Well our first round of layoff notices are being prepared for Feb 2nd Hopefully I can dodge the bullet for a while

 

Pull a Neo. Dodge the bullet. Or maybe, think "What would Cartman do?". Neo pre and during the meeting and Cartman if the notice has your name on it.

I cannot see Obama being sweet on "dirty oil" in Alberta. But then again, having an oil source in Canada is better than the alternatives we/they currently have. I hear things are not good from my executive contact in one of the bigger oil companies in Calgary regardless of Obama. Obama might be a nail in the coffin or he might be thinking in terms of national security and thumbs up on Alberta.

Last time I looked, the USA and the world needed oil. Until a super electric car comes along, still need a source for the electricity people forget.....Kreskin can figure it out.

In any case, it is all beyond your control. Think of alternatives, think outside the normal ideas you may have in the past. Start from the "crazy" end of things and see what comes through. You have more skills than some oil company pays you for, don't you? Everyone does.

Keep us in the loop, we will all hope for the best.

 

haha, pull a Neo and then a Cartman if things go bad

The only thing I don't understand about the "electric car" theory of getting the US off oil is where does the energy come from? The electrical grid is already taxed to the max, how do they intend to make it power cars too?

 

Off the grid is not going to happen for a long time. One still needs to have a power source and this means using the old friends and not some magic source. I was at a closed door meeting with a couple hundred others last year for the Enmax company. None of this is secret, the company is very open about the plan. The CEO presented a very detailed future for the company, he covered this very question and for Enmax it meant coal power to up the capacity of the grid. They were all talking about electric demands from the upcoming electric type vehicles. Now when we hear coal we think "dirty", the current technology available seemed to take care of this concern. Alberta has plenty of coal from my memory of the presentation. Also, it included wind farms which Enmax has already a financial relationship with the major players in Alberta. The CEO was terrific I thought, well spoken and very honest about it all.

It appears coal and wind will save the day. All our vehicles other than semi trucks, jets, etc will be in some way hybrids or full on electric. Our homes and offices will have micro-generators just like they all have old school furnaces now, they will sell the excess energy back to the power companies. In the off hours these micro-generators continue to operate and the excess is diverted to the power companies for their use and storage for others. I have seen this in use in homes in Japan back in 2007. The Enmax CEO spoke about these micro-generators as well.

There is very little reason to need any vehicle larger than the cars they drive in Europe and Asia, we in NA are fools bluffing our way through the auto industry. Smaller homes, smaller cars, higher fuel prices and way less waste overall. Imagine if the USA was free from oil needs abroad. Would they be involved in the middle east? One can present a case for and against, what we do know is this oil policy is expensive. I heard the USA in Iraq is costing $80,000 a minute. Pick a number really, off the charts once the cost of war is calculated.

One wonders if wind farms will pay as well as oil in Calgary? When do we see a tower with a wind farm logo on it? Blade Runner 2030?

When you go into the "lay-off" meeting, if there is a security check it is a very bad sign. I know of one person who was let go in November, she got six months salary and some other goodies. Re-educating herself now, really one has to be above the curve and be collecting new and in demand skills today and not when it all hits the fan. There is an enormous demand for mechanics now, as an example. Those specializing in hybrid and conversion technology will survive, as will bike mechanics...perhaps horse people as well.

We will be Amish. So it appears.

 

meh, wind

With oil production facilities I have yet to ever do one that is unique, they NEED us to design them as if we were doing it from scratch. The good thing about oil sand is they constantly find new ways to improve on how they separate and process it. New facilities, new technologoies, new everything.

With wind you bascially order the turbine and tower... then just copy a bunch of them onto an optimal location on a terrain/wind speed map. No real creative thinking needed. Wind is boring... I could design a wind farm in an afternoon if I didn't fall asleep from the sheer boredom of it.

The Micro-generaters is a good idea, maybe use natural gas... or oil to power them

The future is bleek

 

Well one of our clients totally backed out of a project last week, looking at the number of people on that job basically half of our department is going to start getting pink slips either this week or next

I have a good chance to avoid the wave, but who knows.

 

Not the best work environment, like sitting on death-row. One day they may come for thee. Time to start stealing office supplies and light bulbs for resale on eBay. How many desk chairs can you Fit in the Fit?

If you were a woman, you could at least take maternity leave, or parental leave if you had that choice. Gotta look at all the options. That wind farm is looking more solid by the week, you've had a week to get the micro generator idea off the ground. Tesla could have done it over the weekend. Channel your Tesla....

 

I know!! It totally sucks waiting to see if the hammer will drop... on you or your coworkers! I can barely work well and everybody is demoralized, very bad environment when this kind of stuff goes down. I assume the next two weeks will likely be like this.

 

Well we lost a lot of good guys today... I don't know what the damage is but it was extensive and hit every department we have hard.

Big meeting(s) tomorrow, the CEO is addressing the entire company in small groups throughout the day.

 

Spray yourself with Teflon, slip right through the event untouched. Those wind farms are a callin', same situation at my company. I have a ton of hours banked so the pain is less when we have nothing to do and are sent home for a few days. Still though, one wonders if it is better to leap or be pushed from the company. We are supposed to be busy starting in March, but if companies are reducing staff it hits all companies in one way or another.

Sounds like there will be a few drinks at the end of the day for your people.

 

Is tough to watch, some of the guys look pretty beat up about getting laid off.

I am not too worried for the moment, I think the meetings will be a general update and action plan on how the company is going to react and try to adapt to our current situation in the global market.

Better to be pushed, then you at least have the option to apply for EI

 

.....stupid company.... making everybody take salary cuts

 

I feel for you man, hope it's not a huge drop for you and you're still able to manage.

 

It is rough. We are employed by the hospital but the doctor retired at the end of December. We are working on copying records and I am closing out the accounts. We are working week by week - and never know which Friday they will say your done. I have put out some applications, networked my resume to some people that have good contacts and just praying for another door to open. I will file for unemployment once we are done as the hospital is in financial crisis and the only jobs opened are for nurses. I just hope that I will not be off too long -

Cat :x

 

Notices of imminent wage cuts went out today, apparently later this week we will be getting the numbers to go with it.

 

I was under the impression the drop in your company stock price was the wage cut. Got you coming and going these days, time to trim back on all extras for a while. Good thing you have an economical car and the smarts to have saved a bit for a rainy day.

 

It isn't that economical... I keep buying parts for it

Yep time to tighten the belt a bit

 

Must be a 12 Step program for that? Better start parting the car....

 

It's kinda funny, I had a friend mentioned to me that he heard from a friend of his, who's friend said that my company is planning on shutting down their Calgary office. First I've heard of this, and knowing that the company I work for just recieved a 10 year contract extension with our biggest customer makes me wonder where/how these rumors get started...

Plus, the Calgary office is the only office lol...

 

Is an Engineering firm? I have heard rumors that Bantrel might shut down for a bit, but they are sketchy at best.