I just received word on Friday (September 1st) that I will be getting laid off on the 15th. I always knew that something like this could happen due to the fact that my job is working for a non-profit and everything I do gets paid for by a State or Federal funded grant. But I always thought that it would be my Assistant first. I never thought that they would dare lay off a Coordinator first.
I knew something was up when my department director (my bosses boss) emailed me on Wednesday and asked if she could meet with me on Friday morning. She didn't tell me anything as to what it was about. We knew the President had not yet signed the Federal budget. We knew that funding was always expected but not guaranteed. We had been warned before that if we spent our money to quickly there would be layoffs. Likewise, if we didn't spend enough and had too much to send back, there might be less money in the future requiring layoffs. It used to be, however that the Assistant position was temporary and got laid off usually any time between March and August and the job came back any time between October and December. My current assistant had been with the agency 11 years and had been laid off quite a few times, including working for other departments within the agency. But it was unheard of to lay off a Coordinator. Apparently, not this time! My county and one other are the only two counties that have two workers, every other county has one, either an Assistant or a Coordinator, and of course our boss fills in whenever she needs to so that no county is left without anyone. This time, they looked at our counties and chose to lay off whomever had been with the agency the least time, unfortunately for me, that was me (and in the other county was my former Assistant).
Fortunately for me, my husband works full time making decent money and has a part time job to boot. We are trying to see the positive of it all. We pay for child care both before school and after school and I drive about 20 miles one way each day to work with a gas guzzling 4x4 truck. We are looking at this as a blessing in disguise.
When my husband first started his full time job, we discussed me quitting mine and thought it might be a possibility. My job is stressful and I don't get along well with my boss, I don't have a lot of time to do housework and he doesn't have any either, in addition to that, our six-year-old tends to be great for other people but tends to misbehave with me a lot and I find that when I focus more on her, she behaves much better. When summer ended, we looked at our finances again and figured that if I can't find another job that pays better, then it might actually be more beneficial for our family if I try to do something part time locally that I can work while our child is in school. I can take better care of the house, better care of my family, and better care of myself.
I plan to be making some positive changes during this time of being laid off. I will be able to blog more, which will hold me accountable for myself. I will be able to workout more, no excuses I'll have a lot more time. I will be able to clean more, again, no excuses. I will be able to research what we should be eating and what we should be doing more and put it into action. I will also be able to be there for my child more, be able to volunteer at her school more and be able to just be there when she needs me and not have to worry about child care or getting fired if she gets sick or has a snow day. Financially, we are losing money, obviously, but we are also not spending money on child care, and are spending less on gas and eating out when I forget to start the crockpot or pack my lunch.
Yes, this will be a new chance for change. I am actually looking forward to it!
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