"You know what the one thing is that pisses me off the most?" Asked the snarling co-worker that darkened the doorway of my cubicle.
"If you put it that way, you only get one." I quickly replied, which set him back long enough for me to finish what I was doing.
As you can imagine, there are a lot of emotions swirling around in the halls of GM these days. Very often the conversation turns into a "one upping" of Who Gets Screwed the Most as we wait for the staffing reductions to occur, which in the past have been handled atrociously.
Is it the guy who is just 4 months away from qualifying for retirement benefits for the rest of his life? Or it the people who have already retired after many years and are having their benefits chipped away? How about the middle managers who might be losing their free cars? Or those who may never get to retire now that their 401K's are worthless? Is it the new hires that never got a chance to get very far, or the hopeful college grads that will have to keep on flipping burgers for a while? How about the CEO who got his million dollar salary knocked down to $1? Or the future generations who will never have it as good as we did, yet will be stuck paying the bills for what is being spent to keep everything going as it is right now?
I can imagine making an argument for or against any of the Scenarios of Screwedness, and believe me it has all been debated from all angles, often beginning with the sentence, "Yeah but at least they got..."
What I think it comes down to is what are a person's expectations, and the practice of trying to quantify what any one party "deserves"...or not. It always depends on your perspective.
So to me the trick is to just be glad for any good things that ever came my way, and to let go of any expectations for any more than that, and deal with whatever happens with the best possible attitude I can muster up at any given moment.
As for who is The Most Screwed of All? They would be the ones who just can't seem to do that.
8 comments:
If GM goes bankrupt the warranty on our truck will be useless. Multiply our scenerio by millions. Then, multiply all the scenarios you mentioned, Mindy, by thousands or millions. Oh my! Everybody pray!
You put it all so wonderfully Mindy! As you often do! I'm nervous for everyone as are you, but also so grateful.
Aunt Kathy, don't worry about your warranty. GM may file for Bankruptcy in order to reorganize, but it still is extremely doubtful that they would actually go out of business. Just downsize. Warranties would still be valid. Same for anyone buying a Pontiac if Pontiac is disbanded.
Now, since I bought a Saturn, that could be a little different as Saturn might be sold off. The new owner would have to honor the warranty somehow.
Mindy, right after I posted my first comment I found this in an email from GM. Be sure to send it to your Aunt Kathy in case she doesn't read other comments:
"GM's restructuring will have no impact on vehicle warranties.
We want our millions of current and future customers to know one thing: GM's warranty coverage is absolutely safe and sound, now and well into the future, no matter what the GM make or model. Hummer, Saab and Saturn owners will continue to have warranty coverage and continued availability of needed parts and service. Customers of any GM dealership that ceases operations may choose another dealership for any sales or service needs. The quality of our products is the bedrock of our business. We've always taken care of our customers and stood behind our products - and we will continue to do so"
Nancy, thanks for that info. GM really does need to get the word out about the warranties. We can help!
Aunt Kathy: I find it ironic that you would worry about that particular thing considering that you are married to a talented mechanic who knows how to locate and install rare parts. You might be person who has the LEAST to worry about on that one. Maybe you should direct your concern to the possibility of your niece trucking down to Florida to live in your guest room towing her husband, 2 boys, and cat along. How would we keep Missy away from the birds?
Seriously though, I appreciate your prayers and concerns. We'll ALL be OK, I just know it.
Hey, WE are in Florida for two weeks! Key West this weekend!
Mindy - I know how hard this is for you. What impresses me the most, is your empathy and ability to see the 'big picture'
Mindy, it really is so unfortunate how many people are being affected by this. My whole family has a history with General Motors. My parents are both current retirees from there, my sister in law is an engineer, my brother in law is a Saturn employee...and most closely, my hubby was one of the lower seniority assembly workers until he took the buy-out last year. For us, (and I want to stress everyone's circumstances and drive are different),we did it to better OUR situation. He had been laid off and transfered so many times we decided it was best to move on so he could go to college to get skills in another industry. Everyone still tells us he is stupid for leaving GM but we didn't and still don't think so. I am not going to say it was the easiest decision we ever made because it would have been easier to be arrogant and think that GM would take care of us for the rest of our lives. But we made the final decision after deliberating and watching the company's patterns for two years. I often joke with my parents, aunts, uncles, etc., who have retired from GM that they drained the company and now there's nothing left for the remaining generations. But that's just my humor for them when we get slack for taking the high road. lol. So, I guess the point to my post is that I agree with you on being positive and thankful for when it was good and how important it is to be able to move on with a good attitude. Again, for us, we chose not to sit idle and instead to get out there and do something with our future that would not leave us dependent upon GM. It IS possible!
Hubby Zenon said that if GM goes down, Ford will be right behind, and if you come to live in our guestroom, plan to share it with one of your sisters, her family and a dog the size of a pony! Also,thanks go to you and Nancy for the info on the warranty. Nice to know!
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