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Friday, October 03, 2008
Lost My Job
Lost My Job
I am no longer employed at the day job. Financially, this really SUCKS! It wasn’t the best paying job, it certainly wasn’t a writing job and it wasn’t a dream job, but it helped pay our bills and allowed me to write on the side.
The bosses came down last Friday, about 3:30. Okay. I thought when they both walked in “this is weird“. You see, the wife never came to this store unless there was some sort of La-di-dah function. The husband was supposed to be with us every Tuesday, but he usually did a 15 minute “drive-by” sometime during the day and left in a hurry.
If you’re thinking, this was a shock-you’d be wrong. This day job was in the home remodeling/improvement business. So, if real estate and the market are in “the toilet”, so is this business. The three of us who ran this “trade only” store knew that business had dropped dramatically, but several people quit/retired/out on medical leave at the retail store and hadn’t been replaced, so we thought of ourselves as okay. Not safe, but okay.
After all, we dealt with a very select group of interior designers, custom home builders and contractors who made it clear they would never go to the retail store. Yet, we went from having a normal daily take of $15-20 thousand a day to less than that in a week.
Back to my loss-the owners came in, shut my office door and said in a very choked up manner that they no longer could afford my position. They handed me my check and paper work to collect unemployment. Which I promptly had my daughter help me sign up for within hours of my “release”.
The wife told me to go home and have a good cry (which it seemed she was already doing for me) and call her after the weekend with any questions I might have. Well I did, seems a weekend is long enough to forget me-she took 3 days and another phone call and e-mail from me to talk about my profit-sharing money. I hate having to chase people down. Damn, excuse my French.
Anyway, I’ve decided that this was the shove I needed. Time to stop writing for mere peanuts and really push myself to start writing full-time. I got “to work” right away.
By Saturday morning I had contacted all the PR people that have helped me locate subjects for all the articles I’ve been writing for the OC Register, told them all about losing the “day job” and asked if they had any suggestions, need for a free-lance writer or have heard of any jobs to please think of me. I sent notes to writer friends, who sent the “congratulations” and told me to “go for this with both hands and hit the ground running”. Which I think I have.
I’ve applied for 4 PR jobs, signed up and put my resume on 3 different journalism job boards, I comb the media job area of Craigslist daily and have been tooting my own horn all week.
Okay, I haven’t actually heard back from someone offering me a job, but I would imagine this is going to take a bit of time-even if the job outlook for all fields weren’t so bleak.
As for the unemployment pay-woohoo (hint of sarcasm coming), I’m practically in like Flynn-I am probably going to receive a whopping $325 a week. My daughter and a close friend warned me I wouldn’t actually see a check for about a month.
My daughter told me I should call my doctor and ask about disability. I asked “why would I do that?”
“Mom, you’ve got RA, CRPS, degenerative discs in your neck and possibly fibromyalgia, you of anyone should qualify for disability!”
I don’t like the idea. I know I’ve not been feeling “my best” this year, but as long as I can move, I will. Is that really weird? I’d like real opinions here people.
The funny thing is, I’ve only been out of work a few days and my RA has improved. I haven’t had to take an anti-inflammatory all week and only 1 pain-killer. I’m thinking maybe working a full-time day job, plus free-lance writing and moderating the magazine forum may have been more than my body should have taken on!
I’ve said all along-the day job was getting in my way. Look out world of journalism, here I come!
I am no longer employed at the day job. Financially, this really SUCKS! It wasn’t the best paying job, it certainly wasn’t a writing job and it wasn’t a dream job, but it helped pay our bills and allowed me to write on the side.
The bosses came down last Friday, about 3:30. Okay. I thought when they both walked in “this is weird“. You see, the wife never came to this store unless there was some sort of La-di-dah function. The husband was supposed to be with us every Tuesday, but he usually did a 15 minute “drive-by” sometime during the day and left in a hurry.
If you’re thinking, this was a shock-you’d be wrong. This day job was in the home remodeling/improvement business. So, if real estate and the market are in “the toilet”, so is this business. The three of us who ran this “trade only” store knew that business had dropped dramatically, but several people quit/retired/out on medical leave at the retail store and hadn’t been replaced, so we thought of ourselves as okay. Not safe, but okay.
After all, we dealt with a very select group of interior designers, custom home builders and contractors who made it clear they would never go to the retail store. Yet, we went from having a normal daily take of $15-20 thousand a day to less than that in a week.
Back to my loss-the owners came in, shut my office door and said in a very choked up manner that they no longer could afford my position. They handed me my check and paper work to collect unemployment. Which I promptly had my daughter help me sign up for within hours of my “release”.
The wife told me to go home and have a good cry (which it seemed she was already doing for me) and call her after the weekend with any questions I might have. Well I did, seems a weekend is long enough to forget me-she took 3 days and another phone call and e-mail from me to talk about my profit-sharing money. I hate having to chase people down. Damn, excuse my French.
Anyway, I’ve decided that this was the shove I needed. Time to stop writing for mere peanuts and really push myself to start writing full-time. I got “to work” right away.
By Saturday morning I had contacted all the PR people that have helped me locate subjects for all the articles I’ve been writing for the OC Register, told them all about losing the “day job” and asked if they had any suggestions, need for a free-lance writer or have heard of any jobs to please think of me. I sent notes to writer friends, who sent the “congratulations” and told me to “go for this with both hands and hit the ground running”. Which I think I have.
I’ve applied for 4 PR jobs, signed up and put my resume on 3 different journalism job boards, I comb the media job area of Craigslist daily and have been tooting my own horn all week.
Okay, I haven’t actually heard back from someone offering me a job, but I would imagine this is going to take a bit of time-even if the job outlook for all fields weren’t so bleak.
As for the unemployment pay-woohoo (hint of sarcasm coming), I’m practically in like Flynn-I am probably going to receive a whopping $325 a week. My daughter and a close friend warned me I wouldn’t actually see a check for about a month.
My daughter told me I should call my doctor and ask about disability. I asked “why would I do that?”
“Mom, you’ve got RA, CRPS, degenerative discs in your neck and possibly fibromyalgia, you of anyone should qualify for disability!”
I don’t like the idea. I know I’ve not been feeling “my best” this year, but as long as I can move, I will. Is that really weird? I’d like real opinions here people.
The funny thing is, I’ve only been out of work a few days and my RA has improved. I haven’t had to take an anti-inflammatory all week and only 1 pain-killer. I’m thinking maybe working a full-time day job, plus free-lance writing and moderating the magazine forum may have been more than my body should have taken on!
I’ve said all along-the day job was getting in my way. Look out world of journalism, here I come!
