got laid off - HIRED!!!

[Meryl]

Del, I'm so sorry to hear you got the pink slip.  It wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have so much company nowadays, everyone looking for something to keep the rent paid.  This sucks mightily.

I echo what John said.  Your presence here will be missed if you have to give up the internet.  Please use that library and keep in touch with us.  Fingers crossed that you get a job soon and won't have to do it.

[RouxB]

Del-that sucks!

I was in your shoes a few months ago and it can be so demoralizing when you separate from your company-especially when you have been there for a long time.
I hope something comes your way quickly and that you end up in an even better place than you left. I have all my positive energy pointing in your direction.

[delalluvia]

Thanks enja and everyone.

I think demoralized is the word.  My immediate bosses were regretful, knowing the years and dedication I had put into my job.

I think I am also broken-hearted.  I so wanted to go to Italy next year, my dream trip, then start saving for a little cottage/condo/shack to buy...I hated my place of employment and their business philosophies and dealings, but the income I earned there allowed me to enjoy the simple pleasures in my life...and now it looks like I'm going to have to start all over again, and it really hurts to have to give up all my dreams/hopes/and most importantly to me, peace of mind - again - to start over.

[Kelda]

Stay positive - you can still do those things Im sure..it may just take a little longer.

[Katie77]

Unfortunately the pain you are feeling is shared by too many these days, and I am sorry that you have lost your job.

Fortunately though, you only have yourself to worry about.

Imagine how it feels to someone with a family when this happens, and they cannot pay school expenses, and have difficulty buying clothes and even food for their kids, let alone keep up with mortgage payments to keep a roof over their heads. One day everything is going along OK, then whamo, something out of their control changes everything.

It is a very sad state of affairs.

[ZK]

Oh gee I am sorry that you got laid off. I know how hard and difficult it is, I have been made redundant 3 times now, plenty of people told me "one door closes another one opens", and I confess I used to get a little tired of hearing it.

However each time it happened I changed my career path to something I had not considered doing before. If I had not been made redundant I would not be doing a job that although monetary wise isn't that great, but job satisfaction is 100% and I do not want to be doing anything else. So that door does open!

[delalluvia]

Unfortunately the pain you are feeling is shared by too many these days, and I am sorry that you have lost your job.

Fortunately though, you only have yourself to worry about.

Imagine how it feels to someone with a family when this happens, and they cannot pay school expenses, and have difficulty buying clothes and even food for their kids, let alone keep up with mortgage payments to keep a roof over their heads. One day everything is going along OK, then whamo, something out of their control changes everything.

It is a very sad state of affairs.

It is.

I do have it much better than others.  I live a very simple life.  I own two junker cars - but they're paid off and have a minimum of insurance on them - one of which I could remove from my insurance policy if I had to to lower my premium.  I have no debt other than my student loan, which I called to put on hold due to my current unemployed status and I have 4 months left in my lease - which my severance check will pay at which time I can just move if I have to.  I have the luxury of being able to have moments of panic and feeling extremely insecure and fighting off psychological paralysis with only my cats as witnesses.  I can't imagine what someone with a houseful of kids, a spouse, a mortgage, insurance, car payments etc., would do.

All you guys and my RL friends have been fantastic.  Every single friend has come back with a suggestion or website of where to apply or someone who was hiring (our line of work is very insular and small, and we're all still in the same line of work or related fields).  So I'm trying to give myself a little time to handle the shock, and stay positive and take what 2K has said to heart because a multitude of my other friends have said the same when it happened to them as well.

[Mikaela]

I'm sorry to hear this Del, and I'll be keeping my fingers very firmly crossed that a door to a new opportunity does indeed open for you quickly. I hope you'll somehow be coming here to post, whatever happens. You - your razor-sharp mind - will be sorely missed if you don't!

Good luck!

[louisev]

When I heard about my contract being cut off last month in Chicago, I was initially in shock, fortunately, although I didn't have any severance, I did have 4 weeks to find something else, which I did.  I spent the time until it ended counting the blessings in what I would no longer have to worry about/obsess over or be frustrated by.  It sounds like in your case you had a number of misgivings about your employers and the kind of business they were doing, so you can now indulge the luxury of knowing you don't have to put up with that anymore, and look forward to a clean slate with a new employer.  I am just now getting my toes wet at my new employer, and while the challenges are many (the code is undocumented, the requirements are obscure, the difficulty-level of figuring out what the customer wants is high) it has a couple of major advantages over my previous position - it won't be boring, because I'll be very busy (which is a big issue for me on contracts!), I will be nearby my work and won't have to worry about traffic, I'm in a private cube, and my new housing situation is a big step up with greater privacy and a LOT more room.  Over this weekend I'm considering going shopping for a new digital piano so I can get back into practicing.  Counting the blessings that come with change can help a lot with overcoming the inevitable shock of sudden unemployment.  I should know - I go through unemployment at least once, more frequently twice - a year!

[delalluvia]

When I went to college, I had a little nest egg and everything budgeted and planned out.  I quit my job, drove to Austin to live with my sister and within a week, everything I owned started breaking down or falling apart, destroying all my careful budgetings.

Same here.  I've been laid off a week and 1 day and within the last couple of days, I've had my toaster oven die (under warranty, but I have to spend $33 to mail it to another state to get it fixed), a flat tire ($92) and now my car wouldn't start after returning to my mother's house after driving her to a doctor's appointment. 

Still despite the trouble, I thank all the gods I know that my mother wasn't with me when the car died.  It's 100 degrees F out (38 degrees C) and I had driven across town to pick her up, driven back to my area of town to visit her doctor, driven back toward her part of town, stopped at a grocery store and arrived safely at her house.  It was only when I tried to drive home that the car started acting up.

I have no idea what I would have done had my invalid mother in a wheelchair been with me.

Still, after a brief rest, the car started and I got to a repair shop on my own without needing a tow.  But so far, the bill is $260 and possibly will go higher.  But I have to have the car.  Without it, I can't go to any interviews should anyone call.

So, again, just when I need to be so careful with my money, my life suddenly turns into a money pit.

The shroud of the Dark Side has fallen...