Getcomposted: OK, it's official.
My job is gone. They informed me by email this afternoon.

TLDR: I am now unemployed. Yay! Bad working environment.
Aargh! Really bad job market out there - will I be able to find a new job?

I've been off sick for a few months with quite a severe problem.
During that time off, the powers that be decided that since we would be moving to a smaller building in a year's time, they would cut the staffing levels now.
4 years or so ago, the library system was put up for tender for a private company to come and run it for the council. Another library authority won the tender and one of the first things they did was a restructure in which they got rid of librarians because they cost too much and made the posts "Enquiry Officers". That way they could get away with paying people for exactly the same job 2/3 of the money.
A lot of our librarians left because they couldn't afford to stay.
They forced out all the good managers and that left only the ones that would push people off cliffs as long as their own jobs were safe.
They got rid of the Children's team which consisted of librarians that liked children and doing story and music times with them, and told the customer services team that from now on they would perform all the children's story and music times, with very inadequate training.
Needless to say, a lot of us balked at this.
They introduced an assessment programme in which you had to continually justify yourself and your job in order to be given a pay raise, despite the fact that inflation and cost of living rose dramatically.
(My assessment included "Give 5 examples of how you promoted the use of the library and got people to borrow more books. Cite dates and specific events." "Give 3 examples of people you induced to volunteer at the library. Cite specific examples and dates." S@!t like that going on for 30+ pages.
The staff that had carried over from when the libraries were run by the council rather than this private limited company that the other library authority created to run the service only had our pay protected for 5 years. After which it was expected that our pay would drop to new private limited company levels that were really quite a bit lower than ours.
Then, as I said they decided to "restructure" again, which meant they used a computer programme into which they fed variables such as issue statistics and visitor numbers so that this programme would tell them the "optimum" number of staff. Read that as redundancies for quite a few people as they fed in variables for the *smaller* building (that would only happen in a year's time and which isn't even built yet!).
Also everyone would have to be re-interviewed for their job with no guarantee that they would still have one at the end of the restructure.
Now, if as people anticipated that they would also "restructure" in another few years time, everyone would then be at limited company pay scales and terms and conditions.
This meant, if they left now they would get a higher wage redundancy package for a longer time. E.g. Someone working for over 10 years would get 6 months redundancy pay, whilst a limited company employee working for the same amount of time would only get 3.5 months pay.
So, a lot of the old-timers left whilst the going was good. The working atmosphere had also gone from one in which I woke up happy and eager to go to work into one in which I was almost ready to kill myself if it meant I never had to go into work again. Poisonous higher level managers and politics in which the lowly peons were used like medieval serfs and the managers got all the credit for our work. Another case in point, even if our assessments came out as "Exceeded all targets, and then some", only managers got bonuses.
But, I've been in this job for over ten years, and I was *very* good at my job. I have a huge problem with depression, which was at least partially triggered by the years of constant stress of working at the library.
I am both really scared that I won't be able to find another job (and my brain keeps on running down all the negative scenarios of what will happen if I don't) and quite elated that I won't have to work there again.
Part of me wants to just curl up in a ball and hide. But, I know if I do that, I'll never come out of this depression and I'll never be able to get on with my life... :( So confusing right now.

[Edit: typos.]

Ragnarblackmane: Terribly sorry to read about your situation, I've been there myself and am extremely fortunate to have a job right now.

I'm guessing you went to uni; what did you study? Ten years of experience in the library field means that hopefully you can get a job in another system, or even another branch. I'm unclear on how the UK library systems work, of course.

marianne: I'm very sorry Getcomposted about losing your job. It's a horrible situation to be in.

And as to down-sizing, been there too. I worked in a hospital and cause of finances they fired 50% of the employees. The rest of us lucky ones were told that we'd have to make up for the other 50%, but cause of a freeze on pay increases, we would not be getting one. Also, we were told that there was no such thing as over-time, so we'd do both jobs in the same amount of time. :-P

We were told that if we complained, just remember there were hundreds of ppl out there at the door just Waiting for our job. So we arrived at work early and left late. We'd see each other in the elevator in the early am and smirk and refer to our being there...off hours...as our volunteer time. XP

Hospital finances got worse. We went from weekly pay to bi-monthly and then we'd sneak out, dash over to the bank and cash in our checks...phew. The hospital went bankrupt. We lost our pensions and our 401Ks. We had been putting funds into these programs and the hospital was supposed to match our money and invest the money. However, we found out that the hospital Had Not been doing that. They had taken our monies, never matched and invested poorly and all our monies were gone...caput.. :-PPPP

And you'll love this...the CEOs got a 5 year severance pay and their hospital-supplied Porsche replaced if it had a scratch or dent. WTH !!! Welcome to the Real World.

tinyE: I seriously have no right to ever complain again.

Getcomposted: Everyone has the right to complain. It should be written into the Bill of Rights and every other country's constitution as well!
It's just that some people have more to complain about. ;)
But, like my own personal credo, the economics of pleasure, there's also an economics of misery that's personal.
I have no right to say I feel more miserable than you, so complain away!

tinyE: I lost half of a tooth last night.
So long as I don't breath it doesn't hurt.

VABlitz: ...not even the little girl scouts selling cookies.

Getcomposted: Everyone has the right to complain. It should be written into the Bill of Rights and every other country's constitution as well!
It's just that some people have more to complain about. ;)
But, like my own personal credo, the economics of pleasure, there's also an economics of misery that's personal.
I have no right to say I feel more miserable than you, so complain away!

Getcomposted: Dang, see! I'm not in constant pain from half a missing tooth. Can you get to a dentist? I think half a tooth missing means the nerve will be exposed. Bad. :(

ddickinson: "no mater how bad things are for you, there's always some poor beggar who has it even worse".

viperfdl: They are quiet dangerous as I heard...

tinyE: [snip]the Mike Ditka quote, "I'm going to be alive for a long time, and there are a lot of people very upset about that."

tinyE: and that is what got me through chemo. Well that and the Mike Ditka quote, "I'm going to be alive for a long time, and there are a lot of people very upset about that."