I can't chat now I need to run out and buy some Krugerrands.

Seriously I am not sure where this is all going. A few years ago I spoke with our financial adviser and told her no risk, absolutely no risk as I would rather make a low return of a few percent than no return or loss. Wife and I can wait, not like we count on it. Talking with several money people I know they all seem to think recession is going to happen. I feel bad for the young who have worked hard and are seeing their investments shrink.

Anyway I don't want to drag the thread off topic so I'll let it go at that,

Ron

 

I feel bad for the young who have worked hard and are seeing their investments shrink.

Not sure if you noticed, but cash is shrinking, too.

 

My investments have been gaining, not a lot, with ups and downs, but overall gaining ~5%. My dad was of the graduate and get a job, then in 3 years get a better job philosophy, and did that for ~15 years getting a nice bump in pay and responsibilities each time plus new experience. We got dragged up and down the east coast from Florida to Maine and in college I had lived in more houses than I was years old. Even when he settled into the company he finally stayed with he moved and traveled a lot. Me, I graduated, moved to a small town, got a job, stayed put, and built a house. I've had enough with traveling from town to town like a gypsy. But, being mobile and willing to go means better pay if you like that lifestyle. My kids grew up in the same house and when graduated took off for greener pastures and haven't stopped yet. Ces't la vie...

 

Not sure if you noticed, but cash is shrinking, too.

Or so it appears.

I have two uneducated cousins who've worked grunt labor jobs for all of their lives. Surprisingly, they've never been richer. If you'd bring up the price of eggs to them, they'd laugh in your face. I know people who are noticing price increases but it's mainly impacting... people who haven't looked for new, higher paying job and small business owners who are bad at raising prices (or afraid to raise prices) of their product and some of the elderly on fixed incomes - but Social security are discovering an 8% increase as of January.

Wage inflation is outpacing product inflation - if you haven't taken advantage of it, you may not be a go-getter. Not charging jobs in the 2020-2023 timeframe may be viewed as a red-flag on resumes in the future. You'll get a "not motivated" label or "not open to change" label.

 

Not sure if you noticed, but cash is shrinking, too.

Do you mean the amount of cash being used for transactions vs the use of credit/debit cards? ... that seems to be the worldwide tendency at this moment. In fact, I think the Netherlands no longer (or very seldom) accept cash for any sort of transaction anymore. Not even to buy the newspaper. It effectively tightens the government's grip on economic surveillance ... an Orwellian situation if there ever was one. And I don't like it one bit.

 

Do you mean the amount of cash being used for transactions vs the use of credit/debit cards?

No. I mean the dollar you earned in 2019 and put in the bank is only worth $0.80 today.

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/us-credit-card-giant-capital-one-cuts-more-than-1100-tech-jobs

NEW YORK – Capital One Financial eliminated hundreds of technology positions this week, the result of the credit card giant spending years investing in systems meant to improve its efficiency.

More than 1,100 workers were affected, according to a source familiar with the matter. Those employees have been invited to apply for other roles in the bank, with hundreds of open positions across the company, Capital One said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-layoffs-alphabet-jobs-pichai-email-slap-in-the-face-2023-1

Welcome to the real world.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-layoffs-alphabet-jobs-pichai-email-slap-in-the-face-2023-1

Welcome to the real world.

I got religion one dark gray afternoon when my mad friend observed: "You realize that EVERYTHING you are working on today will be landfill in 10 years, or less."

Get in, take their money, get out, and FARE THEE WELL!

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-layoffs-alphabet-jobs-pichai-email-slap-in-the-face-2023-1

Welcome to the real world.

They need to grow up and get over it. Many companies let people know that they've been laid off by having security come to their office/desk/cubicle/whatever, in plain view of coworkers, with the paperwork and an empty box and stand there while they clear out their belongings, turn over any company property, and escort them out of the building. This is done to make it very difficult for an employee being let go, for any reason, to decide to do anything to damage anything, such as deleting files. I don't like it, but I do understand where they are coming from -- in many cases it's hard-earned lessons from someone that did do something after finding out they were being terminated while they still had access to cause harm.

 

I don't think the guy has much to worry about. He was a Level 6 Software Engineer at Google. Salary +/-10% of mid-point of $230k plus years of equity bonuses.

https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/programming/google-software-engineer-levels

 

They need to grow up and get over it. Many companies let people know that they've been laid off by having security come to their office/desk/cubicle/whatever, in plain view of coworkers, with the paperwork and an empty box and stand there while they clear out their belongings, turn over any company property, and escort them out of the building. This is done to make it very difficult for an employee being let go, for any reason, to decide to do anything to damage anything, such as deleting files. I don't like it, but I do understand where they are coming from -- in many cases it's hard-earned lessons from someone that did do something after finding out they were being terminated while they still had access to cause harm.

We once had a QC Manager. Comes in one morning and is yelling from his office "who put these boxes i9n here"? Seriously he had no clue what it was all about. The Quality VP shows up with two guards and game over.

Ron

 

When I was RIFed I was out recovering from having the C4-C7 vertebrae fused in my neck and all their bone spurs removed that were impinging on my spinal cord. A couple of months after surgery I asked my neurosurgeon if I could return to work and was told "only if you sit at a desk and don't lift anything" because your vertebrae are not fully fused yet. So, I called my boss and he told me "Great, we've sure needed and missed you, I'll see you in the morning". A few hours later he called me to tell me there was a snag and I'd have to come in and be cleared by the company Doctor first so come in Monday afternoon and see the personnel manager and we would set it up. So, when I came in, I was informed that during the last roll-back (which occurred when I was out) my job had been eliminated and was going to be performed by contractors in the future. I laughed my ass off. Sure, call in a contractor @ 2AM when a key production facilities control system is down (costing thousands of dollars an hour in lost revenue) and just see how long it will take to get someone on site (and at what cost) who knows absolutely nothing about our operations areas control systems and their programming! What I did lose out on was my disability insurance as I was not allowed to attempt to do my job, which was very unlikely due to the after-surgery problems I was still experiencing but was given 2.5 years of continued monthly severance pay (1month for every year employed). Less than 6 months later the entire company, Hercules Inc., ceased to exist and our 401k matching company stock was useless for anything but toilet paper. I didn't even get to clear out my office as I was unable to physically do so. They boxed it all up, bookcases of references, couple file cabinets full of project notes and proposals folders, everything in both of my desks, and set the couple stacks of boxes out at the front gate for my wife to collect. Hasta la vista baby!

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/goo...fornia-jobs-including-massage-therapists.html

Google job cuts hit 1,800 employees in California, including 27 massage therapists

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/goo...fornia-jobs-including-massage-therapists.html

Google job cuts hit 1,800 employees in California, including 27 massage therapists

Any word on how many massage therapists remain employed by Google? Were these 27 therapists just the number needed to support the 1773 employees that were cut?

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/goo...fornia-jobs-including-massage-therapists.html

Google job cuts hit 1,800 employees in California, including 27 massage therapists

Times must be tough. They're laying off essential staff.

 

Times must be tough. They're laying off essential staff.

We don't know how many remain. If the current ratio of massage therapists to employees is still 1:66, then the laid off therapists are just proportional to the rest of the job cuts. You cannot make conclusions without all of the data - but doing so seems to be the trend with people who want to form a narrative instead of report facts, right?

 

Times must be tough. They're laying off essential staff.

Boris will still be there.

 

https://www.axios.com/2023/01/24/media-layoffs-2023-vox-nbc-wapo
Media layoffs loom large over 2023

 

https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-...nuses-after-disastrous-quarterly-results.html
Intel slashes wages, bonuses after disastrous quarterly
results

That's not good. Expect to see more stories like this.