The end is nigh

Take heed people! Budgetpocalypse Naught Nine is upon ye. Or would it be upon thee...?

Anyway. There have been crazy budget related meetings all over the place the last two days, we've been issued a travel and expenses freeze for "nonessentials" (because, you know - that worked so well six months ago), and managers are throwing worst case scenarios all over the place, which is freaking out the staff. My husband is convinced that either he or I - or both of us, even - will be on the chopping block before the summer. Here's where we are, for those keeping score: last year the organization "gave back" just over 10% of base operating funds. This year they returned 4%. Sometime between next month and next calendar year, we are expecting to return additional operating funds - anywhere from 5% to 15%. So, overall, we're looking at a possible total reduction of 20 to 30 percent over a three year period, most of which came from vacant positions or by eliminating positions and shifting personnel. The palpable levels of stress and anxiety have ratcheted up to almost unbearable extremes. Today while the new budget assistant and I were waiting for our manager to end a phone call so that we could meet with her, the Governor's assistant in his regional office here (which he very rarely even uses except for "photo op" trips) shooed us away rather sternly, because she thought we were talking too loudly outside of the office of one of the Governor's aides while she was "conducting business" in her office, which we were sitting right outside of. Because that's where the only available chairs were! And were were speaking at a *reasonable volume*. Then, very shortly afterward, the budget assistant decided that she needed some paper, so she grabbed a couple of reams from the storage room in the CEO's offices with the intention of replacing them once we'd bought our own supply, and the boss's assistant saw us walk out the door with the paper and proceeded to bitch us out about that. By the way, this new coworker, who I thought was kind of quiet and would keep to herself, has turned out to be kind of bossy and agressive. I'm now being referred to as "woman". As in "Hey woman, are you coming to this meeting or what?". I do this with my friends, in a playful & teasing way. The way this woman says it...I dunno. Forced comraderie is not my style, at any rate. I don't know if I can take much more of this...

Update: this new coworker is already starting to rub certain people the wrong way (I've heard this from no less than three different people in the last couple of days), and she's only been here for two weeks. This does not bode well.