Laid Off? Join the Club & Improve Skills

[david90]

Anyone in the club? I'm not too desperate for a job though because I have savings. I'll be getting unemployment insurance money too. I'm going take some classes at a city college and use my off time to improve my skills.

 

[hypatia]

My husband joined your ranks last week. We hope he gets called back by march. But as far as we can tell, the unemployment commission and the welfare offices are the only booming business left in Michigan.
I am so grateful to have my new job, which is very secure.

 

[jowjowman]

Count me in. Lost my job last spring and I'm not getting unemployment insurance money.
But I'm not getting desperate eider, my wife have a pretty good job.

Anyone in need for some mainframe programming, let me know. 30+ years of expirence.

 

[david90]

Count me in. Lost my job last spring and I'm not getting unemployment insurance money.
But I'm not getting desperate eider, my wife have a pretty good job.

Anyone in need for some mainframe programming, let me know. 30+ years of expirence.

yeah. I always thought that it would be easy to get a job if you have a gazillion year of experience. Guess not.

 

[TVP45]

It gets easier. I was last fired (laid off implies they might recall you) in 2004. I found enough skills to get by but I have no expectation to ever have a full-time job again. It's scary at first; then you realize you can cope, and maybe even have some fun.

 

[The Dagda]

Yeah and I always seem to get laid off, or find myself out of work, just as a recession hits. That bites, now I have too much competition. Ah well such is life.

Anyone in the club? I'm not too desperate for a job though because I have savings. I'll be getting unemployment insurance money too. I'm going take some classes at a city college and use my off time to improve my skills.

Very wise. In my neck of the woods you can get the government to fund them too, not sure if it's the same where you live. I'd rather pay for it, but needs must.

 

[jobyts]

Me and my wife lost our jobs on the same day (we were working in different companies), in 2002.

Luckily I managed to get a job in a startup within a week, that company got acquired by a bigger company, and made my fortune. So it turned good eventually.

 

[Topher925]

the unemployment commission and the welfare offices are the only booming business left in Michigan.

Michigan blows. I can't wait to get out of this state when I'm done with school. If I wasn't in grad school, I would probably be part of the unemployed club.

 

[Cyrus]

What worries me is not the mass amounts of people loosing their jobs. What worries me is hearing entire countries going broke on the news every night.

 

[turbo]

David, I am in the medically-disabled club, and have been been shoehorned into the laid-off club because it is convenient for the state. It took me over 3 years of legal wrangling (lawyers aren't cheap) to get Social Security to acknowledge that I am medically disabled and even now, they are jerking me around - they are paying my last 2 years lump-sum back-payments and requiring me to pay taxes on all of that and pay my lawyers after taxes. Why is this country's civil service so geared to screwing the populace?

 

[Danger]

Why is this country's civil service so geared to screwing the populace?

Because that's what governments do. Here in Canada, income tax is illegal... but it sure doesn't stop the bastards from gouging it out of people.
I've been unemployed since Oct. 31, and am not eligible for EI (what used to be UIC; ie: unemployment insurance). My $1,000 overdraught for my chequing account is now depleted, so the wife has to pay for everything. That just utterly blows. Gotta go tomorrow and try to get hired on at a local electronics retailer (and I know nothing about electronics) or take a 2 shift per week night job at a gas station.
I'm handicapped, as in having serious OCPD (emphyzema & chronic bronchitis) and osteoarthritis, and I never graduated high-school, so my opportunities are limited. Still, though, I'm not going to have a 58 year-old woman who has been working her *** off since she was 16 supporting me. She deserves a rest.
I'll start delivering bloody newspapers if I have to.

 

[physics girl phd]

My husband joined your ranks last week. We hope he gets called back by march. But as far as we can tell, the unemployment commission and the welfare offices are the only booming business left in Michigan.
I am so grateful to have my new job, which is very secure.

We're waiting to see what happens to my brother-in-law (connected to the auto-industry). Fortunately my sister (who just finished her internship in medicine at UM) just got a new job within an uncomfortable but possible commuting distance (Jackson), so they won't HAVE to worry about selling the house and finding a new one (although they'd like to be able to do so).

 

[hypatia]

My Husband went to the unemployment office today. He picked up his number, 956 and stood in a room with several hundred people, They had chairs for about 30 people. By 4:00 PM they saw him{he got their at 8 AM}. Yea! he gets unemployment. Now all he has to do is post a resume on the Michigan works site, then go to another office, meet with some one who will issue a pin number, take this pin to the credit union and arrange direct deposit, then next Monday between 8 am and 12 Noon, he has to call the automated phone something, answer some questions by pressing 1 or 9, and then the check will be deposited by Friday.
So tonight at dinner he looks all worried and says, "Why would they give any man so many ways to screw this up"? I answer, "Because they can".

 

[physics girl phd]

My Husband went to the unemployment office today...

Holy moley! (hope I can get by with that on the forums).

I'm impending layoff before fall (as a non-tenure-track lecturer... along with other, I've been told to expect the worst based on budgets... tenured faculty will teach lower levels and upper-levels will likely be offered every other year)

Our solution: Time to have a baby. It'll keep me busy and give me a good excuse to be out of the job market for a while. Just got to push to get my research results done before the terms out (I've been doing education research with my classes, but the plan does wrap up nicely this term, although my N is lower than I'd like). Fortunately my husband's job is secure (although we're also looking at prospects elsewhere).

 

[turbo]

Just got to push to get my research results done before the terms out (I've been doing education research with my classes, but the plan does wrap up nicely this term, although my N is lower than I'd like).

Good luck with that plan. If you no longer have a job, and the referee(s) ask for changes, will you still have access to grad-student slaves to massage your paper and get it accepted?

I'm glad to hear that your husband's job is secure. My wife works for New Balance Athletic Shoe, and they are actually expanding the work-force at her plant, so that is a hopeful sign. The failure of some Chinese shoe-manufacturers is also helpful in a sense, because NB's biggest competitors (Adidas, Nike, Reebock, etc) contract most of their work from Asia, and they will have to regroup.

NB is privately owned, and the Davis's are paying very good wages for this region, and offer low-cost medical and dental coverage (including eye-care and heavily-subsidized eyeglass purchases), plus a 401K program with a nice percentage match. They try to keep as much production in the US as possible, to earn and protect the "Made in the USA" label. NB makes shoes in a huge range of sizes, and widths up to 4E (yay, for me!) so they can fit about everybody.

When the Davis's are asked about why their company does not pay celebrity sports figures to appear in commercials and print ads, they point to their "Endorsed by No-One" philosophy, and explain that they don't want to pay huge sums to rich stars when they could instead use the money to compensate their employees. Good folks!

 

[DaveC426913]

Hmph. I just joined today.

 

[turbo]

Hmph. I just joined today.

Sorry to hear that, Dave. Good luck!

 

[waht]

We now have to take at least one or two mandatory days off at the company. The work load is cut by more than half. Its sister company in another part of town is closing for good in two weeks laying off about 60-100 people. I'm kind of lucky to be still around, I may be joining the club soon. Hopefully there won't be any members left.

 

[Evo]

Hmph. I just joined today.

Oh no Dave!

Yesterday in the news, 50,000 layoffs were announced.

My company has not given us office supplies in a year, we have to buy our own. They announced yesterday they will no longer contribute to 401k's, for the 3rd year in a row, no raises, we were told a couple of weeks ago that our pay has been cut by minimum $20,000 annually and tuition reimbursment has been cut off. But like everyone is saying, as least we have a job. And our dear CEO makes $70 million dollars a year.

 

[lisab]

Hmph. I just joined today.

I'm so sorry, Dave.

 

[Janus]

My Husband went to the unemployment office today. He picked up his number, 956 and stood in a room with several hundred people, They had chairs for about 30 people. By 4:00 PM they saw him{he got their at 8 AM}. Yea! he gets unemployment. Now all he has to do is post a resume on the Michigan works site, then go to another office, meet with some one who will issue a pin number, take this pin to the credit union and arrange direct deposit, then next Monday between 8 am and 12 Noon, he has to call the automated phone something, answer some questions by pressing 1 or 9, and then the check will be deposited by Friday.
So tonight at dinner he looks all worried and says, "Why would they give any man so many ways to screw this up"? I answer, "Because they can".

Apparently, here in Oregon, you don't even go into the unemployment office anymore, everything is done online or over the phone.

The last time I had to apply for unemployment I had some red-tape to wade through. Because of the nature of my employer, I was told that I would be sent a special form to fill out to determine whether or not I was eligible to receive it. The form had to be sent a special office that handled all these claims for the State (I don't know why they made it so hard, when it all could have been handled by my local Office contacting my employer and asking if I met the criteria.)
Anyway, I was told to send it in as soon as possible as the office handled a lot of claims and they were processed on a first-come first-served basis. I was also told that it could be up to 3 months before I got my first check. In the meantime I would still have to report to the employment office every week etc, just like I was getting unemployment.

The first week goes by, I do everything I needed to, and instead of getting a check I got a letter telling me I needed to send in the form. (which I had not received yet.)

This went on for 4 weeks. I didn't have any way to contact this special office, so I called my local office, and told them that I couldn't send in the form because I hadn't been sent one yet. The person I talked to said they send me one. I got it, filled it in, and sent it off. Sure enough, a few days later, I get my form from the special office, only this one has a lot of numbers and stuff already filled in at the top.

Luckily, the form also had the phone number for the office. I called them and told them that I had already sent one form in already, so did I have to send this one in also. She asked my name, and looked it up on the computer. She said that they had received it a couple of days ago and that I would should get my check the next week. (I'm not sure whether it had been already processed, or if she just processed it while she had it up on the computer)

So after 6 weeks, I finally got my first unemployment check (back paid to when I should have been getting checks.)

A little over a week later, I got hired at a new job.

 

[rootX]

And our dear CEO makes $70 million dollars a year.

Wow, funny that at least 70 million people can be employed with that money.

 

[The Dagda]

Janus I signed on on the 1st of December and didn't receive any benefit for seven weeks, meaning my Christmas was shall we say dryer than usual and with lest festivity. Mind you at least they had an excuse the dole office is swamped atm. It actually turned out to be a good thing in the end as I spent about £200 of money I had to borrow which is way less than the overall seven weeks of unemployment benefit. In this country, which I think is a good thing, you have to phone up and fill in a form over the phone that takes 45 minutes. Turn up to an interview with lots of id, and then you have to prove you have been looking for work every two weeks, by applying for at least four jobs with contact numbers, in case they want to check up on you. After 6 months unemployed they practically force you into a job, apparently they are on about making JSA who have been unemployed over a year do community service, or lose their benefits. I must say I agree with that. Used to be a time when being on the dole could become a career move, now you have to be a specialist dole scum to do it. Like Rab C Nesbit.

 

[Kurdt]

Wow, funny that at least 70 million people can be employed with that money.

For one dollar a year or for some portion of an hour?

 

[wildman]

Oh no Dave!

My company has not given us office supplies in a year, we have to buy our own. They announced yesterday they will no longer contribute to 401k's, for the 3rd year in a row, no raises, we were told a couple of weeks ago that our pay has been cut by minimum $20,000 annually and tuition reimbursment has been cut off. But like everyone is saying, as least we have a job. And our dear CEO makes $70 million dollars a year.

Hmmm, our President makes $3 million and he treats us good and our company is making a profit... Do you think there is a connection?

 

[rootX]

For one dollar a year or for some portion of an hour?

O I did my math wrong

70 million $ / 70 million people = 1 million $ /people

 

[Integral]

I received word tonight, I am offically out of work as of 1 Apr.

I will be eligible for trade act benifits. My hope is to get a teaching certificate.

 

[lisab]

I received word tonight, I am offically out of work as of 1 Apr.

I will be eligible for trade act benifits. My hope is to get a teaching certificate.

Oh no, Integral...I'm so sorry to hear it!

 

[Math Is Hard]

I'm sorry to hear the news, Integral. How long does it take to get a teaching certificate?

 

[Cyrus]

I don't like this thead. This is not a happy news thread... I'm sorry about everyones bad news!

Thank's for this mess G.W. Bush...

 

[Evo]

I received word tonight, I am offically out of work as of 1 Apr.

I will be eligible for trade act benifits. My hope is to get a teaching certificate.

Integral, that's horrible. Hopefully this will lead to better things.

My oldest daughter left a great high paying job in November to work with a veteranarian because she's changing her major. She just got laid off because business has dropped off due to the economy.

You're close to retirement aren't you? Is it possible to take early retirement instead?

My boss, that I love, was laid off last week. He had kidney cancer and without his existing insurance with our company, he is now uninsurable. I cried most of the day.

 

[Integral]

I am less then 3 years shy of being eligible for HP retirement, I was kind of hoping to hang around long enough to get that. While I will miss the paycheck I will not miss the work or the way the environment was evolving. A part of me is glad to be out.

HP is no longer the employer it used to be.

 

[Evo]

I am less then 3 years shy of being eligible for HP retirement, I was kind of hoping to hang around long enough to get that. While I will miss the paycheck I will not miss the work or the way the environment was evolving. A part of me is glad to be out.

HP is no longer the employer it used to be.

Geeze, 3 years from retirement. Will you lose everything associated with your retirement? It's just sickening to work all of your life, doing your best for a company, then just get shafted.

I wish I was in a position to help you.

 

[hypatia]

Sorry to hear that news Integral.

 

[Danger]

Time to have a baby... ...we're also looking at prospects elsewhere

Now there's an intriguing possibility...