[ale] surviving sans work

[Fulton Green]

Here's my previous employer's "retention bonus"'s worth, from the
perspective of someone not fortunate enough to have a spouse (or even a
really understanding girlfriend) to fall back on:

Coincidentally, exactly one year ago I underwent the first of THREE layoffs
within the past twelve months. The first one took me by surprise, even if
it was with a dot-com software company. A week before it happened, the
company head told us all that we had secured a second round of financing.
Silly me to believe management, I guess. Other than the one weeks' worth of
severance, I didn't have much to go on, and amazingly enough, I didn't know
about the procedure to get unemployment benefits. Fortunately, I found
something within three weeks. The hiring market was still pretty hot back
in those days.

Then four months into the second job, our office head announced that
corporate was shuttering our entire office (the company eventually filed for
bankruptcy). It wasn't exactly unexpected, and I was a bit better prepared,
but still didn't have a whole lot of reserves. Fortunately, I applied for
unemp. benefits, had a two-week severance check, and I was able to find
something within five weeks despite the newly "soft" market.

So when rumors of layoffs were being asked not even one week at my new
employer, I made up my mind to start holding off on any major expenses. By
the time I was eventually laid off (two weeks ago), I was prepared to sit
out the bleak job market for a few months. Plus the two-week severance
check helped as well. I did succumb to one weakness and I bought a new
desktop computer, if only so I could train myself on Java and related
skills. But I figured I could sell off my older laptop to help make up for
it (that's a separate note :).

Besides hoarding cash while still employed and the unemp. benefits, some
other no-brainers on how to live beneath your (normal) means:
- Start learning how to cook, and don't go over $10/day if you go out to eat
- Look around at what stuff you can live without, and eBay 'em
- Consider refinancing your transportation arrangements to a lower avg.
  monthly payment
- If you have credit card debt, call up the creditors for a lower rate
- If you're going out for a few drinks, make sure someone else pays :)

And do like I'm about to do: learn as much as you can about the newer
technologies coming up. In my case, I'm working on two business ideas that
may or may not turn out to be profitable, but I figure they'll be useful
learning experiences regardless. 

That said, if I don't find another income stream here in three or so months,
I'll be looking to relocate *anywhere* that's payin'. :(

On Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 06:10:06AM -0800, John Wells wrote:
> anyone out there could offer advice for those of us
> who still are working.  After all, these days the ax

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