Hiring & Salary Freeze

“This is a scary time for the general global economy but there is good reason to be optimistic about our prospects going forward into the new year if we are careful about expenses.  As you know hiring has been suspended for 2009.  All of us will have to make sacrifices in the future to protect and preserve [company]’s ability to thrive over the long run especially in these challenging times.  Be advised salaries are frozen and we have suspended the 401K matching benefit you receive for the rest of this year. These two steps combined with the hiring freeze go a long way to saving critical jobs at [company].  Please let your staff know about this today as the 401K match is effective as of the end of February and the salary freeze is effective January 1, 2009.  Please feel free to ask questions.” -Email from our CEO to my boss

As much as this sucks, I am glad that I didn’t sign up for 401k AND that I received my raise in December 2008 so I’m locked in at least.