Job "Security"...

{MySpace post from 2/17/09}

These are rough times that we're living in right now. The economy has gone to absolute shit and people are getting laid off left and right. To say that this is "crazy" is a huge understatement. As much as I would love to work on music full time, it doesn't pay the bills...so I need to have my day job.

It's definitely not my career, but I work as a recruiter (aka headhunter), where day in and day out I'm on the phones with people, trying to find them a job. Yeah, there's some people who get fired b/c they pull some stupid shit (like one guy who got caught sleeping in his car in the middle of his shift. Really?!? C'mon dogg...). But then there's people who've been with their company for 20+ years and are getting let go. As one guy told me last week, "I'm 55 years old. Who's really going to hire me now when they can get someone in their 20's at a lower salary?" These are people who show up to work on time every day, bust their ass, and truly EARN their paychecks. They would've never imagined that it could happen to them, but it is...and it's happening at an alarming rate.

What I've learned from this experience is that no one's job is safe right now. There's no such thing as "job security" these days. Despite all the constant reassurances by the head honcho at work ("don't worry about it guys. Even in this rough economy we're still a billion dollar company"), I can't help but feel real stressed out right now. She called a mandatory meeting at 7:45 tomorrow morning, and we were instructed to reschedule all interviews and client meetings...which I've never heard her request before. On top of that, it just so happens that ALL the other offices in the West region will be conducting the same meeting...at the exact same time.

There's been a lot of speculation going on amongst the co-workers -- and most of it revolves around some major lay offs that are about to take place. As much as I try to stay away from office gossip, this is an all too real possibility and I'm hella trippin' right now. I've been trying to convince myself that there's no point in worrying about it until it actually happens, but I haven't had any success with that.

I know what it's like to be unemployed. Will that happen again? Will I be jobless by the time I come home tomorrow night? Or what if I make the final cut? Do I celebrate in the presence of other people's misery? What if my friends/co-workers get the boot?

Whoever it is that's reading this, please don't take this as self-pity or anything like that. I'm not saying my struggle is any more or any less significant than yours, but it's a struggle nonetheless. This is real talk. This is Real Life.

But as my co-worker said at lunch today: "whether you live rich or you live poor, you're still living."

Word.