my husband and I were both earning minimum wage. Our families were poor – we were on our own, entirely.
I bought my wedding dress, which was actually a bridesmaid dress in ivory for $200 (half my paycheck). My husband wore his only suit.
For the wedding, we did splurge and hire a photographer, but we set up monthly payments from the moment we hired her. We got married at our historic court house, which didn’t cost a cent. We had no flowers, except my modest bridal bouquet. For music, we had a friend play acoustic guitar. My cousin, as my wedding present, threw our reception at the local city hall. My foster sister made our wedding cake, which was Halloween orange if I remember correctly! We served cake and punch.
Instead of having a wedding dance, my new husband, the wedding party (which consisted of my sister and my hubby’s best friend), and I went to a Rocky Mountain Oyster feed! (Google it if you aren’t sure what rocky mountain oysters are. LOL)
In all, I think we spent $500 total, including my dress and our rings. Now that’s a frugal wedding!
Lost my job, improved my health
This is the first in a series of personal accounts about how people are surviving the recession. The writers are contributors to Associated Content.
By Meaghan Ringwelski
The auto industry’s problems are nothing new to the people of metro Detroit. The economy’s impact on Michigan hit close to home more than a year ago, when the small Plymouth company I’d worked for closed.
My co-workers and I saw it coming. Microdine, our small-parts distribution company, was struggling badly. As 2007 drew to a close, it was becoming obvious we would have no choice but to shut our doors.
I experienced what so many others in the Detroit area were going through: watching a company, despite cutting as many corners as possible, fall victim to the hideous state of the local economy. Driving away from work on that final day at the end of February 2008, I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me in finding a new job.
At the same time, the news around the country grew bleaker. The economy became one of the focal points of the presidential election season, and I began drawing unemployment. Knowing that it would take a while to find a new job, I decided to make the best of the situation and began figuring out ways to improve my lifestyle for myself and my two children.
Rather than dwelling on the depressing news stories and stump speeches or wringing my hands at the desolate job listings in the Detroit Free Press, I decided to keep busy with some self-improvement activities. In the past, I’d never paid too much attention to watching my budget; but out of necessity, I began learning how to stretch a dollar. I clipped many coupons and hunted down deals. No penny went unaccounted-for.
Thats the way to go, if one door closes you resiliently keep looking for one that opens. Your creative way of dealing with the economic downturn is a great example for all those people facing the same problems.
As a fixed operations manager for a suburban Chicago Saturn dealer, I have to agree with Eloah and her concern over husband Jason’s future as an auto technician. The best thing that can happen to Saturn would be the sale of the brand and get it as far away from General Motors as possible. Since GM’s announcement of the demise of Saturn the business at my store has diminished over 35% in service and parts and over 60% in sales. Several Saturn stores have closed in our immediate area and we still have not seen an increase in business. The general public simply will not buy a car that they perceive to be extinct before the loan is paid off. Current owners will not have their vehicles serviced by a dealership that they feel will not be there to stand behind their work. If GM executives didn’t realize the immediate effect of their announcement, then it only proves what inept executives they are. Incomes for Saturn dealer employess has been dropping consistently over the last few years. Largely due to the fact that GM product planners have failed to provide a product line that meets the needs and desires of the motoring public. People will buy the vehicles they want. Manufacturers have to be able to build and distribute the vehicles the public demands, otherwise they simply will not sell. This has been Saturn’s legacy over the last 5 years. Let GM keep their precious Chevrolets, Cadillacs, Buicks and GMC trucks. If they think they will be able to remain viable on the sales of only those brands, more power to them. For the sake of those who make their living within the confines of those brands, I hope GM can squeeze some level of success out of maintaining them. Based on the success rate of corporate decision makers within GM over the last few years, though, the future for them looks bleak. Even GM is hedging it’s bets on the American market and focusing it’s future potential on the Chinese market, as evidenced by the survival of Buick. Buick is a dying brand in the US, has been for years, yet it survivies because the Chinese market buys GM products under the Buick moniker, and the only market in whih GM is increasing it’s share is China. Why don’t the likes of Fritz Henderson and Mark LeNeve just move their corporate offices to downtown Beijing and wreak their havoc on the Chinese public? Put Saturn into the hands of someone who has a passion for the auto industry and really wants it to succeed and won’t let the corporate politics of inter divisional jealousy spell disaster for those who depend on the jobs the dealerships supply.