Is it the weekend yet?

This is the kind of week when an airplane could fall out of the sky and nobody would even know where it landed for 36 hours. When a preggo little sister would have to head for home five days early, missing her own baby shower, because of contractions that can't be stopped (she's only 27 weeks!). When both my job and M's might suddenly turn shaky within hours of each other. And it seems entirely appropriate that it has been cold, gray and rainy almost all week, a rarity for Colorado in June.

M's employer laid off 18 people on Tuesday. Luckily, he was not among the 18. But he still has to take a 10% pay cut (the up side of this is that he will not be working Fridays for the next few months), and there will be no more 401(k) match. The way they went about it was just awful. They'd been saying for a few months that there were going to be layoffs. Then for the past few weeks, they kept saying it was going to happen "next week." Every week, that's what they'd say. Then the managers had a meeting on Monday where they found out exactly who was going to get laid off. And they were told that if they spilled the beans before 9am the next day, they'd be fired. So they had to face the people they were going to lay off all afternoon, and couldn't tell. And everyone had to go home that night and try to sleep, then drag themselves into the office the next morning to find out if they were losing their jobs. Why???? Why not just do it right after that meeting on Monday? So we found out late Tuesday morning that M was not losing his job. Whew.

A mere three hours later, I received an all-staff email from our executive director, announcing that the retiree health plan had been canceled, nobody could carry over vacation accrued in FY2010, and there would be no raises this year. Plus, we'll have to do at least one of the following soon: layoffs, salary cuts, furloughs, or increased employee cost-sharing in the health plan. They are seeking our input on these options, and I assume the decision will be made next month when the executive committee meets. My pick is for some combination of salary cuts and furlough days -- that seems like the most equitable way of sharing the pain.

When it rains, it pours. I'm ready for this week of rain, both literal and figurative, to be over. At least we're both still employed, right?