Credit crunch stories - got any?

[M_B]

The factory my step father works at produces various types of bricks for the building industry. During the housing boom the factory would produce bricks day and night, but now they are down to 5 days per month and a single shift at that. His income is now less than a third of what it was.

Last week I got a taxi home (London private taxi in Notting Hill) so I picked the drivers brains. He claimed half the staff at his taxi company had been let go and the other half told that if they could find work elsewhere then they should take it. He expected to lose his job next year and as it is he said he was barely getting by.

These two cases show me something that isn't shown in government figures - Many people are simply working part time now waiting for the axe to fall.

[Pondlife]

Speaking of depreciation, 06 M5 500bhp 10k miles > £61k new
sub 30k

Do they have any more?

[gingerjedi]

That's the spirit. Maybe you can arrange for them to sell a kidney too? I mean, they'd still have three between them.

I was thinking of their pride and standard of living above all else, it can’t be nice going into retirement as a bankrupt failure, Citizens advice said the same as me.

The inheritance remark was tongue in cheek BTW.

[zara_backdog]

Both my Sister-in-law and her husband have been made redundant - last day for them is the 19th Jan. At least their Mortgage has been paid off ( her father-in-law did this a couple of years back), however here are a few other couples who work in the same office who are also loosing both their jobs who are not that luckly. Strange as they work for the DSS

[SantaClaus]

I received a call from an agent asking if I was available for a contract. I told them to call me in six months' time when I should be available.

Same thing happened yesterday.

Credit Crunch looking OK here (though I'm certainly not counting chickens... )

When an agent calls, its not because they're interested.
It's because:

A) They want to know when your position is vacant so they can fill it.
B) Your managers details and any other leads that means the said agent wont be living in a cardboard box this christmas.

If there are any agents left who are "just updating details" by January, I'll eat my red hat.

[Jog On]

I've been benched twice since June.

Got quite a good gig now though and plan B is picking up

All the SMEs are turning to the web for better ROI as yellow pages, mailshots etc are proving a bit costly BOOMED!

[minestrone]

Everyone was looking forward to the work's christmas lunch until someone walked past the place we booked at the weekend and noticed it had closed down

[Ruprect]

I had a snack of honeycomb covered in chocolate, paid for using my mastercard. does that count?

[Liability]

Good friend of mine who owns a building firm tells me he has never been busier?! Me thinking he taking the Piss laughed - sod was telling the truth! He as around 4 Loft Conversions and 1 sizeable extention to do and book till August - with him turning work down. Asking him again if he was pulling my plonka - he said Nope - word of mouth and people not moving and extending seems to be the flavour of the month [I tried to tell it MONTH it maybe!]

Neighbour - Electrician - good guy - is turning away work!

Only thing I can see from the above is that the cheap and crap quality-work Poles have gone in the droves?

Not sure - but that was some good news albeit for two people in trades that are getting hit hard.

[Beefy198]

My landlord - who does building work, plastering, windows etc. etc. - says that he's never been busier. It looks like a lot of people who were buying and selling their way up the property ladder have now realised that they've got to stay put and are doing up their homes instead...

The only way it has affected my family is my brother and his girlfriend were laid off, but in the case of my brother he knew that would happen about a year ago so it wasn't a surprise or linked to the economy. She found new work and he's now working as a finance temp.