My Middle-Class Struggle: Job Loss

Friday, June 24, 2011

Okay, take a deep breath.  Calm down.  We’re going to survive this; we really are!

Mr. Struggle was “let go” from his job earlier this week.  “Hard times and all,” they said.  “We found someone to do your job for less money" we translated.   And after six years, only one week’s severance and one week unused vacation time paid.  Oh, and our health insurance was cut off as of his termination date.  Totally disgusting!

I’m trying hard to see the silver lining, and to believe this will all work out to the good.  After all, Mr. S has been unhappy with the company and has been job hunting for some time.  Now, at least, there is a sense of urgency about it.  He has worked the phones and networked diligently all week, and I have never seen anyone fill out so many applications.  We have had lots of support from friends, several of whom have given us leads and referrals. In addition, Mr. Struggle actually had two other company employees quit out of loyalty to him.  In this economy, that is simply astounding!

We, of course, are hoping the business goes under!   Well, we can dream, can’t we?

There is never a good time to take a financial hit, and of course, you don't want to make any major financial decisions when you are reeling from shock.  Still, we did pick up the phone and start the 401K rollover process.  We never liked the limited choices we had in the old plan anyway. 

We received a letter from COBRA today, and are wondering how in the world anyone unemployed can afford to keep insurance under that plan.  What a joke!  It was over $1500 a month for our family plan, with its preposterous $5000 deductible.  We’ll have to shop around quite a bit before we agree to that. 

We went to the unemployment office to file a claim for benefits, and they enrolled us both in a special 12- week job hunting workshop.  We are both supposed to meet with a counselor individually next week for a session on résumé writing and interviewing skills.  In the meantime, they are supposed to contact us with job leads.

Paying the bills yesterday was sheer torture.  You look at the money a lot differently when suddenly your income has an ending date.  I’ll post figures in a day or two; right now I have a few job applications that take priority.