Do You Use the "L" word?

Survey Results for 06/03/2009:

As a result of the current recession, my company:

About half of our respondents this week have experienced significant layoffs at their companies thanks to the recession, and combined with those who have experienced at least minor layoffs, the number reaches more than 70 percent.

Between the layoffs and closures in the industry, I get many emails each week from unemployed industry folks attempting to network and see if I know of any opportunities floating around out there. In many cases, I don't, and it's tough not to lend a helping hand.

Here's some feedback I got as a result of this week's Talk...

"I obviously have been laid off," writes one reader. "However, I have found that there is interest for an experienced window sales/marketing person. While the companies that would be my target employers are slow, they are still interested in looking for an upgrade in personnel, or additional help."

Another reader tells his layoff story, and how he might have seen it coming:

"I remember in a sales meeting back in late 2007 the owner told us that he was over $9 million in debt but he had a 10 year plan with the banks to be debt free. I thought to myself, 'that was a lot of debt,' and our yearly invoiced sales kept going down ... but I remained positive and pushed forward. In January of this year, I got the call at 3:38pm! It was the vice president saying they were letting me go, closing the [location omitted] branch and that they had scraped pennies to make payroll that day. Truly devastating! This was the first time in my working career that I was laidoff, let go, whatever you want to call it. I have never worried about job security being in the window and door industry. Then I remembered that sales meeting again talking about all that debt. Surprisingly, three weeks of being unemployed and three job offers later, I went to work for [company name/location omitted]. Out of the three companies I interviewed with, I asked each of them just as I was interviewing them, were they in debt and how was their service department? Company 1 and 2, [company name omitted] were in debt and did not have a good service record... Luckily, my story has a good ending but a lot of my friends in this industry are either still out of work or they went into a another industry."

After the news of the Philips Products closure last week, one employee from that company wrote:

"When will you stop talking about the 'L' word, and start talking about the 'C' word. Closing. That's where my company is at. I will be without a job in 60 days. Good luck to those left over to take over our share of the business."

I know this is a tough topic, but thanks for sharing. If you'd like to tell me your story of layoffs and closures, please send an email my way.

Contact Christina Lewellen, senior editor, at clewellen@glass.org.