OT: Joining the ranks . . .

Whistle
21

Contracting CAN be a great way to work. My husband contracted for years in North Carolina (he’s a programmer). The salaries were good, it was a great way to make industry contacts and keep his skill set fresh (and growing), and we both enjoyed knowing he had the freedom to tell his pim…er…the contract company he worked for :wink: to find him a different placement if he found himself in an intolerable position.

What’s scary about that idea here is: a) there are a lot more programmers out of work, and thus fewer contracting jobs, b) the travel distances are HUGE (most of the contract work we’re seeing is in San Francisco, Oakland and Davis…100+ mile roundtrip commutes) and c) after four years in one position, his skill set isn’t as up to date as he’d like to see it (not to mention the fact that all his industry contacts are back in North Carolina). He could do it, and do it well, but convincing an employer of that when there are so many others out of work and available… AND this is such a gawd-awful expensive place to live. Were it not for all of the above, I would have urged him to go back to contracting long ago…he comes home every day just looking exhausted and sad. We love our house, and living up here among the redwoods…leaving would be a wrench…but sometimes I think it would be worth almost anything to relieve some of this stress we’re both under. Of course, it’s bad just about everywhere now, what with outsourcing and companies bringing in H1B employees…it’s enough to make me want to bite someone!

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you that the non-profit sector isn’t as bad as IT right now.

Redwolf

22

Aaron,

Very sorry to hear your news. I’ve been a self-employed freelance writer and editor for many years. At first when I made the switch I worried about the loss of job security (even though I became self-employed after the publishing company I had been working for was sold and I didn’t want to move to Boston). Over the years, though, I’ve come to see that because I have diverse clients I actually have more job security than most, even though I have to live with uncertainty between gigs. It takes a while, I guess, to build up the clients, and paying out of pocket for health insurance is a killer, but really as far as security goes freelancing can’t be any worse than the kind of situation you just found yourself in. Redwolf raises good points if unpleasant commutes are involved (I work at home), but in your shoes I think I would lean toward being self-employed if at all possible. Big help, eh?

Best of luck to you.

Carol

23

Hey, maybe all of us unemployed musicians should get together and become a traveling music group… :smiley:

24

I can play a MAAAAD kazoo!!

25

Sorry to hear this, Aaron! I don’t know what to say or how to advise. Still, the first thing that popped up in my mind as a temporary and possible stopgap was busking…do you do that at all? Jim Stone’s hinted that he’s landed some decent money doing it. It could ease the money pressures a bit while you’re working it all out.

26

What do you do for healthcare insurance? My husband was laid-off in July from his software engineering job (I have a degree but have been a homemaker for 20 years) and one of our major expenses is maintaining our CORBA insurance (900.00) a month. I have a few medical conditions which make it impossible to get private insurance.

27

We’ve been there too, I’m afraid. COBRA is outrageous! We bought our own insurance for years, when hubby was contracting, but when our daughter was diagnosed with ADHD, we suddenly found that we couldn’t get insurance for her, because private companies aren’t required to cover someone with a “pre-existing condition” (even for basic medical care…we weren’t trying to purchase mental health coverage). Johanna was uninsured for nearly a year, and I just thank God that nothing traumatic happened during that year…even a brief hospital stay would have broken us financially.

One thing you MIGHT be able to do is find a private group plan. There are private group plans out there, and some states require them to take people with pre-existing conditions. That’s what we finally did. It wasn’t the world’s greatest insurance plan by any means, but it was a lot better than nothing. I just got on the phone and started calling until I located someone who would insure her…and got very, very lucky.

My parents have both recently retired, and my dad has several serious medical conditions. They’ve been forced to go to Canada for his medications, because even one month’s worth would break them (and there’s no way they can afford COBRA). Who knows how long Canada will allow that, however…it is, after all, something they have to support via taxes, and I couldn’t blame them if they decided “enough is enough.”

National Health Insurance, anyone?

Redwolf

28

Yes, it’s a terrible burden. Our healthcare premium is about $600 a month but all our prescriptions are excluded.

As I recall, in Illinois the insurance company was required to accept us on a direct pay basis when our COBRA time ran out.

Carol

29

Much good advice, but I offer something from having been in this condition for months and months.

Independent contracting isn’t so much an option as a necessity. Why? At the upper end, its about benefits and pay scales. The longer you are there, the higher your pay is supposed to get and thats like painting a target on yer backside. Competence is only valuable if you are cheap and don’t threaten the authority of the boss. Just a guess, but it sounds like you.

At middle level, its still about benefits, and especially here in Loopyland, Worker’s Comp costs and other of the many restrictions (paperwork, legal threats) our socialist state has dreamed up to make having employees a liability for anyone.

At low level, its day labor (mostly illegal immigrants). You live in Marin, so you know about the day laborers in San Rafael. If you are a building or landscaping contractor, there is no other sensible way than to pick up some of our new California slaves to get the work done. Soon they will even let em drive to the 7/11 for lunch. Isn’t that kind? We’re not talking about picking grapes (jobs that “regular Americans” won’t do), we are talking about concrete, landscaping, painting, framing, drainage and other blue-collar jobs. It’s probably happening in factories too, though I havent seen it first hand.

So the disincentives for regular employment are numerous at every level. One very extreme example follows: I have a friend who is an expert in self-diagnostic computer system software. He lost his fairly hi-pay job at Extricity and started the job hunt. One employer interviewed him SEVEN times in VERY long interviews which asked very detailed questions. Then they turned him down. They actually MINED this guy for the info but didn’t offer him a job. He began to realize but what could he do? He still needed the job. He’s a commerical contractor now, building warehouses and other commerical buildings. That’s how they treated a renowned professional. And no, no drinking or other problems, rather a great family guy with huge work ethic. multiple degrees and very specialized information in a given field. Think about it; if that’s how they treat a specialist, what chance have generalists in administration etc? Especially if they can OUT-SOURCE the work to foreign countries.

The publicly-funded publications in my last job, mailed to 93,000 households in this area were processed for plates and printed in India, by God knows who in what factory condition. My big-time Progressive Democrat boss (who goes to all the luncheons with the swells, like COngressman Miller and Barbara Lee), the one who fired me, knew all about it and just hoped the word didn’t get out. Taxpayer money used to out-source. You can imagine how the local printing companies felt about it.
As the designer, I was the only American who worked on the project. And then they nullified me, signed a short-term contract with a pathetic excuse of an outside designer (since terminated from further business). That’s California reality. The college is near bankruptcy so they aren’t doing much mailing these days, but offering the info online.

The bottom line is that it SEEMS like everyone is running around the state in their car, cellphone in hand, trying to make it on uncertain, shifting terms. Of course that seems exaggerated, but when you have seen how few “regular” jobs are available, its feels like truth. I have music gigs, I have graphics jobs, but putting it together in one monthly salary to make expenses for my kids and me has been elusive, unlike Carol, I guess.
We are essentially livin’ by our wits in constant reminder of the unfairness of life (which we all know deep-down but have long-periods of denial called regular employment). I sometimes feel like a Dickens street character but I am not dishonest, so petty thievery and scams aren’t an option.

As I said before, good luck buddy. And dulcimer is right, the anger builds up with periodic eruptions, especially if yer a high-strung music-y kinda person, which many of us are here. Accept it and remember that tomorrow is another day, another chance. That’s what I do. That and getting fitted for an orange Home Depot vest when the unemployment runs out.

30

And we’d better hope that this recall election goes through, or just GETTING to work is going to get a lot more expensive. As I paid to register my car last month, it occurred to me that, if the recall doesn’t go through, next year it will cost me three times as much just to have the privilege of driving my kid to school (since it’s the only way she can GET to school, that means paying even more than I already am for my child’s education). Add to that the newly inflated license fee for our old Toyota and hubby’s motorcycle, and I don’t know how any of us will be able to afford to drive. Kind of hard to get a job, even a contract job, if you can’t get to it, eh?

Loopyland indeed!

Redwolf

31

I don’t think I was too threatening, but I probably was considered to be an easy liability to get rid of to reduce salary outlays, as the company asked director’s to do a while back. Boss probably figures he can do two jobs as well as he was doing one (or perhaps doesn’t have enough to do, himself), so . . .

As I said before, good luck buddy. And dulcimer is right, the anger builds up with periodic eruptions, especially if yer a high-strung music-y kinda person, which many of us are here. Accept it and remember that tomorrow is another day, another chance. That’s what I do. That and getting fitted for an orange Home Depot vest when the unemployment runs out.

I’m fairly even-keeled most of the time, at least outwardly; one of my strengths in management and in personal crises is my calm, deliberate manner. Everyone looks to me at those times; I can take control of perilous situations and turn them around pretty well, mostly.

Then I go home and scream in a pillow for a couple minutes, and smack the heavy bag around. . .

Nah. I’m trying to keep the anger at bay by looking at this as an opportunity, insofar as possible. I’m mostly just sort of anxious, though I think the full reality of the situation has yet to really sink in. When the checking account runs dry, it might be different. Oy.

Good time to learn a few more tunes, though. I was considering giving the pipes a go, but no way I can justify laying out a couple thou for a half-set when rent is in question. Just hope I can avoid that orange vest, if possible. Though I always have sort of liked manual labor; had those jobs in high school and summers during college, and you get a good honest night’s sleep when you’ve put in a long day knocking walls down or clearing brush or what have you. I just think laborers oughtta get fair pay for all that effort, and we’d probably have to look for a new place right quick if it comes to that. Rent’s ridiculous.

It’ll work out eventually, I expect. I hope. Really hope.

Thanks again for the commiseration, everyone. Best of luck to all you others who are looking, too. Just got an e-mail from a friend who recently found a job after 11 months of looking, and he has two degrees from CalTech (engineering and physics) and impeccable resume. His family got wiped out, financially, and his wife and kid are living with her parents until he can afford a place big enough for all of them, in February or so. Not pretty. But at least he’s working again, at a good job.

32

I was feeling fed up because last Wednesday I’d done thirty years in the same job. Your bad news put things in perspective for me. Hope things work out for you real soon.

33

Wow Aaron, :frowning: I’m Sorry, I hope things work out for you and your family. Just keep in mind that when one door closes another opens. I hope one opens soon for you.

Best of Luck,
Kathy

34

Welcome to the ranks.

Both my wife and I were lucky, we saw it coming and took steps to minimize payments for our home. It pushed us back about five years, but later was better than out the door.

Then we both found temp jobs, to keep us going till a more permanant situation appears.

So far, so good.

This is definately a time of transition, check your options carefully, and don’t forget in the rush to take care of creditors, that you and your family are first.

If you ever want to visit any other areas - be sure to bring whistles - we’ll make it a party

35

JobHuntersBible

I hope you aren’t in the neighborhood of 50 years old. I lost my job at 49 (and lost my health at the same time with Crohn’s disease). I spent all my savings before I finally got Social Security disability.

Good luck on the new road ahead.

36

Good luck to you, don’t know what else to say.

37

First of all, let me say, Aw, Aron, that s*cks! Hope you do find it to be a blessing in disguise.

Second, let me second what someone else said about not deciding not to take something 'cause you think you might not enjoy it…

I know this sounds a stretch, but it’s the truth. I have a friend who was (supposedly temporarily) ‘downsized’ from a good job at chemical plant (talk about a blessing in disguise, IMHO, LOL!).

In looking to fill the time til she was re-hired, she took a job literally shovelling sht at a local stable that friends of hers have. She works hard, but she gets to leave the sht at work (OK, some of it gets washed off her boots at home), it’s definitely honest work, she lost all the excess weight without paying for any club membership or having to fit her exercise into her afterwork schedule, and she gets to spend a lot of time with some wonderful animals and people. LOL! Not to mention that her time is flexible, which is worth a lot!

When the company offered her a position again, she decided to turn it down.

Who’d a thought?!

38

I’m glad it worked out for your friend but if you want to eventually get back in the game it could be a problem. Shoveling sh*t for a year isn’t exactly the best way to pad a resume. If you leave it off then the first interview question will be “what have you been up to the last year?”

I would say you need to move here but then you might tell others how nice it is and who needs two states full of Californians (maybe three if you count Colorado).

I read an article recently that stated yearly living wage for a family of four in San Franciso was 70,140$ or so. That’s just food, childcare and rent for a two bedroom apt. That just boggled my mind. The first house I bought 12 years ago was a two story farmhouse, 2000sq feet, built in 1909 that was in excellent shape albiet a questionable neighborhood and I paid $36,000. Granted we sold it recently for two times that but still, yeesh!

Anyway, I wish you all the luck you can spare.

Mark V.

39

Yep, that’s California all right. The average cost of a small three-bedroom house here in Santa Cruz is $400K. A one-bedroom apartment rents for between $1000 and $1500 per month. Ditto for space rental in a mobile home park. Costs around $200 to license a relatively new car (this will triple if our current governor has his say), and you will pay between $1.89 and $2.89 per gallon to keep it in fuel. Oh yes, and did I mention the $300-$400/month winter energy bills? It’s a terrifying place to be out of work, which is why a lot of people are fleeing the state right now…it’s a gorgeous place to live, but who can afford it?

Redwolf