This and that...

[alexpgp]

As if life isn't difficult enough when your currency loses nearly half its value against the US dollar, I am reliably informed that some employers in Russia are cutting salaries in response to the crisis. It is not clear whether such cuts in pay involve a concomitant cut in hours, as would typically be the case at a US company undergoing financial "turbulence," but even if it does, things are certainly not looking up for the person on the street, as the price of a number of staples is going up.

It may be that fax communications are coming back. Doctors in particular seem enamored of fax, as it is purported to be more secure than email. I wonder about that, especially since (a) so many people who receive faxes do so electronically, and (b) just because there may be a facsimile machine at both ends of a link doesn't mean that data isn't vulnerable as it transits the great, big telecommunications "cloud" out there.

I had occasion to send a fax today, as it turned out, to Network Solutions, in an attempt to take care of some domain details. I hope they respond in a timely manner.

Work came in, work went out.

I am discovering the power of org mode journaling, in the sense of recording time-and-date-stamped events of significance (e.g., calling and leaving a message with someone at the Social Security Administration).

Cheers...

Comments

[hosticle-fifer.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess Russian folks will have to buy paperclips instead of staples to make up! ;D

The US might behave that way in retail and hourly sectors, but it sure don't over here in salary-land. We're all basically considering ourselves lucky to have jobs, but the workload of those fired gets offloaded to those that remain...at the same rate. Year after year, too - those that remain don't get pay cuts, but we can expect zero raises or bonuses, and our benefits price-hit to our paycheck increased 26% this year. :\

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Now would be prime time to come here from abroad yes.

I do not know about jobs, because I'm with a science institution, and here they don't play games with hours but cut the number of vacancies and sometimes the number of people (even though our bosses know how to avoid this, by doubling people up in vacancies and paying them extra from extra money the lab has).

What is expected to happen is that the prices remain stable for what's left of December and start to inflate in January. Some believe it will be just inflation, pessimists say hyperinflation will happen as soon as February.

Personally, I am surprisingly little perturbed, because I have been either spending roughly half my salary on my abroad trips or using half of it to pay off the remaining debts. And this has been the case for so long that I don't know how to spend money freely anymore, so if I have to not do so because of inflation, it will be no different to what I did.