O_O

[cearalaith]

...somehow, I did not get a surplus letter.

I have verified that it is not a mail failure. Apparently four years as a State Monkey is long enough to save you from the warning of the caution of the threat of the possible axe. Who would have thought? Not me

Comments

[satyrlovesong]

Oh wow! I thought that you might be layed off myself, particularly as another 10,000 letters are scheduled to go out today (according to the newspaper). I foresee a lot of changes in the next few months, with people consolidating houses and scrimping to make ends meet until the economy improves. *soft smile* Probably all those stories about the Great Depression I heard growing up.

*hugs*

I'm glad things are ok, at least so far. I'll be pulling for you, and worrying about everyone else as well.

[cearalaith]

Luckily, even if I had gotten the letter, it wouldn't have been a guarantee of layoff. They sent notices to twice the number of people they may potentially have to let go, in anticipation that a good number of people will claim exemptions for one reason or another (this list did not take into account whether or not a given position is specially funded, for example; only positions paid from the General Fund are at risk). Then the government still has to jump through a number of other hoops -- one of which is that they have to give employees 120 days' notice of impending layoff (and my understanding is that this letter doesn't even start that clock) -- and best of all, getting a layoff notice gives you preference for getting another job in your classification at another department (say, a position which is specially-funded). So when layoffs are happening everywhere, I still feel pretty safe where I'm at -- you're lucky to get an hour's notice at some places in the private sector, much less four months. I could have it so much worse

[satyrlovesong]

Yes, it would be. But we can talk about it tonight.

[akumadaimyo]

What's a surplus letter? Basically the letter that says your SOL and fired right? At least not having a job I can't be fired from one. :-p

[cearalaith]

At this point it's not quite as bad as all that. It's like the weatherman telling you that clouds are gathering to rain and if it rains then someone might get wet. And based on your demographic (you are a person, and you are outside), you might be one of those people.

What is happening right now in our state is that the state is out of money. Literally, California does not have enough cash to pay all its bills. The legislature is working on a budget right now (basically trying to figure out what programs to cut where and what taxes to raise elsewhere), but they're not getting anywhere, and the Governor has threatened to start laying off state workers if they cannot hash something out -- because we need to get the money from somewhere, and that's the only thing he's got control over -- he can't magically make the money appear from anywhere else.

The surplus letter is just officially letting individual state workers know that IF layoffs occur, they might be one of the folks getting a pink slip (at which point they'll still have

[akumadaimyo]

It would be just as stupid for them to fire you when your brother is a ninja with a bad temperment. :-p

[cearalaith]

I am sure the Governor's staff took that into consideration. It's probably written down on someone's steno pad: ninja > terminator

Sigh of relief

[1evil_kitty]

Know you were in my thoughts that ya wouldn't lose yer job with the current economy. Glad everything worked out, even if ya do feel a little wierd. Wierd is better than unemployed. :-)

[mousee23]

It's good to hear from you with semi secure news