I have mentioned before during the election that I like to keep politics out of my blog, so if you think my views on the economic crisis are "political", well... too bad. I don't think my views are politically influenced at all, they are based on my experience and observations.
This week I had only my second job interview in two months. Both of the jobs I have interviewed for have been a step down from my experience level and a 20% pay cut from my last job (adjusted for exchange rate and cost of living). I think the biggest problem right now is that when I go into an interview I don't know that I am the only overqualified candidate. Its quite possible all of my competition are equally experienced people who were laid off in this shrinking marketing industry and would be willing to do anything related to marketing.
I first started hearing "Credit Crunch" used to describe the financial crisis when I moved over here to the UK and to be honest I am sick of hearing it, it just doesn't seem like an appropriate description. This is an economic crisis and "credit crunch" sounds like some kind of fad workout.
The economic problems in the North of England are worse than anywhere else in the country, and based on the culture of spending over saving its probably much worse here than in most parts of the US. I have discussed this with many of my friends and they point out that most working class people don't save. They don't have retirement funds and often not even a savings account. Its just not a part of the culture to encourage saving. Even with my tiny (and getting tinier) 401K I am already far ahead of most of the working class people here in the North in terms of savings, even those who have been working for decades longer than I have. I heard a statistic on the news the other day that as many as 1 in every 250 mortgages are in danger of going into foreclosure.
I have been paying attention to the news lately and I am happy to see some positive things happening like executives' salaries being capped. If there is one thing that I learned from my time working in a very corporate environment and interacting on a daily basis with high-paid executives from Fotune 500 companies it is that a high salary doesn't always reflect the level of talent or value to the company. It is easy to tell the difference between an executive who has made it to the top through their merit and which ones have made it to the top through their charisma, or else just plain nepotism and cronyism.
The one defining difference is that the executives who are talented are always without fail penny-pinchers down to the cost of copy paper and staples and in times like this even their own salaries and bonuses. They understand that running a business is about making the most of every penny. Keeping a tight reign on the bottom line is always their top priority. The execs that fit the mold of the latter are usually focused on what they need to do to get the next bonus or business trip/all expense paid vacation. These people drain a budget so fast because on top of how expensive they are to keep, their value to the company is usually in the red. Their departments are usually hemorrhaging money due to poor management and terrible business strategies. They mimic the moves of savvy colleagues without considering the relevance to their own initiatives and jump onto trends way too late.
I think a big reason we are in this financial crisis is because the scales were tipped far off balance and there were far too many of the charismatic and well-connected execs and not nearly enough of the people at the top who are actually talented and accomplished businessmen.
As evidence of this, I was watching a session of Parliament the other day and they were questioning the heads of several failed banks. Out of all of these men who were the heads of major banks, not a single one had any banking experience at all. Not even one of them. How does someone become the head of a bank without having any experience or education in banking? It is pretty irresponsible to put someone so overqualified in charge of people's money.
Countries the world over are capping salaries and bonuses and I had to laugh out loud when I read quotes from some critics claiming that these restrictions were going to "chase away talent". Quite the contrary. This is going to cut the fat and open doors for the truly talented and conscientious execs to take their places. For every overpaid exec there are plenty of experienced and talented people waiting for the opportunity to get into those top positions and actually do something with them. This is the time where the scales need to be tipped in the opposite direction, its time for some house cleaning and its the only way for businesses to keep afloat in the face of such a huge financial crisis.
There is still a long way to go though, of the £1 billion given to British banks meant to go to small business loans and other loans to stimulate the economy, only about £12 million in loans have actually been granted. It appears its going to take a lot of hand-holding to get the banks and businesses through this crisis.
One thing happening here that makes me a bit sad is that while the bankers and executives are moaning over cuts to their 6 and 7 figure salaries, the working class people who are struggling are still willing to make sacrifices for others. I hear stories on the news all the time of workers banding together and offering to cut their own hours in order to save a coworker from being laid off, all of this is happening while the people at the top are resisting pay cuts and would rather sacrifice someone else's job than their own lifestyle. Its incredibly sad that in this crisis the people taking the brunt of the load for corporate irresponsibility are the average people.
I am really encouraged by the level of international cooperation. There are blanket changes being made and governments aren't trying to solve their problems on their own. They are really looking to the international community and coming together to present a united front against corporate irresponsibility. In an environment where corporations have a foothold on every continent this is really necessary to reign in corruption. I don't think it would be possible for any plan to work without the cooperation of all the world governments affected by this crisis.
Its hard to say how much worse this crisis will get or how much more my job market may shrink, but this is definitely a time where I am really grateful that Jason pretty much has 100% job security and I know we will get through this okay.
As I post this at 10 AM this Monday morning I haven't had any news about my job interview. As soon as I get some news I will post, so keep looking out for it over the next couple days.
4 comments:
I work for a school system and we are being heavily impacted. Almost all of us have said that we will take a furlough day if it means that no one loses their job. At this point, like you, I'm glad to still have my home, and be able to survive. So far we have kept out of danger. But we have lost thousands of dollars from our 401k and we didn't have much to begin with. I think our generation will end up with no retirement savings whatsoever. It wasn't going to be good in the first place, but now what we would have had is gone.
Best of luck with the job hunt! Do you think you're being discriminated against because you're an American? Some Brits might be bothered by an American taking a job from a Brit and I know that's the line the government is now taking, which I think is terrible.
What angers me about all the bailouts and stuff is that the money didn't exactly just disappear into thin air, it's in the bank accounts of the bankers who got the insane bonuses peddling their dodgy loans and securities. I don't see them giving the money back or answering for what they've done. No, they cry about not being able to survive on $500k a year because the governments are having some sense and reigning these assholes in.
Here that bankers? It's the world's smallest violin.
I don't know, most people don't consider me an "immigrant" because I am American and I am married to someone British. They will sit there and talk about immigrants in front of me and how British jobs should be going to British people, and they tell me quite frankly that they don't consider me an immigrant. They are more worried about the skilled trades like construction and manufacturing (which in the North is the majority of the work available and that people are qualified to do) where entire contracts are going off shore.
On the other hand, the last job I interviewed for I didn't get because I didn't have enough "local knowledge" which to me translates as a bit of discrimination. I would have been a bargain for them.
I laughed out loud at the credit crunch as a workout fad; that's as good as the blogger who said it sounded like a breakfast cereal; now I giggle every time I hear the word.
http://theyaelchronicles.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/ahead-of-my-time/
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