The L Word

The L word has been bandied around the office this morning. No, I wish it was love. The L word I refer to is layoffs. Government tend to fall behind the rest of the workforce in terms of impact. So after most of the general industry layoffs are done, then government gets its budget and starts trimming staff. We follow about six months behind the rest of the economy. Generally that means that we also recover slower as well.

This morning is an all staff meeting to discuss the situation. The budget cuts will be higher than expected and I'm suddenly worrying for my job. I know that many others have been affected more so I'm not whining. I look at my sister who has been out of work for a while now and realize how lucky I am. I still have a job. And I know that if I do lose my job I'll find another one. I'm willing to dig ditches if that's what pays the bills. I've decided that the only job I don't think I could do is animal processing (the industry term for slaughtering). Considering I can't even bring myself to eat meat, I probably wouldn't have the stomach for creating it.

Here is the weird part, I've been looking for a new job for over two years now. I should actually welcome a layoff. It would force me to be less picky (or at least give me the excuse to be). I've been wanting to get back into a library setting for a while now. But ever since Jeff said he is going back to school I have been clutching this job. It will pay the bills when he's not working. So suddenly I'm worried for my job. I have at least some headway. I should know in advance about layoffs and they won't take effect until July 1. But it's what I've been thinking about this morning.