by Mary Bush
Hello, If you are reading this, then you realize that unemployment is something that everyone needs to be prepared for now a days. In the past unemployment was seen as something that sub par workers encountered because their worth to a company wasn’t very high. Times have changed though. There are hundreds of thousands of good, talented, and valuable employees that have been let go because of strictly financial decisions that companies have made. I’m speaking from personal experience here.
I worked in the engineering field for over 10 years, the last 5 of those years with the same company. A company that had not had a layoff in over 8 years in any department. I was a Project Manager, and I worked in several departments in our company. I was heading up a software upgrade change, and was in charge of finding the best new software, learning it, and teaching it to the other employees. I thought my position with the company was pretty secure. I went on the semi annual fishing weekend trip with several of the other workers and one of the top company partners. I was involved as I could be with the company, and my bosses. Then the first round of layoffs came, and the “obvious” people were laid off, the ones that we all knew were pretty much slacking, and we could probably do without. We all figured that would be enough to get the company through this slow time. Then several weeks later, there was another round, and then again several weeks later, I was let go, along with half of our field crews, an engineer, and another office assistant.
I was making pretty good money, had just bought a house about a year and a half ago, and was able to support my family of 4 with just my income, so my wife could stay home with the kids. That was all thrown into the blender with a few simple words, “Nate, with things the way they are, we are going to have to let you go, we don’t think work is going to pick back up for a while, so we had to make this decision”.
In the days following, I was pretty sure that I could get another job quickly, as I was highly trained, motivated, and had great recommendations from my previous boss and company. They even offered to call any place that I was applying, to give me a strong recommendation. After visiting several dozen other engineering and construction offices, I began to see the trend. No one was hiring, most were cutting back. The next several days turned into weeks, and then next several weeks turned into months. My savings was drained after the first 3 months. I thought that I had done everything right by having that “safety net”, and that it would certainly not take me more than 12 weeks to find another job.
It then got to the point where I just needed “something” to get me by. I started applying at home improvement stores, department stores, shipping companies, landscaping companies, and got the same response. “You are over qualified, and we don’t want to take the time to hire and train you, when we know that you will leave as soon as something else opens up”. What??? I thought. How can my experience keep me from getting a basic job…. By this time, I was on month 4, and starting to miss payments on my mortgage, my truck, and some other basic bills. I was on the job hunt daily, filling out every application I could find, then following up on the ones I had already done. I used all my networking contacts, and had them looking for any openings, and using whatever influence they may have had. Nothing was panning out. 4 months turned into 5, then into 6. My creditors were calling every day, at least a dozen times, and my moral was quickly fading. I began to feel hopeless, and wished there were some way that I could have been prepared for this time of unemployment. I thought I had done what I was supposed to by saving up 3 months income, and keeping my network contacts up to date, and having a good resume, with great references. But none of that had gotten me a new job yet. It ended up taking me over 6 months to get another job, and the financial effects were staggering, and will be long lasting. My credit score that I had worked so hard all my life to keep high, had dropped, and had bad marks that would take years to restore. The emotional strain had drained me more than I had thought possible, and my relationship with my family and my friends had suffered because of it. Things are finally on the road, but it is a steep up hill road, and will be a difficult one to get back up.
My plea to you is that you seriously consider what would happen to you and your family, if you were to lose your job, your income, your savings, your credit rating, and possibly your home. Is that something that you would gamble on? According to national statistics, the average length of unemployment is 4 and a half months, thats on average. It also says that the more you make increases the length of time it takes to find a new job. Don’t gamble your families financial and emotional future on the chance that you won’t be one of the millions of people that will become unemployed in the next year. Protect your family, give yourself an extra financial help while you search for a new job. Get an unemployment protection plan, this will give you an additional cash benefit during a period of unemployment. This could very well be the difference that you need to keep your head above water financially, to keep your moral up during a job search, to keep your bills paid, and your family fed. This could be the way to keep your savings that you have worked for years to build, to keep your home, your car, and your families financial stability. A little planning now, can save you years of regret and financial rebuilding. Get your unemployment protection plan today.
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