I must preface this for any newcomers by saying I wrote this in response to all the posts on the previous message board. Once that is back up and viewable, you would understand.. but anyway :
I have been quietly reading and surfing through the various posts on this message board for a good three weeks now. It seems everyday there is another person complaining about something that is going on. It also seems that everyone that posts here likes to finger point, just as in kindergarten, this group blames that group, and that group blames
this group. If you truly have the desperate desire to point fingers, then stop pointing at each other and point to the top, and I mean the very top, for that is who is truly to blame for the mess we see today. However, I digress as my post is not about who is to blame for what, but rather to point out some things that perhaps none of you have taken the time to think about lately.
You should all feel extremely lucky at this point. Why you may ask, well because you still have jobs. As we rapidly approach what would have been my third anniversary with the airline, I can''t help but be saddened. I remember quite vividly a pretty October day last fall.
I was enjoying an afternoon off with friends. When I returned home I had but one message on my answering machine from a dear friend at work. That message, a simple five word sentence changed my life forever. Those five words that had such a large impact on me were, "Brad, they are closing us!".
I understand that I am but one of thousands who have been laid off in the aftermath of bad management, so I am not looking for any pity. I say bad management because we can not blame September 11th for the problems the company faces today. These problems have long been boiling but remained ignored until the pot boiled over and started burning the cooks.
Now imagine yourself in the uniquely painful situation that just over 300 of us found ourselves in last fall in Indianapolis. We were told mid-October our reservations center would close and that we would be furloughed,(why they use the term furloughed I have no idea, we
were, for all intent purposes, fired), but not until the end of January. So we worked a long four months, missing Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years with our families, for a company that didn''t want to keep us around. Through all of it realizing that you may in all honesty never see some of these people again, people you worked with for years and people who had become almost family to you.
January 31st finally came after what was the longest four months of my life. The seven months that have passed thus far have been extremely hard to understand myself, so I can''t even begin to try and make someone else understand. The emotions and situations a person goes through after an event like that can not be explained in words, it is something that you would have to experience to fully appreciate. I can however give you a brief glimpse of what I have gone through, maybe in some way it will make you all more appreciative of what you have left.
The severance checks allow you to continue life as you know it for awhile, but they eventually end. Don''t be fooled into thinking that unemployment checks replace that, because they don''t. There is no need to go into great detail because I would not want to bore you with that much information. However let me say that I am not alone in having to have filed for bankruptcy after being "furloughed". It had to be done in order to protect the home that my partner and I share. As time goes by, bills get further and further behind and the refrigerator gets emptier everyday. All through this one must try to keep a positive attitude as life continues, something much easier said then done.
You may be asking yourself at this point, “Why is it so rough, there are plenty of opportunities to take advantage of”. Well that is true, through new government programs, the powers that be wanted it to seem as though they were helping the poor airline workers who had fallen on hard times as a result of the attacks. I along with many of my former co-workers tried to take advantage of those opportunities. I soon found myself deeply disappointed in the whole state of affairs. The government would pay for schooling, but only for schools they approved of and for programs they felt you were qualified for. So we were subjected to interview after interview and test after test, even having to take the SAT’s again. After the month of tests and paperwork were done, we were told what we could and could not do. I played along as I desperately wanted to take every opportunity to better myself I could find. The classes I ended up in were computer classes in programming and repair, but they were, for lack of a better term, a joke. The certificate I ended up with has gotten me absolutely no where, and I am not alone in that situation. I give the government a few “brownie points” for trying, but trying is all they did, there was no real follow through. I understand that as an adult in this country, no one is responsible for me but me, I don’t always agree with government hand outs, however the opportunity was presented and I tried to take advantage of what turned out to be an empty promise.
I have eventually found a job, something that a lot of my former co-workers have not done yet. The only good thing I can say about it is that is more money than an unemployment check. The economy is not as good as people in the “media” would like you to believe. Look for yourself in the classifieds and try to find a job that offers the same pay as you get now, or even at the same pay the company is offering. I can with almost certainty state that you will not find one. If you are lucky enough to find one though, check out the benefits as even with the cuts and sacrifices the company is asking for, the benefits you will have are far better than any company is offering in the job market today.
I realize I have gone on and on now, but I just am trying to get a point across. Had I been presented with an option, any option, that would have allowed me to keep my job, I would have jumped on it. I didn’t have that chance though, but most of you do. So unless you want to wake up every morning hoping that it has been one long bad dream only to be disappointed with reality, then keep on blaming and pointing. However, if you don’t and think that you are being cheated and stole from, then go on thinking and acting like you are. I can guarantee that if you keep that up, you will join the rest of us in the hellish reality that life now is.
Thank you for your time.
I have been quietly reading and surfing through the various posts on this message board for a good three weeks now. It seems everyday there is another person complaining about something that is going on. It also seems that everyone that posts here likes to finger point, just as in kindergarten, this group blames that group, and that group blames
this group. If you truly have the desperate desire to point fingers, then stop pointing at each other and point to the top, and I mean the very top, for that is who is truly to blame for the mess we see today. However, I digress as my post is not about who is to blame for what, but rather to point out some things that perhaps none of you have taken the time to think about lately.
You should all feel extremely lucky at this point. Why you may ask, well because you still have jobs. As we rapidly approach what would have been my third anniversary with the airline, I can''t help but be saddened. I remember quite vividly a pretty October day last fall.
I was enjoying an afternoon off with friends. When I returned home I had but one message on my answering machine from a dear friend at work. That message, a simple five word sentence changed my life forever. Those five words that had such a large impact on me were, "Brad, they are closing us!".
I understand that I am but one of thousands who have been laid off in the aftermath of bad management, so I am not looking for any pity. I say bad management because we can not blame September 11th for the problems the company faces today. These problems have long been boiling but remained ignored until the pot boiled over and started burning the cooks.
Now imagine yourself in the uniquely painful situation that just over 300 of us found ourselves in last fall in Indianapolis. We were told mid-October our reservations center would close and that we would be furloughed,(why they use the term furloughed I have no idea, we
were, for all intent purposes, fired), but not until the end of January. So we worked a long four months, missing Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years with our families, for a company that didn''t want to keep us around. Through all of it realizing that you may in all honesty never see some of these people again, people you worked with for years and people who had become almost family to you.
January 31st finally came after what was the longest four months of my life. The seven months that have passed thus far have been extremely hard to understand myself, so I can''t even begin to try and make someone else understand. The emotions and situations a person goes through after an event like that can not be explained in words, it is something that you would have to experience to fully appreciate. I can however give you a brief glimpse of what I have gone through, maybe in some way it will make you all more appreciative of what you have left.
The severance checks allow you to continue life as you know it for awhile, but they eventually end. Don''t be fooled into thinking that unemployment checks replace that, because they don''t. There is no need to go into great detail because I would not want to bore you with that much information. However let me say that I am not alone in having to have filed for bankruptcy after being "furloughed". It had to be done in order to protect the home that my partner and I share. As time goes by, bills get further and further behind and the refrigerator gets emptier everyday. All through this one must try to keep a positive attitude as life continues, something much easier said then done.
You may be asking yourself at this point, “Why is it so rough, there are plenty of opportunities to take advantage of”. Well that is true, through new government programs, the powers that be wanted it to seem as though they were helping the poor airline workers who had fallen on hard times as a result of the attacks. I along with many of my former co-workers tried to take advantage of those opportunities. I soon found myself deeply disappointed in the whole state of affairs. The government would pay for schooling, but only for schools they approved of and for programs they felt you were qualified for. So we were subjected to interview after interview and test after test, even having to take the SAT’s again. After the month of tests and paperwork were done, we were told what we could and could not do. I played along as I desperately wanted to take every opportunity to better myself I could find. The classes I ended up in were computer classes in programming and repair, but they were, for lack of a better term, a joke. The certificate I ended up with has gotten me absolutely no where, and I am not alone in that situation. I give the government a few “brownie points” for trying, but trying is all they did, there was no real follow through. I understand that as an adult in this country, no one is responsible for me but me, I don’t always agree with government hand outs, however the opportunity was presented and I tried to take advantage of what turned out to be an empty promise.
I have eventually found a job, something that a lot of my former co-workers have not done yet. The only good thing I can say about it is that is more money than an unemployment check. The economy is not as good as people in the “media” would like you to believe. Look for yourself in the classifieds and try to find a job that offers the same pay as you get now, or even at the same pay the company is offering. I can with almost certainty state that you will not find one. If you are lucky enough to find one though, check out the benefits as even with the cuts and sacrifices the company is asking for, the benefits you will have are far better than any company is offering in the job market today.
I realize I have gone on and on now, but I just am trying to get a point across. Had I been presented with an option, any option, that would have allowed me to keep my job, I would have jumped on it. I didn’t have that chance though, but most of you do. So unless you want to wake up every morning hoping that it has been one long bad dream only to be disappointed with reality, then keep on blaming and pointing. However, if you don’t and think that you are being cheated and stole from, then go on thinking and acting like you are. I can guarantee that if you keep that up, you will join the rest of us in the hellish reality that life now is.
Thank you for your time.
(] I am sorrow to hear about your bk I feel for you and your family. I have also suffered since furlough - I was gone in Oct, 1 month to the day of 9/11. I have not been able to find anything except retail stores and McDee etc. I have had to tell my son he must postpone college for 1 yr or take out horrible student loans. Your post offers some sanity in the chaos of US world. I hope that everyone who has the option to vote on TA thinks about what life is like after US because it is not easy. I too would love to still be working and have a chance to see my US family on a daily basis again. I am fortunate that I still have a chance - although a slim one - of being able to return one day. Best of luck to you and your family on the new job.
