[dxb335d]

I feel its an important thing to discuss now as we keep travelling further down this very downward spiral.

I mean how many companies do you know of who have shut down, Too many to mention, not too mention others making cost cuts and making redundencies.

Woolies has gone, Barrats on there way out, A major steel manufacturer has made many job cuts. Northern Rock bank which was one of the first.

In my own town several companies have shut down, nice family run townie type shops which sell like clothes or accessories and perfume etc.

Putting my own family out of Jobs, last week my cousin (Budgie im talking Jacko)

and this week my GF, my hardworking Miswah. Because her company (A recruitment agency) is actually likely to go under.

My Miswah sisters BoyF's collegue has been made redundant also.

So its actually affecting me and my family. One of my uncles is a property developer so the ass has fallen out of that quite literally and another has a 20k project which is half way through and now the client does not want the item after his company has spent 10k so far on it.

What will be next eh? What will happen to the NHS if the government cant fund it properly. MRSA epedemic.

I mean the government are skint. There f**ked and dont know how to run the country, i cant see us recovering from it. WHAT WHO AND HOW ca it be recovered.... answers on a post card.



My company is government funded, but still has had 16 jobs knocked this year. Not good eh. No talk of anything yet but who knows.

I know some are prospering out there, but not that many. More are gettting screwed over than not......

How have you been affected? Family friends etc?

How can and will people cope with mortgages? bills and Kids etc?

I am unhappy our country has come to this. Some saw this coming, could they have done more to prevent it, could it have been prevented and finally...

who is too blame..?!


thoughts please.

[Porscha!]

Personally I'm lucky I went to uni in September, as before I was selling cars I noticed a downturn.

As for my family well my mum is actually doing alright people stopped going to expensive coffee shops like Starbucks etc. and started coming to her cafe for good food cooked in front of them for a good price and coffee for 60p lol!Then again she has also seen some regular customers leave through being made redundant (not that many though).

Who is to blame, I'm not sure isn't it how economies actually work growth, recession, growth etc. or am I totally wrong?

Sorry to hear you are actually being effected who knows what is to come?

As for NHS do we all think it will actually survive much longer?

Is this recession going to cause massive reform to how our country is structured? Our own ideals and what types of jobs available?

Who knows can any of us really predict the future?

[TMP]

One thing is for certain, In the good times our elected goverment & then unelected goverment didn't save as other goverments did

Now in the bad times we are having to borrow and are running out of options (e.g we sold our Gold reservers at a relatively low price).

As you say a lot of people have/are/will be hit hard. When we finally do get out the other side, the next goverment will be handcuffed - they will be crucified with debt and so will we as we will have to pay it back in higher taxes

[MOB]

How many years have we had crazy lending policies, people spending when they didn't need to.......now it will come back and hit us with a vengeance - I think it will be very bad the next 2 years or so.

Personally, I'm not really affected directly - the company I work for shouldnt be affected, and the same for my missus - but I know 2 poeple recently made redundant from jobs they thought would be secure forever.

[miopyk]

Well this time around the IT industry doesn't seem to have been too badly affected so far and systems development in the banking sector seems to be in a mini boom at the moment.

Personally I'm taking voluntary redundancy later this year (won't let me go for 6 months) and I'm going to go contracting (anyone need a SAP Test Manager) for a while.

My wife works in the oil industry and they are currently spending money all over the place, although there has been a bit of a slowdown over the last couple of months.

Other than that I know a lot of my mates in the building trades are struggling at the moment but none have gone bust yet.

Miopyk

[BC4J]

Originally Posted by TMP

One thing is for certain, In the good times our elected goverment & then unelected goverment didn't save as other goverments did

Now in the bad times we are having to borrow and are running out of options (e.g we sold our Gold reservers at a relatively low price).

As you say a lot of people have/are/will be hit hard. When we finally do get out the other side, the next goverment will be handcuffed - they will be crucified with debt and so will we as we will have to pay it back in higher taxes

Better start saving now, 'cause those higher taxes are a dead cert. To pay off a debt of £117 billion and growing has to mean a helluva lot more needs to come from us. The rich ain't gonna pay it, the poor can't, so it's up to the middle class.

[BC4J]

Originally Posted by miopyk

Well this time around the IT industry doesn't seem to have been too badly affected so far and systems development in the banking sector seems to be in a mini boom at the moment.

Personally I'm taking voluntary redundancy later this year (won't let me go for 6 months) and I'm going to go contracting (anyone need a SAP Test Manager) for a while.

My wife works in the oil industry and they are currently spending money all over the place, although there has been a bit of a slowdown over the last couple of months.

Other than that I know a lot of my mates in the building trades are struggling at the moment but none have gone bust yet.

Miopyk

I guess you've had a good look at the contracting market before taking the plunge. I'm in IT and my company and many others are shafting (pardon me, I should have used the correct terminology - 'letting them go') contractors en masse. Many permies will follow. It's luck of the draw at the moment.

[RCUK]

I was made redundant from a top tier accountancy firm due to the downturn in trade in november

I was lucky though that i got another job pretty quickly as there is a demand for financial modellers - also the reason i bought the car to go to work and back.

My mates wife on the other hand who is a qualified accountant has been out of work since May last year - and not for the want of trying. She is really well experienced and a great personality - just the market is flooded with folks at the moment.

The market isnt going to get any better any time soon - all my mates are in various parts of the city and everyone im chatting to is seeing job losses in their teams.

Out of 6 uni friends last year - 5 of us went through the redundancy process, the only one who didnt was my pharmacist mate!

[miopyk]

Originally Posted by BC4J

I guess you've had a good look at the contracting market before taking the plunge. I'm in IT and my company and many others are shafting (pardon me, I should have used the correct terminology - 'letting them go') contractors en masse. Many permies will follow. It's luck of the draw at the moment.

Well I know there are no guarantees but from what I've seen and having talked to our contract companies, test managers still seem to be in demand.

Either way the money I'll get will mean I don't have to worry for a few years while the wife is still working

Miopyk

[booforty]

Carl, indeed it is not great at the moment and spirits are low

Life does go on though...

Half of my team at work were made redundant so there are many empty desks and its strange to have lost some close colleagues and friends

Situations like this can also (strangely) be a good thing. Time for a change, a new direction, new opportunities...

It's those that stay positive and can stand out from the crowd that prosper in this environment

Chin up buddy, things will be ok... (just maybe not for a while!)

[E902717]

Originally Posted by booforty

Carl, indeed it is not great at the moment and spirits are low

Life does go on though...

Half of my team at work were made redundant so there are many empty desks and its strange to have lost some close colleagues and friends

Situations like this can also (strangely) be a good thing. Time for a change, a new direction, new opportunities...

It's those that stay positive and can stand out from the crowd that prosper in this environment

Chin up buddy, things will be ok... (just maybe not for a while!)

Couldn't have put it any better

[-=TSL=-]

Interesting thread you have here, Carlos

I graduated last summer from uni, and thought I was lucky that I went Dubai to set up business. There's a rule out there that the speed things go up, they MUST come down at the same ferocity. Where the UK has been in a more progressive downturn, the UAE has been in an uncontrollable fall out of the sky!

And whats worse is that his nibs refused to acknowledge any of these 'problems' to the public, in turn giving everyone a false sense of security! No good
So although my corporate experience in the UK is hardly one of longevity, perhaps you can take some personal reassurance and gratitude that you have an allowance to trade unions, a 2 weeks notice policy or even a minimum wage!

And as booforty said, these moments do not last forever. Its all about preparation.

FAIL TO PREPARE, PREPARE TO FAIL. This is the time to think about how you can come out on top.

[roofer]

Our order book is fuller this year thanks to Decent Homes programme, and the new school building scheme. A lot of the big boys focused on new build, whereas we put our energies into refurb, they're now trying to get a foot in the door, but we're years in front.

Only personal effect on me is mortgage down, and things are cheaper Any new staff we take on are on short term contracts, the only real difference at work.

[CrimsonRedE93]

Everyone at my company has taken a 20% pay cut instead of redundancies, things are just going into a monthly loss, the problem is that we have no idea how long we need to plan for.

I am looking into moving to australia just in case

[NFS]

My company can't operate under the current economic conditions. There is no point in even trying to turn a profit.

We've gone into 'survival mode' and are battening everything down.

Interestingly the top brass are assuming the worst, their holding strategy for the next 12 months is designed to work even if some of the biggest banks around go bankrupt and NO credit is available until 2011.

It's a strange truth that profit is not a consideration for most companies in 2009. Most expect to make a loss. It's the ability to survive that loss and refocus until the world economic conditions recover that counts.

This is bigger and harsher than anything anyone working today has been through before. The credit industry is in worse shape now than it was during the great depression of the 20's and 30's.

The biggest issue right now, is that the Government cash has unfortunately failed to get the banks lending to one another. The problem is that the cash from the taxpayers has papered over the cracks and no-one can tell who is bankrupt and who is safe. Until they know, they won't trust each other.

[RockIt]

What I find interesting is how different people's experiences are at the moment. Spoke to my sister last night who runs a high quality expensive guest house in NZ and expected to suffer and she said her returns are up by a big percentage on last Jan and her guests are not the rich Americans she used to get, but NZ, Aussie and English!

At our favourite Indian restuarant I was discussing things with the owner and manageress, both good friends of ours and they told us that their business is booming at the moment. People escaping from reality for a good night out?

Fortunately in my job I don't face the reality of being out of work, but my car is in negative equity and although I would love to buy my dream Porsche it's impossible.

Definitely spending less on various things as well. Just cancelled my regular wine club order and a couple of subscription magazines and looking to save on other things if possible. Having said that, I don't feel 'poor' at all...but then I work with families who have bugger all to call their own and have seen extreme poverty on a daily basis for many years.

A kid that I teach has cardboard in his shoe to keep the hole from letting the rain in. I see that and can't get upset about someome not being able to afford to upgrade to 19" alloys and blaming the Government for their terrible misfortune.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by RockIt

A kid that I teach has cardboard in his shoe to keep the hole from letting the rain in. I see that and can't get upset about someome not being able to afford to upgrade to 19" alloys and blaming the Government for their terrible misfortune.

An absolutely brilliant point well made.

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by RockIt

A kid that I teach has cardboard in his shoe to keep the hole from letting the rain in. I see that and can't get upset about someome not being able to afford to upgrade to 19" alloys and blaming the Government for their terrible misfortune.

Now that is a true perspective on life as a whole

[Budgie]

Ill start with my own perspective and this will be short and forthcoming
.
1) I work in Aviation which is screwed big time and will be for years to come.
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Now i could be negative and prattle on about it for hours....IM NOT GONNA

We all had it good but nothing last forever,i go to Russia/Middle East to work for long periods of time,not cos i love it ...im just like many here..its WORK and WORK means MONEY and im normal like anyone else.

I wont and dont give a monkeys where they wanna send me at the minute.

You gotta be positive,realistic and damn lucky at the mo.

Chin up everyone,it'll turn around.
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On a personal note,im sorry to hear of everyones plight,i wish you all well in your pursuits and wish in some way i could solve the world...I CANT so SORRY

[CrimsonRedE93]

Originally Posted by Budgie

Chin up everyone,it'll turn around.

Your right it will turn around but will that be after the UK is repossessed

[dxb335d]

Guys, what happens to poor sods with mortgages and they cant pay em? Will the lenders allow time for the person to get another job? anyone in that situation?

[RCUK]

The mortgage companies are being slightly more lenient - if they repossess the house the need to shift it, but there is no-one out there really buying for decent money, so they may as well add to the interest in the hope that the person gets a job and repays what they owe.

Its going to be a bad 18 months still, regardless of who is in power its not going to be pleasant unless the government is willing to cut income tax.

The VAT cut to 15% was limited by the EU as 15% is apparently the minimum permissable level in EU countries.