Economic Issues?

[the chi]

Here's a story from my local area...the comments are rather intriguiging...

This is a HUGE thing that will affect MANY of the locals here.

I know how I feel about this, how do the rest of you feel? Are you seeing similar issues where you are at? And someone weigh in on the collecting unemployment issue, I've never dealt with it so im not sure how it would apply.

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/peo...e=1#slComments

Legendary Inc. announced Friday that the company will trim individual employee pay by 25 percent in an effort to avoid layoffs.

The move affects several hundred employees.

"We've chosen not to cut back in staff," Legendary CEO Peter Bos said. "We have chosen to keep everybody together. ... There are not that many jobs in this area that people can move to.

"I was pretty proud of our management team for voting to keep people together as a family," Bos added. "It's a lot easier to cut staff underneath you instead of taking a cut yourself. ... These are very difficult times, and all the things we've been hearing are hitting Main Street."

Legendary is a major employer in development, retail and tourism in the area.

The company owns and operates the Emerald Grande resort (which includes HarborWalk Village), Legendary Marine, Regatta Bay Golf and Country Club and Destin Commons shopping center.

Legendary President Hugh Sawyer said "several hundred employees" would be affected by the compensation cut, including salaried and hourly positions.

"Not equal pay, but equal sacrifice," Sawyer said. "That's the moral thing to do."

As for possible fallout in having employees leave, Sawyer remained optimistic.

"Fortunately we have a very loyal employee base," he said. "We don't experience much employee churn and I would hope in this circumstance we would retain substantially all of our employees. Although that doesn't mean to suggest some won't make a personal choice, because that's what people are compelled do."

Economist David Goetsch of Northwest Florida State College didn't see it quite that way.

"Within the company they'll have a tough time dealing with the morale issue," Goetsch said. "At first people will be glad to still have a job, but after the next round of bills comes in, then you'll have the challenge ... because people's morale is tied to their pocketbook.

"And the issue is not how many they lose, it's which ones they lose," he added. "The people you lose are your best people, because they can find another job. There's a humane element in this, but from a business perspective it's a tough one to make work."
Sawyer said the slowed economy has impacted Legendary's businesses.

"All of our business is directly related to consumer issues, which are external," Sawyer added. "We like our portfolio of assets but they are not immune from the downturn in the economy - and it's ‘out of season' here right now."

Preliminary indications from around the region are that tourists still visited the Emerald Coast this year, but they simply did not spend as much.

"I don't think you can take one incident and say it's a bad omen or it's something we look to in the near future," said Shane Moody from the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce. "I think with each company, resources are different, the timing is different, the situations are different.

Goetsch saw it differently.

"Legendary is so widely known and has been such a success story that other businesses that are struggling may try to replicate that model," he said. "This may confirm in the minds of people who weren't sure that the tourist economy isn't doing that well. It will certainly create concern if not create panic."