Anyone else get laid off recently?

redux wrote:

I got laid off today. After letting it sink in I realized how lucky I am. First, I got severance. Second, I'm eligible for unemployment. Third, I have plenty of money. Fourth, although it was corporate the job was a career dead end.

Anyone else?

Nope.

That's cool. Are you happy? I was miserable but too lazy to do something about it.

redux wrote:

That's cool. Are you happy? I was miserable but too lazy to do something about it.

Fair question. Yes I am happy. I am about 15 years out from grad/professional school and enjoy my work (at least intellectually) most days. I increasingly have leadership responsibilities which, honestly, I could do without but have come to accept this as part of the job. Pay is very good, benefits are very good, vacation time is excellent, co-workers....some good some bad some horrible but I have come to accept this fact as inherent to any job in which you have to interact with a lot of people.

Anyway, sorry to hear you got laid off. Sounds like you'll be fine financially at least. What are your plans? Immediate job hunt? Switch career paths? Go back to school?

I'm going to fill out and mail the severance paperwork then relax for the weekend. I'll get on it Monday.

I've already reached out to the people I know who are good resources in this type of situation.

Honestly, I'm relieved this happened. I know it's lame to ride a bad situation until the wheels fall off, but I tend to be very committed and am not quick to pull the plug on someone who's investing in me.

Dude why are you in such of a rush to get back to work? You're in a great situation (especially if you don't have kids). Go out and travel, or commit to achieve something you always wanted to.

It happens. Good luck with the job search.

Got laid off about 15 years ago from a job I hated in business run by Machiavellian sociopath so it was a relief. I didn't get severance but unemployment. Was out of work for 2.5 months and it ended up being a career changer, for better or worse. I'd hit the end of the road in the other line of work and while somewhat related, the new work was not quite the same. Plus I took a pay cut for several months before getting back into a competitive salary range, but it was nice to get bumped up to team lead after just a few months on the new job.

Haven't looked back too much for the past 10 years.

I'm an engineer, my current company (in oil & gas) has gone from 75 to 35 employees in the last year so my time could be up in the very near future. I hope your severance is could, I can only expect 2 weeks. But I do have a backup plan in place.

I echo others who encourage you to take a little time for yourself. But only a little!

I'm a union election. Its normal for me to get laid off. You get hired for a project and laid off when it's winding down

Good luck with your job search redux!!!!

Whenever I was between jobs I would try to travel and climb mountains abroad. Like another person said, don't be in such a hurry to get back to work. When things really sucked job wise, at least I was able to have some fun.

Thanks for the advice. While I am going to get started Monday I'm not just going to jump on the first thing that comes around. I need to do a serious resume revamp and may look into building a website.

This is a terrible time to start a job search from what I've seen. Most companies are winding down the year and don't have budget or time to bring a new person on right before the holidays. Also all the decision makers won't likely all be around at the same times from now til early January. I have a good amount of time to look around and find something that fits well.

And yeah, I need some time off to travel a bit, recharge, and refocus on a lot of things that I've been neglecting due to stress and time constraints. I know it's not an original thing to say, but the corporate work really can do a lot of damage to a person's psyche.

Most likely I'm going to be looking outside Florida for work because I'm over the weather, culture, and environment.

Yes in three weeks

My company recently laid off a few people.

I think they now have an opportunity to find something better.

I won't get laid off because my position is necessary and we have no depth.

They layoffs at my place are to keep profit margins high.

It's short sighted thinking. They need to invest in their people and ride out sales slumps.

Go get a better job.

Nike contracted employee that was "laid off" last week.

Redux,

Sorry to hear of your job loss. Lots of seasonal work is starting up now, so you can go do some of that...it's not all retail crap either. Then, take some time off in early January and start the job search in earnest after that.

OR, since you have plenty of money, you can just stop working for a long time or ever if you have enough.

Good luck.

of course he got laid off, the economy is crap.

we have a community organizer in the white house, remember??

Why don't you take some time and train for the world record or at least train to beat Rupp... become famous

Bit of advice?

If you're a temporary worker in the blue collar field.

You might want to youtube and watch

"OSHA industrial accidents" including the one with

shipyard accidents , even if you just push

paper. Good to know.

I got let go from my job on Thursday. Had been with the company for 9.5 years and it was my first real full time job out of college. Redux, a lot of the stuff you say sounds a lot like my situation. I was burned out and had no real desire to move up any further with the company. I was pretty tenured in my position and the company is all about keeping the ball rolling and moving up and I had no real desire to. I recently told my boss I was burned out and flat out asked him why he thought so many people leave the company (high turnover rate with what I was doing) and he gave me the Corporate BS answer. They knew I wasn't happy and when they met with me on Thursday one of the things they told me was to find something I liked. I had been saying for years that my time was coming, either I was going to leave on my own or they were going to let me go, so wasn't a total surprise. I had been looking for other jobs here and there but nothing too serious because I was making decent money and in my area it would be hard to find something starting out making similar money so I was basically hanging around until this happened. I obviously didn't want to leave on my own until I had something else lined up and was trying to stick it out for as long as I could knowing this was going to eventually probably happen. For my situation it was for the best, for the most part for the past several YEARS I was there going through the motions and collecting a paycheck. I wasn't completely miserable all the time but most of the time I had way more negative feelings toward the job than positive.

I'm 33, have no kids or a wife and only debt I have is my mortgage. I have no idea at this point what's next but I'm really going to take it as an opportunity to really try to figure out what it is I want to do. It's just a thought, but I kind of like the idea of doing something totally different and maybe seasonal that requires me to move away for awhile. I have entertained the thought of trying to start my own business of some sort but don't know what (any ideas?). I'm not saying I'll never have a corporate job again, but right now I'm pretty burned out on that scene. My plan is to not do anything for awhile and just relax and do some things I want to do. I like what some others have said about traveling and will probably do a little bit of this. I'm not going to rush into anything and when I feel the times right I'll make a move. Once you feel like it, start thinking and things will start to happen.

Good luck!