I’m still officially employed through the end of the month, and my benefits extend through the end of July, so I’m not too badly off, considering.
Actually, since our company has been tanking, I’ve been expecting this for some time. So it’s kind of a relief to know and not wonder anymore.
But still…
Good thoughts in my direction would be welcomed…
I was notified October 2001 that I would be laid off (along with several other people in the department). They didn’t know when. Last month the VP reiterated something that he’d said in a December 2002 meeting (which I missed, as I was on vacation): There is no longer a lay-off list. Once a certain part of a project is completed, we will all get our “retention bonuses” (payment to be received as long as we didn’t quit).
The bad thing is that, barring being allowed to telecommute from a remote office, I want to be laid off so that I can get the hell out of California! (And collect the severence package and unemployment benefits.)
In my case, I’m hoping a door will open for me. In yours, the door has been opened for you. Step through and take advantage of your new opportunities. 
Gooooooooooooood thoughts.
Gooooooooooooood thoughts.
Gooooooooooooood thoughts.
Hope it goes well for both of you.
I’ve been laid off a couple times. It always leads to something better. Good luck on your new search!
I was also laid off recently. My severence goes to the end of May and my benefits go until October so I’m okay for now. Good luck with your job search. You’ll probably hear this a lot, but it’s true…this can only lead to something better. You may feel down, you may feel discouraged, but don’t give up. There is a job out there waiting for you.
Good luck!
I got laid off in January, and I’m taking advantage of all these comments (I feel better if I apply them to myself).
I had known, via a manager that I was gonna be laid off a week before it actually happened. As it was, I got to tell my immediate boss that I knew why she’d called me in to the conference room, and had already packed up my desk and formatted my laptop, thx. I got escorted out of the building as if I were a criminal. I suppose they have to be careful, because I’m sure there are some people out there who flip out, but it would have been nice to be able to say bye to co-workers in person.
And here I am one of those people who cry all over your thread about my own troubles. The point of all this is that I do feel much more optimistic about life now than I did when I was employed. The future is wide open, as Tom Petty likes to sing. It does make for tense times though. My thoughts and sympathy are with you.
ouisey
Thanks, guys, and best of luck to the other folk in my same situation!
It’s weird – after the initial shock (and it’s always a shock, even when you know it’s coming), I was really happy. After I had time to think about it for a while, I began to get apprehensive about what I’ll do and how I’ll manage.
Now I’m going through the “It’ll soon be the last time I’m driving to the job” phase.
I tend to worry too much and be bothered by things I can’t control, so I’m trying really hard to stay calm and be cool about the whole situation.
Best wishes to all…
Well, I regret that I didn’t steal or break anything or flip out like Jerry McGuire when I was laid off. I guess I’ll just have to take satisfaction that I broke 2 laptops during the course of my stay there (one I kicked in the monitor on purpose because it angered me, the other one the hinge just sorta wore through if you can believe it).
I felt a little unhappy about it for awhile until last week when I was out with some of my former coworkers and they were bitching about having to drive 2 hours each way to clients and work 70 hours a week. Now I realize that if I had a source of income, I would be completely content to never work another day in my life again.
Of course, the whole income thing is the catch.
Welcome to the club! I got my layoff notice on Halloween. Was called into my bosses office and handed a short note that pretty much said: “There are two people on your project, it’s almost finished so we only need one person now. You make more than the other guy. Bye.” This was accompanied by no severence pay, no vacation time pay out and no benefits extension. But enough whining about being screwed…
Like others have said I was pretty shocked since I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t too upset as I was planning on leaving the company in August anyway when my project was finished so they just accelerated my schedule a bit. Still the shock was pretty hard to take, and I was pretty pissed off too. After the urge to kill subsided I got a bit panicy for a while and then was struck by the realization that I was completely free to do whatever the hell I wanted with my life and got kind of giddy.
Since my layoff happened about 10 days before I was scheduled to take my first ever paid vacation I already had a round trip ticket to Belize in my hand, which I went ahead and used, and had a great time. Though I was pretty effing annoyed that I hadn’t been given enough notice to extend the trip from two weeks to eight, I really liked it down there. After I got back I decided to enjoy the fact that I’m frugal and had a nice chunk of change saved up so I just took the holidays off altogether, didn’t really think about looking for work or about the future at all.
When the new year rolled around I finally started paying attention to the future again and decided that I didn’t want to live in Alaska anymore so instead of looking for work I looked for a new place to live. I decided to give Houston a shot; partially because the economic situation in the NW sucks pretty badly now and because a friend here in Houston make a half serious suggestion that I move here. Imagine her surprise when I called and told her I’d be down the first week of February
The point of this story is that, like others have said, good things will come of this and in the end you’ll be better off. Being better off just doesn’t mean in a better job either (hell I’m still not working and consider myself better off!) Right now you have the whole world open to you, if you’re willing to take advantage of this opportunity you may find yourself doing something totally unexpected and amazing.
Best of luck to all!
Isn’t a company required by law to pay out any unused vacation time?
It varies from state to state actually. Within an hour of getting home that day I called the DOL to ask if they had to pay it and was informed that in Alaska vacation time is considered a perk, and that companies were not required to pay it out upon terimnation. Basically the only thing they were legally required to do was cut me a check for all hours worked prior to being dumped and get it to me in three business days.
To get even further off topic… When I was on that trip to Belize I ended up telling this story to a number of people from around the world. Every single person I spoke to, from Guatamala to Surinam to Dennmark to England all informed me that in their country such actions were illegal. I find it amusing that even developing countries have better and more consistant labor laws than the USA…
At the moment both my spousal support unit and I are out of work. Mine somewhat unexpectedly, his we thought was coming, but his was the more important job as it was the one we’d relied on all these years. Pretty much being grasshoppers and spending all income and then some, we don’t have a lot of resources. We put all our savings in 401k and 403b plans and are now hoping we might have enough to live in a tent in Arizona should this indeed be our retirement nestegg. He was laid off after 29 years and 11 months and made a very good salary. I’ve worked intermittently throughout all our years together so my resume which once was excellent, now has potholes.
We are in good spirits, though, and we, too, are looking at this as an opportune moment to make some life altering changes. I expected he might be somewhat disjointed by this change, but he’s extremely pleased about it. Doesn’t like the new players on the team and the bonehead decisions they’re making so he’s glad not to have to be a part of the “new” company.
Wish we’d had tickets to Belize waiting for us. I’m trying to talk him into going to London for a week, but he’s not buying it yet. I’m like, hey, I have 250000 frequent flyer miles, why not? But I’m much more of a grasshopper than he is, so he’s wanting to conserve. I figure we can always sell the house and we both know how to say, “and would you like fries with that?”
I was laid off with about a week’s notice at the end of June, due to budget cuts. They paid out over 60 accumulated days of recompensable vacation and sick leave, and I took some time off - since obviously I hadn’t been taking time off at my old job! It took a bit longer than I’d wanted to start hearing back, but I got my current job in November and am very happy. My last job was dead-end and a soul-sucking place; this new job is a very good match for me, and I’m happy.
Best of luck to you, I hope you have even better fortune than I did.
In general, companies have layoffs because business is bad. If business is bad, you get exaggerated office politics: scheming, backstabbing, scapegoating, unreasonable hours, nasty stuff. Businesses in trouble are just not the most fun places to work. There’s probably a lot you won’t miss.
The important thing is to realize that it isn’t personal. Happens a lot. Try to see it as a phase that you’re through with, and look for the next position. If you feel better about yourself, you’ll be more attractive when you’re interviewing.
Hey, good luck to you & everyone else who’s been - downsized, rightsized, reorganized, realigned & otherwise regurgitated. And listen to what 3LeggedBob said, that man speaks wisdom.
I got laid off last May Day. But after 19 yrs on the job & enough years on this planet, I just ducked under the wire to qualify for a small early retirement pkg. Paltry pension, but medical till Medicare kicks in & dental for life. I was luckier than a lot of my friends & I know it. Not much opportunity in this area right now. But I know I’ll survive.
Oh yes, I heard a new euphemism for being laid off the other day, courtesy of IBM, this was on the local news: 1000 people lost their jobs due to skills rebalancing.
And for the record, I was laid off today. Saw it coming, and not entirely unhappy.
The paycheck thing sucks, though.
Anyway, chin up.
TLB
Sending warm thought your way Archergal. Luck be with you.
And to you too ThreeLeggedBob
Sorry to hear that Archergal.
I really understand how you feel.
Where I work, this is topic #1.
I hope I’m spared the budget axe.
ThreeLeggedBob, bummer on the lay-off! But there’s a lot of that going around now.
My thoughts are with you all!
Sending happy thoughts your way, Archergal. Here’s hoping that you won’t be put into dire straits, financially, and that you’ll be back on the work force real soon.
I thank my lucky stars daily that I’m with a stable company (not the horsey kind of stable, either, no matter what my Doper name indicates).
Best wishes to you.