Tag Archives: West Texas Intermediate

Living On The Edge

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I feel like I should write something right now. There is almost so much going on (and most of it is shitty) that I don’t know where to start. 

Sadly, a lot of it is work related. My employer is laying people off like mad right now and has been for three months now with no defined end in sight. No one really knows who will be next, when will they stop, what the end game is. Everyone is on edge and morale is in the toilet… swirling, swirling, swirling away. 

The reality is that the majority of companies that have to layoff a significant portion of their employees don’t do it this way. If they have to layoff 200 people, they do it all at once. One day. It’s like tearing off a band-aid; quick pain but then it’s ok after that. The people that are left can just get on with their lives and jobs. 

In Alberta, Canada however, if you lay off 50 people or more in a month, you have to report it to the provincial government and it becomes publicly very messy. Maybe it’s like this elsewhere, I’m not sure. The law surrounding corporate layoffs isn’t my forte. 

Anyway, it’s basically been 150 people laid off so far? I haven’t been keeping a running tally, I’ll leave that to the wraiths in HR. Our office has downsized even further by opting to transfer people to other offices too work on other projects to keep from having to lay them off. And there has been some attrition from the older folks in the office saying, “fuck this shit” and deciding to retire. Also, some (not many) have found employment elsewhere and just quit. 

One might say, “Why don’t more people do that? Who needs to go through the agony of long-term protracted layoffs?” 

I’ll tell you a little story about our friend, Mr. West Texas Intermediate and how sad he is because his price on the open market is very low. The industry I work in and the entire local economy revolves around Mr. WTI and when his price is low, end user companIes lose their minds and throw the emergency brake on all spending. Have you hear the phrase, “shit rolls downhill?” Yeah, me and the company I work for? We’re downhill. Me and every other Joe Shmoe who works for a company below the end user. So there are not many jobs left to jump to and the competition is strong for the few jobs that are left.

I have no idea if I’ll have a job at the end of the day tomorrow or next week or the week after that. Frankly, I can’t even look that far into the future. I’m taking it as fact that I’m going to be laid off and that it’s just a matter of time.

Dude. That ain’t right.

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Holy crap.

I’m realizing that I haven’t updated the Official NJLE™ website in over SIX MONTHS. Wow, that’s my epic failure. It’s kind of bizarre how much things can change in such a relatively short (or relatively long, depending on your perspective) period of time.

The NJLE has always been kind of sliding by; on the brink of both wild success and brutal failure. However, in the past couple of months… it’s become glaringly obvious that belts are going to have to be tightened and things are going to have to change up in this bitch. See, everything in this place… surrounding us, in Canada? So much of it is affected by the price of oil. The whole world is affected. But here’s the trend:

In the past year, the price of oil has dropped off to a staggeringly low price that affects the entire world.

In the past year, the price of oil has dropped off to a staggeringly low price that affects the entire world.

Anyway, the main source of income for the NJLE is related to the price of oil. “On the outside” your highness is an engineering desk jockey for a company servicing the oil and gas sector. With this downturn, the NJLE GDP is taking a forced 10% hack-and-slash and a deep, deep round of layoffs that’s going on at my place of employ as a reaction to the global economy.

So, I have to look at my options. I think I’m relatively ok for the next month or two from a layoff perspective…. maybe. After that? All bets are off. I’m looking at possible opportunities elsewhere however, given that layoffs are rampant in my industry right now, I think it’s unlikely that I’ll find something after I get punted. So… I’ll have my five figure layoff payout. Low five figures, let’s be clear. Very low.

And then? If I don’t find another job? It’s EI for yours truly… and that’s something that I know very little about at this point. It’s terrifying to me to not have a job. To not be able to provide.

Terrifying.

Anyway, the future is not known to me. Maybe shit will turn itself out just fine. Maybe not. I am not Nostradamus of some wizened prognosticator. I’m clinging on to this moment, taking life day to day. Because that’s all I can do right now.