Greetings all as this is my first post for my blog, “Hang In There”.
Today’s inauguration of Barak Obama was truly a good day. I feel good about the possibilities that are out there now. Yet I have grave concerns about our current state of affairs here in the state of Irresponsibility otherwise known as Florida, the most irresponsible state in the Union. In the last few days I have heard about the layoff of two people I know in the building industry, one of whom is a close friend. I have heard this much too much in the last couple of years; including that of myself in March of 2007 when my tenure with The St. Joe Company ended with the completion of our project in Celebration.
I was lucky, The St. Joe Company was a great employer that saw what was about to happen to the housing market early and began laying off people and ending building operations in 2006. As people were laid off it was done in as orderly a fashion as possible and the severence packages were generous; really more so than the rest of the industry. I learned a great lesson about what separates the good companies from the rest during that process.
Today however, either due to tough times or simply wagon circling fear, or people just being assholes, the severence packages are meager to nonexistent. For those who file for unemployment, here in the state of Irresponsibility (look, let’s just call it IRR for short hearafter) our unemployent benefits are some of the lowest in the nation. Here in IRR we simply don’t have themoney to bolster that crucial part of the social safety net to a liveable level. Here in IRR we are broke dick broke. (more…)