Ever been laid off?

[mrblah]

getting laid off was the best thing that happened to me.... got unemployment, traveled a little bit, learned a new skill, went back to school, that got me a high paying job.

most important advice, keep your head up, be willing to try new things, and try to not give a @#$@#$@#$....lol.

 

[BrianSD_42]

There's nothing like being sought after hard by a company, only to quit your current career field job to go work for them, then get laid off 6 months later cus they got ahead of themselves (putting that politely).

That's the only lay off story I have. At least they waited till AFTER I closed on my house. Those first few payments were rough though!

Oh man I didn't realize that happened as a follow up ending to your long post about changing careers. Wtf. I hope you landed on your feet.

 

[BrianSD_42]

One more thing guys and it is a bit of an aside, make sure you and your wife each put aside $5500 after tax dollars in a Roth IRA classified account (backdoor conversions are legit, look it up) each year. Keep it in something along the lines of a market high growth account (eg Vangaurd). I prefer growth index fund ETFs but the real point is you want 7-10% yearly that is COMPLETELY SEPARATE from your pension or work sponsored 401K. If you haven't already started this consider beginning this year.

 

[JWaldz]

Oh man I didn't realize that happened as a follow up ending to your long post about changing careers. Wtf. I hope you landed on your feet.

Yea, wtf is a good way to put it lol. Thanks though man. It took the course of last summer grinding for a job but I got a good one! All is good in the hood.

 

[1engineer]

Never been laid off. Only had two jobs in the past 28 years. My only words of advice, coming from someone who has had to interview hundreds of people and also let hundreds go: It's ALWAYS easier to find a job when you have a job, than to find a job when you have no job.
So if you ever get even an inkling of something that could affect your job, go find a new job while you are still employed.

That's all I got.

 

[reelamin]

Hell yes....Had never been fired from any job in the last 40 years. I took a totally dependent on the boss job with no protection other than your contract job 10yrs ago.

Well, the boss changed and the new boss wanted me to do some things that were against my personal beliefs and I told her NO. She says "you work for me and you have to do what I say"....Me....no I dont work for you but your my boss and I'M NOT GOING TO DO WHAT YOU JUST ASKED ME TO DO.....She says...well then your not going to be the XYZ.....me... thats fine but remember I have a contract that says....ABC... if fired for no cause.

Two weeks later I got a fricken HUGE check and a pink slip. LOL....I'm making a crap ton more now with no BS than when I got fired. FRICK...I wish the sweet heart new boss had became my boss about 9 years ago!!!

I am not advocating getting fired...but if it works out like my only time of getting fired....I would prefer to get fired at least once a year if not more!!

 

[reelamin]

Never been laid off. Only had two jobs in the past 28 years. My only words of advice, coming from someone who has had to interview hundreds of people and also let hundreds go: It's ALWAYS easier to find a job when you have a job, than to find a job when you have no job.
So if you ever get even an inkling of something that could affect your job, go find a new job while you are still employed.

That's all I got.

My grandfather told me the exact same thing 40 years ago when beating my ass to go to work and it is a proven fact. I still remember the first real career job interview I had. Four interviewers across the table from me...I'm 22 and about to graduate from school. The 3rd guy asks...."is your last name XYZ, and are you related to ABC" (ABC was my grandfather) I told them yes and he is my grandfather....#3 stood up and says..."if any of you dont hire this guy your idiots...because if he is ABC's grand kid...he will out work all of us combined" and literally just walked out the room.

I got the job...thanks GRAMPS!!

 

[Sears&Roebuck]

my boss says he might have to lay us off, but I said I'd work for free because he has done so much work on my truck

 

[Ashby]

I'm still in the market. They have extended our plants shutdown for 3 months so my date is sometime in December. I'll get 13 weeks pay on my last day so that gets me to March before I start going in the hole.

I've had 4 in person interviews since I started applying for jobs 5-6 months ago. I got a offer yesterday for a great position but the pay, benefits, and PTO are all worse (slightly). PTO is the biggest thing for me. I'm getting 21 days off (3 weeks vacation and 6 days personal) which is actually the same as vacation. The kicker for this roll is my would be boss left the company after i interviewed with them. They also wanted to add 15-20% china travel to the job duty's. I like traveling but not to China 2-3 months out of the year.

I have 8 yrs experience as a Manufacturing Engineer and i know i'm not going to find anyone thats going to give me 4 weeks PTO as a new hire but was curious how likely it is to get 3 weeks PTO as a new hire? Most places want you to work 5 years before earning the 3rd week, where I got my 4th week after working 5 years with my current company.

Does time off hold more weight than pay once you make say $60k-70k/yr

 

[NoGaRunner]

Been laid off 4 times in my career in IT. Each time has been a blessing in disguise as I ended up in a better position and/or with a better company. Though it certainly sucks when you are going through it.

 

[mscot]

i know i'm not going to find anyone thats going to give me 4 weeks PTO as a new hire but was curious how likely it is to get 3 weeks PTO as a new hire? Most places want you to work 5 years before earning the 3rd week, where I got my 4th week after working 5 years with my current company.

My current role couldn't pay me what I asked for so I negotiated the next level of pto (what would go to people working there for 5 years).
Everything is negotiable.
Good luck.

 

[wallytoo]

yes, back in 1992.

in the long run, i've been fortunate to solve that by being self-employed since 1997.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Only ever been laid off when I was an intern. The company was down-sizing to be acquired, they put up an org chart, and if you weren't on the org chart you didn't have a job... I've left a few jobs before the lay-offs because I was ahead of the curve and could see the writing on the wall

 

[Bluesky 07]

Seen it happen many times (such is the airline industry) but for me, twice. Ironically, one of those was from the job I'm in now. The nonprofit I work for began operations in April 2001. Our membership then was primarily airlines and they all had to pull their funding after 9/11. I was the only paid employee, so it was logical where the layoffs would start.

Fourteen years later, they invited me back so here I am.

The other time was from Delta Air Lines in 2004. Long story that's not for sharing here but it shouldn't have happened. I also think it's BS that companies can withhold your severance unless you agree not to pursue any kind of legal action. Not that I would have, I'm talking about the practice itself.

 

[el_kab0ng]

It's been awhile since I followed up, but I did manage to get hired on at another firm back in June after just over a month of being unemployed. This will be my 3rd tour with this particular firm over the last 10 years, so it was a natural return for me.

As for those asking about PTO, at least in the ITSEC community, we're seeing firms dissolve the concept of PTO and replacing it with a 'recharge' program. This means you can take as much time off as you want assuming you have the coverage necessary, but you won't get paid out on any accruement if you leave the org.

 

[AKmoney]

Age 44 and never been laid off, but there's no doubt in my mind my number will come up some day. It seems to happen to everyone...

Might be worthy of a separate thread but these days I spend more time thinking about my retirement and "rainy day" investments. I'm sure there will come a point where age discrimination gets me and I'll never be able to make the same kind of money I'm making now. I want to be prepared for it.

 

[ladywolf]

I've left 3 different jobs since the Army.

I worked for the Dept of Corrections for about 8 months, and had quite well enough of that. Extremely stressful, horrible working conditions, and the correctional officers are very limited in their power and things they can do.

I worked for a local manufacturing plant for right at 3 years, but felt like I was drowning further and further. We switched rotations every 28 days (nights/days). It just got to where it was too much. Due to the schedule you couldn't go to school except online, and there was no job growth unless you were up your supervisors behind with puckered lips and lots of vaseline.

I went to a job fair in Nashville for veterans, and was interviewed by a nationwide Door company that specializes in Overhead Doors, Dock Equipment, garage doors and Entry Doors (automatic and hollow metal). I got hired on with a better starting pay.

I quickly realized, however, that the company who hired me for Nashville was too preemptive in their hiring. There was no work for me in the automatic door business. I couldn't make 40 hours a week once I became a fully qualified technician with my own service truck, and was having to use PTO to supplement my income to pay my bills.

Around Christmas I applied to go to APSU and was accepted. I only had to take one class that was 3 times a week, first thing in the morning. Work threw a fit and told me I had to choose between work and school. I chose school.

I have to say that going to school full-time is not the easiest thing in the world to do, but its the best decision I've made.

 

[krob5697]

I worked for a company for 16 years. The owner was getting ready to retire and started talking to me about giving me shares of ownership in his company as a thank you for my dedicated loyalty to him. 2 weeks later, I was let go and the reason they gave me was simply to cut costs. I was out of work for 2 months. I finally found a job a couple days before Christmas. I might not have been able to afford many presents for my family that year, but believe me, it was the best Christmas ever.