Big Things

While

well that was all I got to write before the inundation of work: I hope there was no deathless wisdom about to be recorded, because it's pretty much gone.

Oh, yes, the economy: we can certainly see plenty of signs of pain all around here - and Little Rock supposedly is suffering much less than the big cities are, as it didn't get the same growth as they, in the last 20 years. Big things, like stores closing or shortening hours, huge discounts on offer (especially on cars, but lots of other big tickets too), and small things - our local favorite cafes are noticeably emptier, and are overstaffed.

Because the staff are paid so pitifully & have to rely on tips, several of our favourites are quitting their jobs, & looking for something else - Carol, one of the supervisors, has had her weekend takehome pay shrink by 50% due to the decrease in tips (both fewer customers, and they're tipping smaller, apparently).

Oh, yeah, poor pay? The minimum wage here is something like $5.70 per hour, except if you work as a waiter/waitress, in which case it is $2.17 (plus tips are untaxed). This is enshrined in the minimum-wage laws, and strikes me as utterly ridiculous (plus makes me wonder, how did the restaurant-owners get at the legislators that effectively?) ... and then some places (at least some of the chain restaurants) are so venal that they insist the tips get pooled, and divided with the local managers as well. Feh.

Mind you, it hasn't really touched us yet: well, the company did announce in January that noone would get annual increases in salary this year, but comparatively speaking, that's nothing: and with the company doing essentially all its' business with the Pentagon, big utilities (Power companies), and big hospitals, there isn't a lot of serious threats to employment at the moment, or really, likely to be for a fair while: even in a bad recession, everyone needs power, everyone needs medical, and of course the Pentagon never actually shrinks, despite political claims.

So while I would probably have difficulty changing jobs at the moment, it seems fairly secure for me to stick here, more or less indefinitely. In fact, as I am working remotely to the site where the computers I work on are situated (i.e. Albuquerque in this case), I may be able to move to a different SAIC office & carry on the same job - assuming they have a spare desk for me to park myself on. I haven't discussed this with my supervisor yet, but it might be quite a nice way for us to move to a different part of the country, without having to be concerned about finding a new job (assuming she goes for this: there may be contractual reasons I'm unaware of, to keep me in Little Rock.

More on that later, when I've had a chance to sound her out: but the prospect of moving to Virginia (near DC), or Oregon (amongst other places they have bases), is quite tempting.

Otherwise, we have a long weekend coming up (Memorial Day on Monday), not sure what we'll do with it but the weather is good, we may go exploring (well, driving around in our car) up in the Ozarks, north of us.... or not. Doubtful if I'll get to post over the weekend, but should be back to it next Tuesday.