Like Falling Dominoes

And so it begins.  Our director has been trying to get two new positions in our office for a couple of months.  This even after hearing our office may not exist as we know it as early as March of this year.  Yep.  Budget cuts are still having an effect on job security: there is none.  

Last week the director was told we would not be able to post an assistant director position, but we could keep our temporary limited term for another year.  The term ends in June.  While not what the director wanted,  it was workable and who knows, we reasoned, maybe the economy would get better in a years time and we could hire the temp. full-time.  Today, the AVP and his budget guru came in and told the director that the VP will give an extension not for another year, but until this coming August.  There goes the first domino.

Now understanding that most of you won't have a clue what I'm talking about, here's a budget explanation.  Our office does not receive funds from the State except for three positions, mine being one of those.  Everything we do, and the rest of the salaries, are paid for with fees collected from our program participants.  Even so, it's considered "state funds".  And we've taken care of our funds.  We have a healthy "slush fund".  That's good, right?  Apparently not.  That slush fund is where we wanted to pay the assistant director from.  That slush fund is what we wanted to use to pay the year-long temporary limited-term person extension, but it seems they don't want us to use our slush fund.  However, it looks as if someone else has their eyes on our funds. We don't know for what, but we're betting it won't be our money next year, because we're also betting there won't be an us as we now exist, to use the funds.  There goes another domino.

Those bets are based on conversations our director has had with other directors who think our office should be merged with two other offices.  That means two directors gone, probably several assistant or associate directors gone and three office managers, of which I am one.  We've been hearing about this since just before Christmas.  Ho.  Ho.  Ho.  There is also a committee that has given the VP a proposal on having the office managers/budget/payroll personnel (BPRS) consolidate tasks and report to the VPs budget guru instead of our directors.  Yes, this too will mean fewer BPRS positions needed.  There goes yet another domino.

Dominoes is a fun game with rectangular blocks that have numbers on them.  My grandparents taught us to play dominoes decades ago.  These people are not playing with dominoes.  They are playing with people's lives.  It won't be pretty when they knock us all over.  This is not fun anymore.