long weekend

Well, despite job and economy woes, I'm determined to enjoy my long weekend. We are living in uncertain times, my friends, and "the little guy" is - as usual - paying the tab. OK, I feel grateful to have what I have, but things could happen that would take it away.

I know I have spoken about the financial woes of the school district I work for, and some of the options that have been discussed as steps for the district to cover their losses. Today we "voted" on whether we would A like to take a week off without pay (well, except for the 20 odd people who will be taking off more than a week, if you know what I mean)or B have 70 some odd people in the district be RIFed. In other words, teachers and staff are paying 1.5 million of the district's debt out of our salaries. Oh wait, some of those employees aren't making salaries. They are working hourly. When was the last time you wanted to go a week without pay at Christmas on an hourly job? Yeah, me either. At least my loss will be amortized over the remaining paychecks of the year. What happened to the other suggestions that were made by the union?

So, OK, the district manages its debt, whatever. The do it by basically making us "agree" to allow them to break all of our contracts instead of the contracts of only 7o some odd people. And it is true that I would not like to see all those people let go. Still, where is the trust? What happens to the relationship between employers and employees? Am I wrong to feel betrayed? I mean, if I have to look at things fairly, when I got married, I moved to Colorado Springs in the middle of the school year, breaking my contract with them. The district did not hesitate to hire me back when we moved back to Cruces. Should I take this in that spirit? I'm having a hard time doing that, as you can tell, since I keep writing about it. Is it time to look for a new job? Where? What about the rest of the family?

Why is it that when things start lining up to go your way, it also seems like they are lining up to get shot down...