been reading and hearing more and more lately that people should be just happy to have a job, should stop complaining about salary etc. and that they should think more about the people who have become recently unemployed etc.

well what are people's thoughts on this?

i personally don't see where it's coming from. If certain industries are failing and that is causing people working in those industries to become redundant, should that affect the people in insutries that are not failing?

say for example (real example) employee X works for Cmopany Y. now company Y is barely affected by the current economic situation and is infact bringing in record profits. These profits are a direct result of the work and effort of Employee X.

now, should employee X feel guilty if he wanted a payrise for example based on the fact that others are having a bad time?

discuss...

 

out of interest what industries have not been effected by the current economical climate?

 

yes they should be happy to have a job. through no fault of their own, thousands of people are now on the dole and the people still with a job are just lucky. theres not alot anyone can do. if a company above or below you in the chain goes under its beyond your control but also can affect you greatly.

i'm bored shitless sat at home on a 2 day week now and its bad. i havent done anything, the company hasn't done anything, but no one is buying houses, therefore no one is building them, etc etc.

*edit* with that said, no i dont think they should feel guilty looking for a pay rise but with the very (cant think of a better word) unstable climate at the minute alot of things need to be adressed first. its because people were wildly borrowing and spending in the first place that were in this mess, further extravagence WILL only end in tears. my opinion is everyone needs to hold on and ride it out until things have leveled off abit. record profits could be for nothing in 6 months if demand goes down and employees are on raised wages.

 

We get it all the time, "if you dont like it, fuck off, theres loads of people wanting your job..."

The problem is, its true. Iam a paint sprayer, with the automotive industry on its arse, there is loads of good painters with out jobs.

Just got to ride it out......

Smudge

 

oil judging by the price of petrol again!

 

This is a personally opinion and please don't take offense to my comments but i feel this is a pointless thread. Of course you should be happy to be in whatever job your in, you just have to turn the tv on to realise how many people would kill for a job to pay the bills.

 

BUT

like Jim says.... if i worked for a company that had RECORD profits this year, and those profits were due to a direct result from ME then DAMN right i would be asking for a payrise!

 

I can totally understand that point but as someone said above there's few companys that have made "record profits". I have a friend that works on one of the BP oil rig's up north and even they are having cut backs, such as bonus's and holiday time. Forgetting that though even if you are working for a company that is doing well, i personally feel you'd be making a wiser decision by riding the storm out and asking for a rise when things are on the up again.

 

This is about you isn't it Jim LOL

 

many are making the most of the recession by using it as an excuse to cut wages although i know prices in the trade have dropped from higher up the foodchain down to us. im happy to ride it out as i am just now as long as i have work to keep us going.
it might take a while but the Ł1000 a week days will come around again.

 

Of course everyone in a job should be grateful regardless. And no, never feel guilty of asking for a pay rise. no harm in asking, but just be prepared for it to be rejected. The record profits doesnt mean anything really, whether its a direct result of person X or whoever. You have to ask yourself, is it actually a direct result of YOU or a direct result of you just doing your job, what your paid to do? Could you (or person X ) be easliy replaced next week? if not, then yeah ask for a pay rise. If you could easily be replaced, then yes still ask for one, but it may just rock the boat if people are willing to do the job for the same amount or even less.

 

i cant wait for that, I was 18 last time that happened, lol

 

 

Even the oil industry has been effected. The CEO of the company I work for had to take a $27 million pay cut last year, so $23 million instead of the $50 million he "earnt" the year before

 

i cant think much that wont have been effected, other than teachers, nurses/doctors etc

 

most companys will just beat around the bush and say stuff like well lets see how it goes as the credit crunch could affect us yet blah blah

 

the balliff industry is booming, so is the job centre

 

we were still making that just last year on occasion. the good old days.

 

employment is a 2 way street. as an employee, you are supplying a service to the employer that they should be grateful of. of course it depends on what that service is and how well you supply it as to how grateful they should be.

 

if a place is doin well hell yeah ask for a payrise when i got laoid off i was offered a job as a nechanic at a mot sattion and he only offered min wage as that all he could afford then 10 mins off chatting he told me he was doin 20 plus mot's a day and just bought a 40k rolling road so in my opinion just wanted to use the recession as a excuse to pay shit wages needless to say i never went there lol

 

without a doubt and i wouldnt feel guilty about it either,im glad ive got a reasonably safe jobfor now atleast

 

I agree with jim and maria on this one. if the business is doing well then theres no reason why you shouldnt be paid appropriately/get promotion etc etc etc.

Also "being grateful you have a job" isnt the be all and end all. Untimately people have ambitions, hopes, career paths etc and being in a dead end job due to the climate would be pretty depressing. Also we are as a race selfish so youll be thinking more about how your at the bottom of the pile in your life plan rather than the fact others are unemployed and your in work. Theres shit loads of people undervalued doing dead end jobs yet qualified to do much better. I bet most of them arent grateful and if they could afford it would quit thier job until they get a better one.

I personally think my jobs fucking shite and dont feel "grateful" about having the job, not in the slightest!! Do i feel guilty about that?? do i fuck!!! Sure i do feel a bit sorry for those in hard times and unemployed but i dont let that effect my feelings and behaviour, and why should i?? Sure it would be different if it was close friends;family unemployed, but in my "local" world its complete strangers and i dont think anyone walks round all day feeling grateful just because strangers are unemployed.

its like saying we should all feel grateful all the time that we have food when many in africa dont.... if we did that all the time wed all feel guilty as fuck and end up depressed!!! We all learn to "expect" what weve grown accustomed to and generally our attitude to those expectations wont change unless we loose something. Nothing wrong with that, its just normal human behaviour.

 

Well i thought my boss was doing well,he just spend a good million on a new yard before xmas and more staff,then he comes to me last week says hes got to let me go because its been so quiet! wtf 1 days notice,ive not signed on for about 15years but there is fook all jobs been to job centre everyday and papers ect,now im thinking about going back to collage
Ps anybody up north want any work doing on there cossie or mk/mk2 escorts give me a pm

 

daft as it sounds i have started my own bussiness during these hard times and am doing well so i count my self lucky

 

The current climate shouldnt matter to a humble employee... if you are set a target, then proceed to reach or exceed this target, then I would expect the opportunity to negotiate an increased incentive to achieve the next target(s) set for you.


Cheers,
Grant

 

In regards to doing well and making record profits, the company i worked for had boomed, we moved to a bigger building had great contracts out in China. Our order book had enough work on for us not to have another order in the next year things looked great. Then all of a sudden orders were being cancelled to the point where we lost HALF of the order book. Cut backs had to be made and i was one of them unfortunatly. All this happened to me in one week! I had no idea, we got told we was doing great not to worry then the week after i was out on my arse!

One of the things that played on my mind though was that year I had finished my apprenticeship and had a 8k payrise, first pay rise was 4k, but i wasn't happy with it i was doing the job of a full Project Engineer and i argued that i deserved it. I got the pay rise. But what i thought is would i still have my job if i didn't ask for it? Yes i would have been the lowest paid Engineer but would they more likely get rid of someone earning more than me doing the same job?? Who knows hey!

 

my gaffer was the same,luckily i went back to my old boss partime but last week he said i could have fulltime,money isnt amazing but summat better than nowt.

 

actually this isn't about me, my company is actually on it's arse at the moment

BUT the reason it is in that it's financial position doesnt actually have anything to do with the current climate, it's purely down to mismanagement.

one thing that does annoy me greatly is they are blaming the current climate to fuck over certain employees on pay issues which they are contractually entitled to (luckily not me). The union is balloting for strike action as they know full well they management is lying through it's teeth and they do know the real reasons behind the move and one of the replies from a person in the office is

"well i dont think it's fair that i should be striking over pay issues when there are members of my familiy struggling to find work"

now i personally don't agree with this mentality but i know it's one a lot of people would agree with

 

I was made redundand in december last year, when i wasnt paid for the whole of the month in december.

Since then I have built up the business i had in the sideline, which was taking next to nothing in 2008 to make me a living where im paying all the bills and buildign the car of my dreams.

I was on a good wage at my last job, and still have economic worries as if all my clients cancel im up the creek without a padel - but it is so much better than being employed!

 

our company didn't make the predicted profit last year so havn't got as much money to play with, they were only short by i think around the 32 million mark but it was enough to not get a bonus

and don't forget, it's not about your company doing well and then paying you more, if you price yourself out of the market they'll just find someone else to replace you, then you are fucked but the company is still doing well

i bet this is something to do with the tube strike that twat seems to think it's ok to hold the capital to ransom and won't sign a 5 year eal because he wants another row just before the olympics come around