The Official Forum Cartel Unemployment Thread

going on 19 months and the wife is going on 5 months thank god for good severance packages and retirement funds to use.. I have had (1) interview in all this time and doing 20+ applications/resumes a day 7 days a week.

I feel for anyone its real tough out here!

Nice thing is I am taking classes on line and hopefully setting up for an even better job when things turn around some... now to figure out how to get enough Student loans to be a career Student

I'm watching the movie, not looking at snapshots.

Pep (Profit-taking cycles have reduced significantly if you want a sensible response)

Joking aside, i hope that the markets do start an upturn for everyones sake, we have been lucky here in Holland, whilst there are problems and people losing jobs etc. compared to the UK its a lot better overall from what I hear when i call family there.

The UK economy was more bloated than Europe generally (can't really comment on the USA or anywhere else, but maybe they believed the misguided Wired predictions too) and domestic employers seem to have "taken advantage" of the early recognition of problems (thank goodness Mr Brown had one of my old tutors - Mervyn King, an economist *not* a banker - to advise him and the rest of the world) and cleared out a lot of the excess capacity. The more global organisations (automotive etc) will generally take longer to get efficient (begging for scraps - literally, check out the German initiative - at their various governments' tables) and the stronger economies of the Eurozone will suffer from association with the weak newer capitalist states.

In fact, the UK has probably bottomed out first of anywhere (no help to those ex-Aviva employees, I know) as property prices increased last month after a long period of decline, and that has been, in every cycle this century as far as I know, the single biggest indicator of recovery in our economy. Certainly, the organisation I work for has seen sales increasing month by month this year so far so I am quite prepared to join the Keynesians whose expectations are optimistic.

Pep (And we buy most of our stuff from Europe so we'll be supporting recovery there too)

I am keeping my fingers crossed and am optimistic also that recovery will be forthcoming

I'm doing less RL work than I was, so my income has taken a tumble. I like having the extra time though, and need to be careful not to spend it all in SL.

All the stuff I hear everywhere points to things getting worse and worse. So I think people will spend more time in SL but less cash.

In the art market things are getting tough too, market dealers are getting into heavy debts, always happens in a recession, usually coming out of a recession it's a whole new group of collectors and dealers in the market, the last piece we sold went at a heavy discount, we only got US$200,000 for it.

Always tip buspersons separately. It's poignant how surprised they usually are.

Why?

I tip the waitress, and depending on the restaurant sometimes the Chef as well - of course I would not tip the Chef at a four star restaurant, but at the Mexican food place they absolutely love getting a tip from someone who liked the meal they put together.

But why tip the person who cleans the tables? That is the job they signed up to get paid to do, right? The job takes place when I am not even around. I arrive the table is clean, i leave and the table gets cleaned - they are invisible, as they should be.

Waiters/Waitresses get paid less than minimum wage, often in the area of $2-$3/hour so they depend on tips to give them a better hourly wage - therefore i always start the tip at 20% and it either goes down or up to a max of 25% depending on their service.

But why tip busboys?

ETA: I call them busboys because your chances of seeing the Governor in the capital of where i live are greater than seeing a female doing the job of busboy. In fact, we have 2 female mechanics who do our oil changes, but i have yet to see a female 'busperson'.

I guess they are more common in L.A., perhaps the proper nomenclature is busperson now.

Next time you eat at a restaurant remember that your dishes were washed by the person with the hardest job in the place, and they're almost certainly not getting a cent of your tip.

Even at the lowest end, the world works for the benefit of charismatic people.

So do the bus-people and the dishwashers, on the theory that they get a part of the tips. Except that they don't.

No way.

They get paid those criminally low wait staff hourly wages?? $2-$3/hour????

I waitressed and bartended for years at many establishments. We ALWAYS had to tip the bus people at the end of the shift.

Around here, buspeople are becoming a lesser seen entity, especially in independant, middle range restaurants. The chains still employ them but waitstaff is taking on that role more and more in the smaller places.

Probably not. If there's a pretense of tip sharing they probably earn modestly under minimum, like $5/hr. Much less than that and they wouldn't wait even as long as they do before they quit.

When I worked in a bar the waitresses made $100 (in 1980's money) on a good night. The cook made modestly more than minimum wage. The dishwasher made modestly less. Once during the summer I was there the waitresses gave the dishwasher $2 (total, not each), and were mighty proud of themselves for it.

My goodness, what are you selling?

I'm pleased that art is selling at all tho.

Is anyone focusing more on SL as a possible income earner for the future?

I was thinking of seeing if LL would hire me to write PR blurbs..........

I used to be in this boat. I was, in fact, until about 1:30PM yesterday afternoon, when I was hired. Before then, I'd been unemployed since September of last year.

Parvati - that was a really good thing you did...offering up this thread....you are obviously not alone, and hope you take comfort in that.

Many people hanging out in SL these days are in the same boat....otherwise they wouldn't have time to hang out here....they just don't like to talk about it much, as quite a few come here to escape.

Gentle warning....do not wait until the "package" runs out, to start the plan. Take a few weeks to breathe, but then get on it....it's not as easy as it used to be to get rolling again. You also make better decisions when you're not under huge pressure.

Great opportunities and life lessons coming your way, though. You're going to be reminded (harshly and abruptly) that all the "stuff" you had to have is meaningless. You're going to be reminded that the only thing that really counts every day is having your loved ones healthy and close....and having your own health....having a roof over your head....and food on the table. Not much else really matters. (never did)

Some folks aren't going to have all that....and truly be tested.....if you do have the above....you are very fortunate, so you do have many blessings to count....if you're one of the ones who is struggling with the loss of a loved one, health problems, or loss of your home, in addition to loss of job and income....

.....well, you've got a rough road....but you'll find something that keeps you going...and if you watch the news every night....you'll see things happening that are still far worse than what you're going through, as bad as it may be....and some days the only comfort that you may find, is that most likely it won't ever get any worse!

I see a lot of people leaving corporate and professional careers taking a deep sigh of relief...myself included....a few weeks away from it and you realize that all the money it provided you was not a fair exchange for taking your heart and soul and precious time from you....no amount of money.

Count your blessings it happened sooner than later.....and hang in there....some really cool things are going to happen for you.

Conratulations!

I won't share my own story here, but I see so much of this going on now (unemployement, not Cody getting hired), more than ever before in my life and it's terrible.

I choose to; no one else has to. I left out the "I" thinking it was implied.

It's cool that you tip chefs; that's never occured to me.

To answer: They have a job I wouldn't like to do; they make less than minimum wage; here they are often older and seem sometimes careworn; I imagine at least some support a family on their wages; that dollar/fiver isn't exactly weighing down my pockets; I like to acknowledge hard work that often goes ignored; waitpersons often do NOT share tips even when they are 'supposed to'; I've worked crap jobs myself before; I've worked places where I was supposed to be 'tipped down to' by waitpersons and never was, leaving me with half min. wage per hour; and sometimes just cos I like to. I try to just tell the waitperson but sometimes I deliver it to the person directly if I feel they won't get it otherwise. It's a judgment call. It's a small random act of kindness. All of the above. (ETA: I left out that sometimes it's as much for the waitperson; I do not think they should have to split their sometimes already-less than optimal tips with anyone else. I actually think restaurants should pay a living wage to all staff already, but that's another topic.)

"Busperson": Meh, tomay-to, tomah-to. Here we have male and female both so it does fit. Choose yer poison.

OMG! So TrUE!!!

Thanks Clarissa, those are some great reasons you gave. I'll give it some thought, but generally in the restaurants in Springfield, Illinois the bus-people are "Out of sight, out of mind" except in places like Cracker Barrel.

When mummy said no more texas toast with the caviar I knew we were in trouble!

So i hopped the corporate jet and went to Oldfolksville, Florida to see great-grand father (who survived the Great Depression, WWII, and The Seventies). HE SAID fire a few uselesses, raid their pension fund, go THINK (and visit The Money) in the Turks (have secretary will travel get her a bikini wax, noted and checked!). Watch W. a few dozen times. Channel your inner George W. Bush! When ya get home give urself a raise! I DID! and I feel better about the whole econmic thing.