It seems that when my company has bad news to deliver, it is sent out on Friday even, after half the US has gone home for the week. Well, last Friday was no different. I am not sure why, but something told me to check my work e-mail Friday evening before we sat down to dinner. What I found out was that my business unit is getting a "temporary" 10% pay cut. This is not great news, but it is made worse by the fact that just a couple of weeks ago, our CEO announced a COMPANY WIDE pay cut of 2.5 to 20% (I was in the 5% bracket, as most of the employees are). So now I get a nice fat %15 pay cut...5% is permanent and the other 10% is temporary. Just add this on to the list of things that we have had taken from us.
The first few things they took away from us were mostly annoying and most did not directly affect us unless we were to get laid off. Those reductions were the cutting in half of severance benefits...not once, but twice (effectively giving us 25% of our old benefits). They did cut our pension out but held on to the money. It sits collecting interest until I retire since there is no more money being added to it.
The next thing that went was the matching contributions to our 401k. Again, not a huge deal...it just simply means my 401k will not grow quite as fast as it did unless I dump more money into it. Oh, I forgot to mention that the business unit I am in does not qualify for on call pay, so we work on call and get NOTHING extra for it. No comp time, no extra pay. That one bugs me quite a bit.
Then we get notice of not one but TWO pay cuts (one company wide and one for just our business unit...it seems that my business unit, the only one that makes money, it the hardest hit)., of which one is permanent and the other "temporary" one has been loosely defined.
I have gotten a few e-mails telling me I need to be thankful that I have a job...and I am. However I can be disappointed that I am making LESS money today than I was when I started this company 5+ years ago. Yes, that is how much they have taken.
"Okay El Gee, just take a part time job." I would love to but I am on call (and did I mention I don't get paid for it??) and it is going to be pretty hard to hold a second job if I am on call with my primary one.
"Okay El Gee, just find a new job." Easier said than done. Have you seen the job market out there?
I am thankful that God sees fit to have me employed right now. I am frustrated that I cannot seem to get any traction on finances. Just a month or two ago, my wife and I paid off all of our debt except the mortgage. Now oddly enough, the extra debt we had is almost the exact amount I will lose each month under the stimulus package my employer is about to release. We were hoping to start saving more (outside of the 401k) and give a little more to church (we tithe but we were wanting to give some extra to some pet projects) but it appears that will not be happening.
No comments:
Post a Comment