Coburn Kids

Well, little Caden has some type of full-body rash going on right now.  Really no idea what it is.  We went to the doctor and because of Gena’s history of eczema she gave us some steroid cream but it hasn’t done anything.  So over the past 6 days we’ve been watching it spread.  Started on the back of his neck, then moved to his ears, then arms, then face, then sides and it just keeps progressing.  Doesn’t seem to bother him too much though. No fever, no runny nose, no cough.

Then there’s Gena.  She has a sore throat and cough that started 3 days ago.  No rash.  I’m thinking 2 totally unrelated things.  The rest of us are doing all right though.

We had Caden’s Preemie Clinic and his hearing tested okay! So thankful for that. I also was able to see Caden’s little girlfriend he had in the NICU.  Which was very exciting.  They roomed together nearly the entire time Caden was there for 4 months.  A little 24 weeker, 6 months in the hospital, little 1 pounder just like Caden. She’s tiny but doing fabulous.  Walking and babbling everywhere.  Just goes to show how much those surgeries have set Caden back but it was great to see them.  Incredible story too that I’ll have to share sometime.  She didn’t even know she was pregnant when she delivered her little girl.

On the job front, Daniel has so many interviews and phone calls going every day it’s like he HAS a job.  This is, of course, good news but no bites yet.  The problem being that a lot of companies want to wait until the first of the year to hire anyone.  Which is understable, but crappy all at the same time.  More and more people are losing their jobs every day, can’t tell you how many stories and people I know that have.  I like to see companies though who are actually making efforts to let people keep their jobs.  By enforcing paycuts, getting rid of company match 401k and just generally being responsible in these times to see that even more people don’t lose their healthcare and homes.  It’s encouraging to see some employers actually thinking out-of-the-box and not contributing to the economic struggle right now.  That there are other solutions then just slashing payroll. So kudo’s to those companies and their management.

Here are what some companies are doing to manage:

“In a recent interview with Tom Brokaw, President-elect Barack Obama urged business owners to “figure out ways in which workers maybe have to take a haircut, but they can still keep their jobs, they can still keep their health care and they can still stay in their homes.”

• Some companies like Toyota keep workers busy during downturns with training sessions or classes. Hypertherm reallocates employees to departments where there is a greater demand for labor. Others choose alternative cost-cutting methods like hiring freezes or shorter work weeks.
• Dean Gruner, CEO of ThedaCare, a Wisconsin-based health care system provider, instituted a no-layoff policy 18 years ago. To slash expenses in lean years, the company slows the hiring process and redeploys workers to other areas. “We can manage our staffing levels by being thoughtful about our turnover rate and redesigning the work that we do,” Gruner said.
• Jason Zickerman, president and CEO of the alternative board, a business coaching group, advocates this approach for all types of companies, even in times of financial hardship. Zickerman suggests offering employees shorter work weeks at reduced pay, encouraging employees to take sabbaticals or extend year-end breaks to avoid cutbacks. If 20 workers took two weeks unpaid at the end of the year, “you’re talking almost a full-time salary,” he said.”
• One of Utah’s largest employers, Intermountain Healthcare, has told its 28,000 employees it will not contribute its share to their 401(k) retirement funds next year. Physicians and midlevel managers will forgo small, end-of-the-year “thank you” payments this year in order to provide more for those payments to rank-and-file employees, Cowley said. Those bonuses range from $85 to $250.