How is your employer cutting back?
 

This is one measure...

the other is that employess making > $60,000 will not get raises, anyone making less will get a 2% merit increase.

How is your employer cutting back costs that directly affect you and your family?

hiring freeze. no new hires in the past 6 months or going forward. my company has 30,000 employees...

also heavily ramping up offshoring.

The company I work for has 9 employees. We are limiting our subcontractors' hours since we make much more money billing our own employees to contracts. They are upping my time on contracts significantly, since my salary was designed to come entirely out of overhead. We cut costs in August by giving up the lease on one of our then-three offices. Now we have two, and one is large but rarely used. If things get REALLY tight, we will give up the lease on either my smaller office (and move my files to the larger office) or give up the lease on the larger office.

There are only two employees in the company making under $120k a year. Everyone is paid under $100 an hour (not including the cost of benefits) but if all of their time is billable, we can bill them for anywhere from $130 an hour up to nearly $200 an hour. Making sure that everyone is working the maximum allowed on their projects is the best way to keep the company afloat.

We're a small softare company of about 20 people in the office. Our big perk of a modest catered lunch every friday (subs, pizza etc...) is still going but if they do cut it I'll know we're in trouble.

I think that's one of the Dilbert principles: If Management starts dicking with the little perks, start polishing your resume.

So far the only difference is that our CEO is in short humour these days.

A year and a half ago my company was set to expand its workforce by 25%. Since then we've gone through two rounds of layoffs totalling over 200 employees, closed two offices and consolidated two others. My department has slashed its third party service provider contracts to the bone. We've seen cutbacks on the discount certificates we're given to spend among our portfolio companies, and this year's holiday party will be a shadow of its former extravagant self.

Surprisingly, the coffee is still flowing.

They're not. When your clients are all energy and petrochemical companies and you have over $16 billion in work backlog, things don't slow down. Despite the economic crisis, the company's line of credit was just increased.

Scott Adams has a whole e-mail exchange in one of his books about suspending free beverages.

Unlike your company, they were not honest about why and were kind of dicking around with employees. At a time when the money was flowing like water.

We keep hiring people. Our owner has made it clear to me that the internet portion of our business is paramount, so he wants me to cut back on my nonternet efforts, ie: what I was hired to do.

He has a few misconceptions about the industry. I can say this because I've spent years covering the industry for a trade paper. Whether that will cause distress, I don't know. Right now he's concentrating on web traffic of 1k to the detrement of an audience of 60k.

It's business as usual. Actually, we are still making more money and doing just as much work as ever.

The County government has cut merit raises to 3% (and that's if you walk on water), and has a hiring freeze in effect for our department. This sucks... with the economy gone to pot, people are receiving more benefits so our caseloads are going up, but no more workers are being brought in to help!

My boss is possibly starting a full-time regular job. Maybe as soon as next week.

I also work for County government. This week, 9 of my coworkers were let go, not to mention the cuts they've outlined coming up. Several people will be retiring, so that will help, but we are currently on a wage freeze: no raises, no step increases, no cost of living increases. I've heard this freeze will be in effect for the next 3 years.

My work's been cutting back part time hours, to the detriment of us full timers. Most of our cover guys are back working their part time jobs, and management is trying their best to divvy up the work they were doing amongst full timers. Which of course makes little sense. We're not losing any employees, just moving hours from guys making from 12 to 20 and hour to guys making 44 and hour on overtime. Great strategy by the higher ups, but that is what it is.

We're budgeting for 2.5% raises next year. Some will earn more and some less depending on their review. It is based on performance.

There have been layoffs and buyouts.

Holiday parties have been scaled back to an employee only luncheon and gift combo for $50 or less.

We still provide coffee/snacks and soft drinks are a quarter from the machine.

My T&E percentage has been discussed several times with management. It's a little on the high side for the book of business that I have. But that's about it, and it's been a series of discussions going back well over a year, mainly because the insurance market has been tanking for 3 years.

Coffee, soft drinks and beer are all still free in the kitchens.

Unfortunately even in the health care industry we are being hit. My employer just laid-off around 200 employees. Unfortunately, with the budgets being tight people are not paying on their under-insured hospital bills. To give you an idea of the impact the economy has made last year at about this time there were approximately 7.1 million dollars and this year those totals reach 32.3 million. Unfortunately when times are lean more people seek care at emergency rooms since they cannot be turned away for lack of finances, so this leaves us with more of a loss.

None yet. But then, I'm not in the private sector any longer. Thank God for good timing.

I'm in a growth-related industry in the sun belt - Planning, Civil Engineering, Landscape Architecture. Up until a year ago, who would have thought that would have been a bad career move?
We've had lay-offs to the point that we're a skeleton crew now - any more layoffs would mean closing the office altogether. We've gone from 30 employees to 18 in the past year, and all our private contracts have dried up. We're trying to get our foot in the door on some public projects, but it's tough to do - and for good reason. When local governments find businesses they like to work with, no amount of 'fair hiring practices' will affect which firms get awarded the contracts year after year.

So far, they still supply the coffee, though.

We recently had some cut backs similar to what others have been saying, no raises, company wide forced time off (coming out of your vacation time), reduced bonus, etc... The timing couldn't be worst because I am expecting to be promoted. Generally speaking, the first promotion warrants a significant wage increase. Since the company has already said there will be no wage increases, that means should my boss decide to go through and promote me, he won't need to give me a raise. At this point, I am hoping they don't promote me. A paper promotion leads to increase in work responsibilities but no added incentive. The old timers at work basically told me this is the company's way of telling me to bend over and grab my ankles. I will be supplying my own lube.

But they still have free coffee!

I'm in a construction job and we are busy as ever. It is a very specialized craft and travel is required. Years ago I would be home every 3-5 weeks, now I stay out about 7-10 weeks at a time. As a result of that I am going to start looking for a new job. I am told to stay out that long and we work everyday we are out so that means that I normally work 50-80 days at a time and I can't handle that any longer.

Scoty

glad I don't have a job or I might have to be worried about all this stuff... Even so, my wife works in medicine, and that is a rather isolated sector from the economy at large, so we haven't felt the crunch at all, yet?

I haven't noticed much change so far. Perhaps the fact that we're cutting back on advertising, plus the frequency of shows has gone down a tad. But I'm in the art industry and we aren't set to take a hit for a few months yet. We're still floating on Russian and Chinese money, I'm told.

My wife just voluntarily left a bank job with a large US bank to go with a healthcare insurance provider.

I work for a school district, but they haven't really started to do much more than attempt to control transportation costs. We went through a reorganization (due to retirements) 1.5 years ago and cut some secretarial support at the central office level.

-Hiring freeze, even for essential positions
-No out-of-state travel
-50% budget cut for every department
-Union says that we should vote Democrat (although that's not much of a change)

They fired me...

We haven't had too many cutbacks yet. I'm sure 2009 raises probably won't be much. Bonuses are tied to office (and individual performance) so we'll have to wait till the fiscal year ends but as of now it isn't looking good.

They have been pushing us to get on clients quicker when they don't pay. We've also switched to a pay when paid policy with subcontractors.

I work for a large Fortune 500 company (we're in the top 20)

We've had 4 rounds of layoffs (read: packages) in since 2002, I've been offered twice but didn't take, luckily there was enough that did mainly through early retirement. Now there arent many people left over 50...
Hiring freeze
All Travel has to have prior approval by Vice-President only
Leasing half of the building I work in to outside tenants
Outsourcing non-customer interaction processes to vendors outside the US
BYOS (Bring your own supplies) actually we get supplies but its cheap shit
Limited relocation - specialized jobs only again VP approval
Delayed raises for two years, and the one I got was small
Temporarily suspended 401-K matching

There are more I'm sure but thats all I can think of at the moment

So I have a couple jobs, and one of them is cleaning an office; that employer is not cutting back--actually, they're hiring more people, which is one of the reasons I got asked to clean the office. More people=more mess.

Another is working in a church nursery. That job is really insulated from the market, as the church has many sources of money. We're sheltered from a possible drop in income due to people putting less in the collection plate because the church prepares for times like this.

The portion of my employment that isn't sheltered from the market is my childcare business. More people are staying home instead of going out, but business from my clients is relatively steady. It has dropped off from last year, but I'm still doing regular business.

My boyfriend's employer is hiring more people, and offering recruitment bonuses to employees who recruit a successful hire. They're even talking about expanding hours into the evening and weekend; currently their offices and labs are only open 8-5.

We aren't, thankfully I'm in an industry that goes strong even when the economy isn't (yay for beer).

Dude! You people still have employers? That is SO last year.

All my potential employers might be cutting back by not hiring me :(

I really need a job.

Not only did they cut the coffee as in the OP but they now don't have cups in the pantry... so I couldn't get any water from the water cooler. I was like WTF!??!?!?!?

BTW it isn't bottled water, it's filtered water with a bottle on top to make it look like a bottled water cooler. If you look inside the water bottle you'll see a ball, cock, float mechinism that is similar to the one you have in your toilet tank.

10% pay cut, effective next month. Good thing I'm leaving soon...

6 people were layed off on Monday bringing our total number of employees to around 20.

They all get to keep their benefits (for how long I don't know) and were told that they could be asked back when business picks up again.

I think the last bit is only true for some of them.

On the bright side, we're still getting our catered lunches on fridays. Tomorrow is Quizno's.

I got laid off the day I got back from a two month apprenticeship course. I was already in debt from two months of EI benefits of 60% and all the increased expenses being 400 kms from home. You should have seen the bosses face when I walked in after getting back from the course. It was like "Holy shit! We forgot about you! I've got some bad news......."

Er, i was paid gloriously this month, told it was wrong, have to pay it all back, with a 'were not too sure when we'll get your right pay to you'.

Gee, thanks. You can mispay me on time, but can't seem to pay me normally at all. Thats admin cutbacks for you.

I hope they forget about the tax bit though, hopefully i can be sneaky and reclaim that for myself with a quick trip to the tax office...

Major salary reduction coming in Dec. Revising resume tonight.

I've worked just as many hours as I ever have. I've heard rumbling but my boss has his hands in ever part of the electrical trade and I don't think we'll be in the tough anytime soon.

10% reduction of salary. (We were notified after the annual United Way campaign kickoff meeting)
Loss of 401K employer contribution match.

I work for the state and there haven't been any real cut back measures as far as I can tell.

There is the general "try not to blow all your budget out by the end of the year" sort of thing, but that's just business as usual in my experience. We don't seem to have as many catered events, but, then again, we are moving into the slow part of the year.

My company laid off 3 people, we are down to 32 people now. I got my review this week, didn't get as big a raise as I got last year, but much better than what I expected.

I'd also like to add, that despite a labour shortage in Calgary, things "feel" like they are tightening up. My boss fired a Journeyman two weeks ago. And my boss is freaked out about a huge market crash, both the housing and job market.

Calgary eh? I just moved from there 3 months ago. I hear its crashing pretty badly.

I spoke too soon apparently, my boss sold part of the company to another electrical company and we'll be doing our own thing while the other does theirs. They are like 9-10 times the size of us so, we might be headed for the door.

The cuts really haven't bothered me.

no change, except where we had difficulties findling ppl to work the job i do that´s no longer the case. we´ll see when i get back in january though....

Hmmmmm . . . Famous Last Words.
I was laid off Nov 14th.

I work in a pediatrics office. 10 nurses, including myself, 3 doctors, 5 nurse practioners.

One NP offered to resign.

Starting next Weds. we're subletting 2-3 rooms of ours for a pediatric gastroenterologist.

My office is trying to avoid layoffs as much as possible. No raises, but we did have a Christmas party that had gifts, which was nice.

Unfortunate for me, I worked in a dying industry for a company that had been overpaying and undersupervising for years...is that even a word?? Where was I? Oh yeah, way over paid, bosses did little or nothing to discipline those who didn't do their work, guys with a warped reality and no clue what the real world is like and thought our Union was run by Zeus himself.

It was only a matter of time, I just didn't think it would be this soon. I left a retail job I was at for 12+ years to come work for the local newspaper 3 years ago as an apprentice pressman. 4 year apprenticeship I was coming up on 3 years and word started to spread that layoffs were coming and we wouldn't be getting any severance package. 2 rounds of layoffs with 16 guys going on November 8th (I was #17) and an additional 10 being let go by the end of the 1st Q of 09. Well everyone is down in the dumps and they decide on Nov 6 that they will just let the other 10 go with the first 16 on the 8th :( So I got a 2 day notice that I was losing my job, I got 2 weeks of pay for every year of service and 6 weeks of insurance.

Now they are down to 59 guys, overtime FLYING out the door, they are forcing guys in to work and even had retirees coming in and filling shifts....and I sit here on unemployment and haven't gotten any hits on a new job since I got laid off.


Did I mention that I got laid off on my three year anniversary TO THE DAY!! I started there Nov. 8 2005 my last night of work was Nov. 8 2008.

Let's see.....To make it easier to understand, I work at a local Chevrolet dealership as a team leader in the service department....

Company wide:

Lost 401k match.
Insurance premium increase to reduce employer contribution.

Service Department:

Service writers no longer get paid a percentage of parts(used to get 5.5% of parts, now get 0%)
Base weekly salary unchanged, but due to loss of parts, now have to work twice as hard to earn same amount as before.

Service Technicians:

No raises for 2 years
Hiring freeze
decrease in wages for pre-sold service work (i.e. oil changes, transmission service, brake service...etc) of $4.00 per hour.
Base commision unchanged



So we are feeling the crunch as well in the automotive industry. Since people are having financial troubles themselves, they are putting off what they feel is unneeded work until the dang car breaks, then having to pay twice as much to get it fixed, go figure...Big risk if you ask me, but hey, if you can't afford it, you can't afford it.

Just curious, what has your dealership done with customer pay labor rates? I work on the claims side of the extended warranty business and we have noticed a HUGE increase in labor rates in the last few months. We have dealers that sell our contracts that were at $82/hr in 2004 and $100/hr 6 months ago are demanding $130-135/hr now. I guess they are trying to make up the loss in sales by getting it all back on the service side. Plus we pay MSRP on parts and most shops charge 10-25% over MSRP. It used to be the dealers that sold the service contract didn't go after the customer for the difference, but now a lot of them are. Plus we are getting hammered on upsells. Then shops get pissed when we send adjusters out to the shops to verify everything. Our average claim cost has gone up almost 35% in the last year, which I worry will hurt the viability of my company in the next year or so.

I can't speak for all the dealers, but our labour rates have not changed in the 4 months that I have been here. we are at $98 hr for all customer pay work. Many dealerships have converted over to the grid system which I not only hate, but thing is very unfair, especially in the way it is applied, but then that could start an entire thread on it's own...

Parts prices are usually set by GM, and we will cut prices to try and make a sale rather than lose the entire job. I have at times cut my labour time to also help make a sale. I would rather get 1.5 hours say for a job, that try and get the normal 2.0 hours and lose out on the entire job.

I don't mind so much about having an adjuster come out. I know what is wrong with the car, and could care less what an adjuster might think. Many times I have told an adjuster that if he didn't agree with my diagnosis, he was more than welcome to bring his own tool box out and diagnose the vehicle himself! I DO get tired of the adjusters who USED to be technicians, and think they know more than me about the car I am working on. What really gets to me is the adjuster asking me to show him step-by-step hwo I did my diagnosis. I simply tell him that I did my job, was not going to do it again, but if he was willing to pay me additinal time I would be more than happy to diagnose the EXACT same problem again! lol. That usually shuts them up.

The owner of the studio where I work would step over a dollar to pick up pennies....
She's been crying "no money" for months, but right before Christmas had a sprinkler system installed in her gardens, both at work and at home(her husband just rolled his eyes).
She needs new clientele, but when I printed out a flyer offering "Loyal Customer" rewards, she said she had something like that already. Actually, it was "loyal customer" dollars we handed out in September, and I think we got back maybe three. Her husband, who runs the school, wedding and sports of the company, thought my idea was terrific, pointing out to her what hasn't been happening while money's being spent. It fell on deaf ears.
She spent over $800 on a mailing to sports leagues, hiring out to have it done instead of having us in the office do it. Not one response.
I suggested taking the latest flyer and placing it on a local community bulletin board-that's free advertising. She said no.
This is a woman who says she has a degree in marketing.....
Today I was told that if we don't get some new business quick, "You'll be laid off". She had better meant the collective "you"-I'm not the newest employee.

I work for myself so no cutbacks. So far
However, my boss is a real prick. :)

We've already cut back due to current industry trends. We've expanded into new markets to compensate, and have much potential for growth. The current economy (on both sides of the border) doesn't help, but we should manage, being a small company that can maneuver quickly.

What we've cut back are the number of book titles we publish per season, plus the size of the initial print runs. Print-on-demand has already come in handy in some instances (thank god it's stopped sucking). Inventory management is a killer when you deal with a third-party distributor and a quasi-monopolistic book chain.

We used to get lunch pretty much every day, that's gone. Bottles of water, gone, but they are still getting the 10 gal. things for the water cooler. Free snacks disappeared as well, chips, cookies, etc. Free breakfast, gone.

Also our execs took a 10% paycut, and refused bonuses for the year. All raises were stopped, 401K match was ended, our portion of the insurance went up by $180/month, and all merit increases were suspended indefinitely.

On top of that, they just layed off 10% of our workforce...good times. I blame Global Warming.

But what's your pay compared to others?
Although I was the last person laid off at my company, they kept a younger, less experienced worker who was hired two years after I was. There is nothing she can do that I can't do; there are many things I can do that she can't. But they kept her instead of me.

Why? Because her salary was half of mine. By letting me go, they saved the company more money. Nice, huh? And then they say, "Nothing personal - it's just business."

Such a great way to show appreciation for years of experience and loyalty.

While what happened to you in that situation sucked, you have to realize that businesses have a purpose, and that is to thrive and make a profit. By reducing the cost of employment, they can attempt to bring the cost of running that business down. I have had my own shop before, and had to lay off a good friend quite a while back. And I told him the same thing. it WASN'T personal. I had to make cutbacks, and unfortunately he was the highest paid employee I had at the shop. Fortunately he understood and didnt stay angry for very long. Consider this an oportunity to find something new and challenging!