HOW DOES ONE KNOW THEIR JOB IS SECURE?
Downsizing Could Happen To Anyone
Have you ever wondered how secure your long time job really is? Let me tell you I thought I had a secure job. Twenty two years for a company that I thought I was going to retire with. After all that twenty two year stretch wasn't the first time I had worked for them. Fresh out of high school I tried the grave yard shift there for three months. I just couldn't handle the sleeping in the daytime.
When I was twenty-one back in 1976 I went down and tried the day shift. I was married by that time and had started a family. Money was tight and we needed the little extras a minimum wage job could support. So I worked there for three and a half years, but was forced to quit in September of 1979, as I had problems getting the right babysitter. They told me if I ever needed to come back, a job would be there for me.
In June of 1980 I had no choice but to find a job. They were the first ones to call me and the minimum wage was up to the amount I had left there with. Ten cent raises each year for about the first ten. After that they increased some maybe 25 or 30 cents not much but it helped with groceries. Some years I would get laid off for a few months but they always called me back.
The most of the time I was there at the factory I worked fast and long hours. Many times after a long day of standing at a hot plastic injection mold all day, I'd have all I could do to get myself to my car at the end of the day, but I knew I had no choice I needed the income. I had learned a lot of different jobs at the factory. Some I could be seated at, but most was on my feet for hours at a time. A lot of heavy lifting came with some of these jobs. Often times my hands had taken a beating as well as my feet. I was a young woman when I went back there in 1980 I was only twenty five. I lost my youth there.
In 2001, the work orders became slim and the company laid off a lot of long time employees. It was the first time that they didn't lay off by seniority and some people had started there shorty after the factory had opened up. A few of us on the day shift were asked to work nights for a few months or take the lay off. After a few months we were asked to go back to the day shift or take the lay off. That was when the night shift was shut down and another round of lay offs began. So I changed shifts both times just to keep my job.
In 2002 I was laid off. The excuse was my rates were low, but they would put me were they knew my rates were low. The jobs I was fast at wasn't the ones they put me on. Some of the other employees had poorer excuses than that. I was off about two and a half months when they called me back along with a couple other women. The three of us had 30 days to improve or be back on lay off.
One out of the three was able to stay there. Another co-worker along with myself had been let go again. I felt like I had been fired. The foreman kept putting me and the other lady on machines that didn't work right or we were given poor materials to work with. He knew what he was doing to see we failed. The foreman we had when we left there had been let go before we came back there. No good reasons at all. Just the company cleaning house. This new foreman had came from a job in the office and was bitter with his own change of business. He was a real jerk and took it out on everyone. I found out a few years back they made him quit or they'd let him go for sexual harassment. This time they had good reason and witnesses. It sure made me happy. I have always believed what goes around comes around.
After Thoughts
Ten years later I am grateful for the changes. The company did me a huge favor. I not only like the job I have now as an egg grader better than the factory work, but the hours are flexible and the stress levels are much lower. I truly believe things happen for a reason. I now have time to pursue my writing ambition without the interruption of thoughts tormented by a ungrateful employer and a degrading workforce who have no respect for people who have gave them their youth. Given the right job, aging with all it's disadvantages does not have to be an issue. Even a work horse is not expected to carry a heavy load forever.
