gooberking: Well I can say I'm not shocked they are closing down, but I can't say I wasn't expecting something quite that drastic.
My skill set doesn't exactly cast a wide net employment wise, and I'm nearing the end of my rope already finance wise, so I'm going to be a little nervous if the magic job fairies don't turn up soon.
Dischord: Certainly wish you the best, not sure of your background, but don't despair over your "skill set " not casting a wide net. Have been there myself, on both ends, and what I never got the benefit of, but I always looked for, was character more than paper; plenty of smaller enterprises look for the same.
A genius, with advanced degrees, isn't worth a damn if they don't have the personal character and ethics to get the job done. As mentioned above, you have the work ethic, have survived many purges, and are where you are not because of anything you did or didn't do, but because company logic determined that operations were no longer economically feasible in your area; nothing personal against you at all.
Please don't sell yourself short, and kick it just as you have been.
I'm in a rather specialized field with no actual education. The only other game in town is a much more successful company, but unfortunately, most my co-workers migrated from there and universally paint it as a bit of an abusive place to work. I may be able to transition to print and sign shops if there are any nearby. So I'm not completely without options. I am packing a letter of recommendation from the owner. Never had one of those before. Hoping that will come in handy.
Red_Avatar: Exactly a year ago, me and me 30 co-colleagues discovered our company was going to become bankrupt. A few weeks before the holidays, we heard the news that we weren't going to get our November pay checks, nor our Christmas bonus and the banks refused to let go of any money for us. This lead to all 30 of us being without a dime for 2 and a half months without any legal aid being possible. It was only a month after the official bankruptsy the 23rd of January this year that we started to receive the money we were owed.
I won't lie to you: it was very hard. Many had been working there for over 10 years, myself 7 and a half years. It was very very hard saying goodbye to my job even though the last year had been stressful and hard. But seeing everyone move on when you were like a family for a long time is the hardest part.
Time moves on, however, and I have a new job now, although it's very different in atmosphere. For many colleagues, the change was a positive one, however so don't despair - it can be good to be forced to move on and even though it will be hard for you for a while, it may benefit you in the long run.
That sucks. I always hear stories about people not getting paid. I can say that never happened to us. Apparently the main reason for that is the owner has been paying us out of his own pocket. He is rather successful (from what I can tell) in real estate, but his son said he was running out of money to do that and couldn't keep asking him to. That part kinda sucks because while the owners have had to make some hard choices along the way, they have always been very respectful of us as people. I feel like that is rare. Very few people are likely blessed with bosses like we had, but I hope to find out I'm wrong.
