8000 layoffs between today and the end of March.

Salary freeze
No 401K matching
No Educational reimbursement.

I've dodged these RIFs for the last 10 years.  Hope I can duck one more time.

Good luck. With the way things are now, I see why playing dodge ball in elementary school was a valuable learning experience.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you Mark!

I hope they miss you again this time Mark.

We're having a monthly RIF here too.  So far I'm safe.  Sure is distracting though  ::)

-Dennis-

Good luck, Mark!

(I just got nailed in our latest round at SunEdison)

Marc

I saw that in the news today and thought of you, Mark.  Hope you can dodge one more.  

Beth

Gotta love the way they lay us off, yet I'll betcha the top executives are gonna hang on tight to their multimillion dollar bonuses....

It's not a good job market out there right now.  I think all of us who have been let go recently should keep each other abreast of what we learn.  

echo wrote on Jan 26^th, 2009 at 12:02pm:

Salary freeze No 401K matching No Educational reimbursement.

Exact same for me in 2006.  All companies are different.  For me there was more to come in 2007.

Keep your head down and stay low, Mark.

Hoping you dodge 'it' again this time.

Good Luck,
Jackie

Good luck my brother!!!!

Damn. This thing sucks big time.   START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGESTART PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Hold on and good luck guys.

Charlie

The Associated Press

Struggling Sprint Nextel to eliminate 8,000 jobs

By DAVID TWIDDY - 1 hour ago

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Faced with persistent subscriber losses and questions about its long-term prospects, Sprint Nextel Corp. is slashing its already shrinking work force by 8,000 people as it seeks to cut annual costs by $1.2 billion.

The layoffs, announced Monday, are just the latest attempt by the nation's third-largest cell phone carrier to right its financial ship in the face of tough competition and a brutal economy. They come slightly more than a year after the company cut 4,000 jobs and closed 125 retail centers as Chief Executive Dan Hesse, then new on the job, aimed to show he was serious about streamlining operations.

Sprint said it expects the latest round of layoffs, which represent a 14 percent reduction of its 56,000 employees, will be largely completed by March 31. The company said it will take a first-quarter charge of more than $300 million for severance and other costs.

About 850 of the layoffs are voluntary, through employees taking buyouts. They will make up about $45 million of the total severance costs, the company said in a securities filing.

In addition to the cuts, Sprint said it will suspend its 401(k) match for the year, extend a freeze on salary increases and suspend a tuition reimbursement program.

"Labor reductions are always the most difficult action to take, but many companies are finding it necessary in this environment," Hesse said in a news release. "Our commitment to quality will not change."

Sprint shares rose 3 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $2.49 in afternoon trading Monday.

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-------------------------------------------------------

BusinessWeek
January 26, 2009, 2:32PM EST

Big Companies Shed Jobs
On a single day, tens of thousands of jobs are eliminated at Caterpillar, Sprint Nextel, Pfizer, Home Depot, and General Motors

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  :(

So many many lost jobs and no new ones being created.  

This isn't looking good at all.  Where are we supposed to look for work?  

It will all get better when Obama raises taxes on those rich people so he can give it to all those poor people who lost their jobs because their company couldn't afford to employ them because their taxes were too high.

Obviously.

Oh, and it should *really* help when energy prices double or triple because (you know this) all energy production is evil and should be punished.  The planet will thank you later.  You'll feel so good about it.

Obviously.

Morale can be difficult at work under these conditions.   Keep your head up, Mark.    

I hope Mark is able to duck the restructuring yet again and I wish that everyone who wanted to work was able to find work. This though is a Utopian view far removed from the reality of market.

Jobs belong to employers, not employees. There isn't and shouldn't be a 'right' to work other than that an individual ramps up their skills such that they attain a position of being imperative at their chosen position. These individuals as well have the same risk taking opportunities (sacrifice) to try their hands in job *creation* by leveraging their savings, time, effort, removal from their families, etc to open a new operation/business. From there, since it's their livelihood and that of any investors they may have, these new business have a fiduciary responsibility to keep costs low and return high.

If this means shedding non-imperative jobs, that's what they should do and have done since time immemorial. Once or if the vicious cycle of government meddling in the market ends-- these jobs, and others, will reappear.

wrote on Jan 26^th, 2009 at 5:40pm:

It will all get better when Obama raises taxes on those rich people so he can give it to all those poor people who lost their jobs because their company couldn't afford to employ them because their taxes were too high. Obviously. Oh, and it should *really* help when energy prices double or triple because (you know this) all energy production is evil and should be punished.  The planet will thank you later.  You'll feel so good about it. Obviously.

Shawn,

It sure seems funny to me how both of the things you point out happened on your guy Bush's watch.

Is Obama to blame for record layoffs? I would say "no".

Is Obama to blame for record energy prices? I would say "no".

Corporate greed is the root of all of this mess. Maybe if the bigwigs had a little less to stuff into their pockets via taxes and put it back into the company like they should instead of keeping it for themselves and their pals, a few more people that they screwed over might still have jobs. Their management greed and shortsightedness is the cause of a lot of what we are dealing with today. The band was playing, the champagne was good, but now its time to pay the piper!

I'm not saying I'm pro Obama and I know you are a smart guy but, sometimes I cannot believe how much tunnel vision you have, having been in business for yourself on many occasions.

Let me ask you this, If corporate taxes are in line and fair right now "today" under the conservative watchful eye,  how come so many businesses are going under anyway?

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Hide under your desk, Mark.  They'll never find you there  :-*

It's like blaming the pencil if the words are spelled wrong. I guess I just don't get it :-/

Stay low Mark......keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.

Joe

Jimmers,

I make no excuses for Bush.  The Republicans are just as responsible for this mess.  In fact, the very policies that the Republicans have followed which I have always disagreed with are the very same things I will continue (in my tunnel-visioned way) to complain about with Obama.  I want less government, a strong military, free markets.  I don't see how my anger at higher taxes and a fundamentally flawed fiscal policy is inconsistent in any way.  I do not, and will not ever agree with a policy that is anything less.  It stuns me that almost nobody I know knows their history.  If they did, they would know that raising taxes and growing government in the face of a terrible recession is a recipe for disaster.  Herbert Hoover taught us that.  Those who believe that FDR got us out of the depression are delusional.  His policies arguably made a bad situation worse, and it was WW2 that ended the depression.  Lyndon Johnson's Great Society didn't do us any better.  Now, we are living the nightmare once again, and 66% of the country is in a hypnotized stupor marching right along to the beat of 'change'.  Hoo rah.  Just because I criticize Obama, it doesn't mean I endorse Bush's fiscal policies or the Republican party.

On the other hand, I do thank Bush for defending the USA from further attacks.  That took balls to sacrifice 100% of his political capital on principle, and in my book that counts for something.

While Bush is to some degree culpable in this mess don't forget the Democratic Congress that had control of the purse strings the last two years.  Both parties are culpable in this.  

Jerry

Good luck Echo.  

I love this one...
In December CONSOL burnt money buying naming rights to a sports arena.
In January CONSOL announced layoffs.

CONSOL Energy buys naming rights to new Penguins arena
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Consol may idle Washington County mine, lay off 260
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The debt of war heavily creased the fabric of the 70's.  Difficult time to compensate veterans afterward, as it has been since the Revolutionary War, once culminating terribly from WWI through to Hoover's time as the Bonus March of '32.  It continues.





This is one of the scenarios prior to the Great Depression.


Quote:

...   The resulting mass consumption kept the economy going through most of the 1920s. But there was an underlying economic problem. Income was distributed very unevenly, and the portion going to the wealthiest Americans grew larger as the decade proceeded. This was due largely to two factors: While businesses showed remarkable gains in productivity during the 1920s, workers got a relatively small share of the wealth this produced. At the same time, huge cuts were made in the top income-tax rates. Between 1923 and 1929, manufacturing output per person-hour increased by 32 percent, but workers’ wages grew by only 8 percent. Corporate profits shot up by 65 percent in the same period, and the government let the wealthy keep more of those profits. The Revenue Act of 1926 cut the taxes of those making $1 million or more by more than two-thirds. As a result of these trends, in 1929 the top 0.1 percent of American families had a total income equal to that of the bottom 42 percent. This meant that many people who were willing to listen to the advertisers and purchase new products did not have enough money to do so. To get around this difficulty, the 1920s produced another innovation -- "credit," an attractive name for consumer debt. People were allowed to "buy now, pay later." But this only put off the day when consumers accumulated so much debt that they could not keep buying up all the products coming off assembly lines. That day came in 1929. START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Some may see a few similarities to today, autos are one example, ideas on corrections may differ.  We did not avert a depression from the familiar circumstances then, here we get a chance to try again while one thing is common in the meantime -- need.



Sprint - here we go again

And...........under Bush.....nobody would have uttered a peep when that $50,000,000.00 jet was part of the deal by the banks that we now own........and yes.......we need to own then now and it was Bush that created our current socialist policies.

Things are always hunky dory in a free market that is run by people that do not live in the real world......they are completely tone-deaf in these matters.

Charlie

Charlie wrote on Jan 27^th, 2009 at 8:39pm:

And...........under Bush.....nobody would have uttered a peep when that $50,000,000.00 jet was part of the deal by the banks that we now own........and yes.......we need to own then now and it was Bush that created our current socialist policies.

Bush, Bush, Bush......Give it a fucking break will ya......LMMFAO!!!!! ;D