Thread: Big corporation lay off

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I just got laid off from my job after 7years and three weeks of vacation. I just got another job, vacation will not go into effect until next march. So, what do I do, I need my vacation time, to set up my haunt. Do I possibly, cancel haunt '09 that will kill me, not to mention what it will do to my son, and the rest of the community.

Were you taking a big chunk of time off (like 2 weeks) prior to Halloween to complete prep or something? If not, then you could possibly take Thursday and Friday off, as Halloween is on a Saturday... that might be enough time for prep, and yet not kill you since it will only be 2 days off unpaid....

maybe start a little savings on the side between now and Halloween... and you could make up the difference?

Just a thought.

Have you tried negotiating? Asking if you can have maybe half of your vacation time in october instead of having to wait till march?
Yeah even though haunting is very important, having a job to support your haunting is even more important. Especially in these times. I hope you can work something out.

Meeps

I'm very sorry to hear about your job. I would try to talk to your new employer and try and make them understand what your haunt means to both you and your family. Hopefully they will have some leniency towards the situation.

If all else fails, maybe scale down your haunt. Don't put as much stuff out, or put only the big ticket items and nix the smaller stuff.

Good luck to you, and I hope you get everything figured out!
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job > haunt

I always take off time around Halloween too....but if push came to shove and I couldn't get time off, I'd start projects earlier in the year and just work on my haunt into the wee hours of the morning as Halloween got closer.

I guess I wouldn't think in extremes. Maybe this year, your haunt just isnt as big as it usually is. The American values behind vacations are just ridiculous, I have always felt that owners of companies that won't give you PTO for an extended period made this decision out of selfishness and greed at one point. Everyone needs their downtime to mentally refresh so they can continue to do their job 100%. But as Americans all we see is the bottom line. How many gadgets can X employees turn out in X time.

Sorry for the rant! Employer unfairness especially when they have the upper hand in a recession really gets my goat!

Scorpio,

I'm very sorry to hear about your job, but I want to also say congratulations on being able to get another job so quickly. That is surely a blessing.

Would it be possible for you to put your haunt together a little bit at a time, throughout October? Perhaps you can recruit the help of some loyal fans of your haunt, so that you all can get more done, in shorter amounts of time... power in numbers =)

If not, down-sizing might be a good idea. It really sucks to have to do something like that, but when you are able to go back to a full-force haunt, it will be that much sweeter.

If there was a bright side to this situation, it will give you more time to plot and plan for an awesome Halloween 2010.

I wish you the best of luck. I can totally sympathize with your situation, as I was not able to do any major Halloween decorating for three years following Hurricane Katrina. But, as I said, once you are able to do it again, it's a great feeling. =)

Hey guy, sorry to hear about the job lose. I always took Halloween off but, since I'm on disability I don't have to worry about that anymore. Check with your company to see if it's ok to swap with someone else for their vacation time. My last employer didn't allow us to do that because, we set up our vacations a year in advanced and it was based on seniority. Also check if you can take vacation as a day at a time. We had that also but, it usually only worked once you had two or three weeks worth. Good luck. Maybe you can get a neighbor to help put things together and then you can put things where you want.

I built up three weeks vacation, so it was real nice I would take off a 11-day stretch. I know that can't happen. I actually start slowly my set up on Labor Day weekend. So that part still holds true. Downsizing, hmm it is the American way. That is exactly what happened to me. My team got downsized. Anyway thanks for everyones suppport. That may be the best option to downsize go back to how it was in 2005. Thanks everyone.

Sorry to hear the bad news Scorpio, but man..things are rough all round at the moment and congrats on getting a job so quickly.

It really sucks that your new employer expects you to work an entire year with no paid leave.
I'm not sure how the system works in the States, but is there any way you could maybe work some overtime occasionally and accumulate some time off in lieu of pay which could be taken around October time?

If not, and worse comes to worse you may have to downsize the haunt this year...but hey, you still have a home to haunt and you can make up for it next year!

Best of luck in your new job.