QOD

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1. Delaware Dem says:

   March 31, 2009 at 11:05 am

   Pay cut, obviously.

2. Unstable Isotope says:

   March 31, 2009 at 11:06 am

   It depends, probably on how many jobs are being cut. If I have a good chance of staying I’d probably prefer job cuts to pay reductions. I think any pay reduction would have to be short-term in duration to keep the morale up. Of course, if I knew I would lose my job, I’d probably prefer a pay cut.

3. Unstable Isotope says:

   March 31, 2009 at 11:07 am

   DD,

   I don’t think it’s that obvious. I read somewhere that most people prefer job cuts to pay cuts (as long as it’s not their job being cut).

4. liberalgeek says:

   March 31, 2009 at 11:12 am

   yeah, if you give a 1000 people a 10% pay cut you piss off 1000 people. If you lay off 100, you piss off 100 or so people.

5. Delaware Dem says:

   March 31, 2009 at 11:39 am

   UI…

   I read the question as having a choice between losing my job or taking a pay cut. If I had a choice, I would take a pay cut.

6. Donhusseinsquishviti says:

   March 31, 2009 at 11:51 am

   DD, correct

7. pandora says:

   March 31, 2009 at 11:59 am

   I’m with DD and DV on this. The people I know who have lost their jobs would have preferred a pay cut.

   Since this 8% cut was announced I have spoken with a few (approx 18) State employees. Needless to say, and understandably so, none are happy. They all have ideas of what departments should be cut. Not one suggested their own department.

8. edisonkitty says:

   March 31, 2009 at 12:00 pm

   Pay cut no. Job cut, maybe. I am old enough to have lived through this before (Bush I). Taking a 6% pay cut and hoping the company would weather the storm and return the favor was a mistake that set back a career and crippled a marriage. A job cut under the right circumstances can be a better deal.

9. anon says:

   March 31, 2009 at 12:01 pm

   It depends on how much pay you started with and how much is cut.

   For example, if your remaining pay is little enough it may reach that magic tipping point where it is just as well to cancel the day care and stay at home.

10. edisonkitty says:

    March 31, 2009 at 12:03 pm

    State employees are probably the exception to my comment 8. They work for one of the last employers where longevity actually matters in terms of career advancement and benefits. For them a pay cut is likely better than a job loss.

11. Mark H says:

    March 31, 2009 at 12:29 pm

    “They all have ideas of what departments should be cut. Not one suggested their own department.”

    Then you may have not talked with me yet 🙂 Our IT staff is 3/4 of a person over (We need 2.25 people). What may come of this is that more consolidation of IT staff throughout the State. We have one IT staffer whose main function is Web Site updates and Design. Certainly that position could be shared with other agencies without adversely affecting the security of our data (The biggest reason that I couldn’t {or shouldn’t} be managing another agencies networks is that to do so, I would need to be given administrative access to their servers/PC’s which probably would cause more security issues) To update web sites, you just email the web person the update and let them go about their work.

    Although I’d certainly agree that generally, most people couldn’t look seriously at their own agency and come up with where the positions that could be cut should come from.

    “It depends on how much pay you started with and how much is cut”
    This hits me at home. My wife suffers from a back injury caused by a traffic accident and has been eligible for medical retirement for a while. With this 8% cut, she is probably going to go ahead and retire.

    It’s a tough question DV, and my answer is: IT Depends 🙂

12. Donhusseinsquishviti says:

    March 31, 2009 at 12:44 pm

    IT always does

13. anon says:

    March 31, 2009 at 12:54 pm

    Speaking of job loss, here is a public service announcement:

    Walgreen’s will be offering free clinic visits to unemployed people and their dependents at its in-store clinics.

    If you didn’t know, Walgreens and some other chains have created real in-store clinics staffed by nurse practitioners.

    There are some limitations and catches, but all in all this seems like a good thing.

14. Unstable Isotope says:

    March 31, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    anon,

    Of course it’s a good thing if it helps people out but it burns me that we don’t have universal health care yet.

    DV and DD,

    I still think it depends, especially how long and how much. If I was forced to take a pay cut, I’d rather get it in a furlough so I’d at least get to take the day off.

15. Donhusseinsquishviti says:

    March 31, 2009 at 1:04 pm

    I think the idea that you’d be able to find work right away is the missing point. It’s a recession and finding work isn’t easy. Once you lose it, you most likely lose your salary, you lose your time and pention/vested balance and time, you lose a ton that you can’t just get back at the next place you work. Assuming you even get back

16. liberalgeek says:

    March 31, 2009 at 1:10 pm

    The furlough question was raised. The furlough money is hard to actually get out of the system, as much of it would involve paying overtime for people covering the shift for the furloughed employee.

17. Mark H says:

    March 31, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    LG, Maryland made it work, so I’m guessing it could have been done, just not probably before July 1. I’d also throw the concept of a 4 day work week out there for cost savings (I work one now). My car insurance etc is based on 4 days of commuting not 5. But I digress.
    The across the board cut was the easiest way to get the 91 million dollar figure quickly

18. Jeremy Filliben says:

    March 31, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    I’d take a job cut any day, because I have confidence in my skills and confidence in my ability to find another job. Plus, I would likely receive a severance package with a layoff (increasing my income), rather than a pay cut which would reduce my income.

    This brings up a good point… We would all be much better off if our retirement and healthcare were not tied to a specific employer. 401(k) plans have done wonders in separating employment and retirement. Only government employers (state, federal, etc) and a few large companies are clinging to the old pension system. Once our government wises up and replaces pensions with a defined contribution plan, that separation will be complete.

    If we could add some type of portable health insurance system, we would remove the primary ‘fear factors’ that keep people working at a specific employer. Once we all have the freedom to change jobs, the economy will benefit as resources will be allocated more efficiently.

19. anon says:

    March 31, 2009 at 2:40 pm

    I’d take a job cut any day, because I have confidence in my skills and confidence in my ability to find another job.

    In normal times this is a good position to take… but have you felt the cold winds blowing in the job market lately? There is no money moving in the economy right now.

20. Rod says:

    March 31, 2009 at 3:41 pm

    Pay cut. I had to start out on the bottom too many times in my career. Plus, I enjoy my work.

21. Dana says:

    March 31, 2009 at 6:18 pm

    Back in elementary school, the playground choice was: if you were standing up to your neck in urine, and someone threw a bucket of feces at your head, would you duck? (It was phrased slightly differently, of course.)

    Well, this is pretty much the same question: damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

    The real decision point, it would seem to me, is based on two things: the prospects for getting another job quickly, and whether the pay cut would be tolerable or set you into a completely failing situation.

22. Donhusseinsquishviti says:

    March 31, 2009 at 6:32 pm

    as good as a non-answer as Dana will give on any subject

23. Dana says:

    March 31, 2009 at 6:40 pm

    Thanks, Mr Viti — I think.

24. David says:

    April 1, 2009 at 12:44 am

    Pay cut, I would have the confidence that I could earn it back with a promotion. With the state situation it is a no brainer because it is only a temporary cut.