Laid off...

Yippee. Seems that my employer felt they no longer needed the services of technical support here in Nashville. They went through and escorted all of the managers in my queue out today and apparently most of our L2 techs as well. They also apparently got rid of all but 5 or 6 of the managers in the only other support queue here so looks like they won't be far behind us. Granted, we have not been told anything official and those remaining are trying to pretend it's business as usual but, come on, how stupid do the really think we are? Not to mention that they have been asking everyone who is scheduled off for tomorrow to report to their desk at their usual shift start time. I would at this point be shocked to find I'm not going to be unemployed after tomorrow.

Needless to say, I cleared out my desk and brought everything home. The box is sitting here in the living room floor where my cat, who seems to have a fetish for boxes, has managed to open one of the top flaps and is trying to get in it. Silly kitty.

Anyways, there is one possible good side to this. Well, two really. I had been feeling kind of stagnated there, unable to advance but neither could I really afford to leave. I guess that isn't an issue now so maybe I'll be able to find something better. The down side is that the local job market is going to be flooded with a couple hundred techs suddenly looking for techie type jobs.

The other upside is that I should be getting an okay severance package, around $6-7k + another 8-16 weeks of pay (I hope) so maybe I'll be able to divert a little bit of that to buy a couple more lights. I'm thinking a couple of L2Ds to mount to either side of my helmet for caving.

Ah man, that sucks.

I remember going through that in the 1980s, with the defense drawdown (got lucky 2x, KNEW I wouldn't the 3rd, so got out), and once on Wall St - in the 1990s "first wave" of outsourcing - never saw it coming, but again, got lucky - 400+ programers, at the end of the day, 15 left - I was one of the 15

The trick here - NETWORK - who do you know? What OTHER job skills do you have that are not EXACTLY what you do now? How can you make those OTHER skills pay off? Is there some nitch market that combines your techie stuff and your other skills? (Techie for a flashlight company?)

Good luck

It's nice to see that you are finding some positives in it. Good luck finding something else!

Will you be able to draw unemployment benefits?

I know the feeling. I work a semi-seasonal job hauling concrete block and building supplies. Last year the company asked if I could lay off early because business had slowed down. So I agreed and was on layoff from Sept/06 to Apr/07. Went back to work until the first week in May when my right knee pretty much gave out. Had to have the meniscus repaired along with physical therapy. Was released to return to work on 9/28 and told by my employer that business is slow and we dont need you anymore. I have 6 weeks of unemployment left and a small 401k that i'll probably have to use to live on. Caught me completely by surprise as I thought this job would go till retirement. I don't think I can afford Cobra so i'll be without insurance as well. But what can you do? It's easier for me as I'm single with no children but it still stinks. 5 years ago when I got this job I had to use retirement money to live on as it took 7 months to find a job. 45 years old with no retirement savings and starting over yet again. I dont know if I can do it. So I feel for you Avatar 28 and I hope you find something quickly.

I'm pretty young (23), but even now as I just graduated from a great university and am desperately looking for a salary job, I can't imagine being at a company for more than 10 years. I would get so tired of coming to the same place, same desk, talking to the same people, etc.

Perhaps you can look at the bright side as this is a new chapter in your life. I suppose the only thing that would be on my mind is finding a new job before money becomes an issue, but hopefully the severance will keep you going until then.

In the mean time... buy lights!

Well I've asked my friends locally to keep their eyes out for something. I will know more today about exactly how much we'll get. I've heard, though it's only a rumor, that they may be offering extra if you promise not to talk to the media or anything. I have no problem signing said agreement. They want to buy my silence about it well...where do I sign again? I'm also not sure about unemployment. Part of the severance package may be contigent on my not filing for unemployment. Though if I can do both, I certainly will since that will let me sock more of it away for the future if I need it. Still, I hope not to be jobless too long, even if I have to take something at a retail store or something temporarily to help make ends meet.

Oh man, I feel your pain. First time I was laid off of a job, I was 22 and working PC desktop support for a Big Three accounting company in downtown LA (through a contract agency). Word 'round the campfire was that my agency was charging the client $10,000 per month per tech, and although we provided good service, it was just too much money.

The day we got laid off I got home around noon and found myself bored for the first time in months. I just didn't know what to do with myself.

I hope your job wasn't replaced by some techs in India.

Doing independent support is a lot of fun. It sounds like you're a support techie and like what you do, so maybe you could consider that, at least in the interim?

I got laid off after the Internet wave crashed, then went to grad school for a bit, and after realizing that my money would run out too quickly I started doing tech support. Or something like that -- my memory is pretty hazy.

Takes a little money to pay for legal stuff, maybe skillset certification, and to get by until you develop a customer base, but after that if people like you the word of mouth will likely get you way more work than you'll even have time for.

Then doing that you might be able to look for full-time work at your leisure and take only what you want. For me I've decided to stay totally independent. At least for now. I do software database software development too for example, but between the 2 things the peaks & troughs of both types of enterprise software vs small biz tech support work get smoothed out. When both are high I get by with very little sleep and knowing that I love what I do, since there are certainly times that it's pizza, caffeine and very long days.

I don't want to be a killjoy, especially at a time like this for you, but please don't blow even a part of your severance pay on new lights. You may need it to live on if nothing else comes up for a while.

It sounds like you have specialist skills, so you might want to consider starting your own business, going freelance, something like that. The best of luck, anyway, and let us know how things turn out.

Edit: It looks like Binky had a similar idea ^ while I was writing this.

> I don't want to be a killjoy, especially at a time like this for you, but please don't blow even a part of your severance pay on new lights. You may need it to live on if nothing else comes up for a while.

I agree. It's one of those Catch-22's. You have time but no money, or money but no time. For now, conserve the cash, and when you have no job seeking tasks to do fix things around the house and look for small jobs (maybe advertise on Craigslist) to keep busy. In a couple of months you should be adjusted to what your expenses are and the prospects of another job. I'm not wishing you a long job search or anything like that, but you should prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

binky said:

Doing independent support is a lot of fun. It sounds like you're a support techie and like what you do, so maybe you could consider that, at least in the interim?

I got laid off after the Internet wave crashed, then went to grad school for a bit, and after realizing that my money would run out too quickly I started doing tech support. Or something like that -- my memory is pretty hazy.

Takes a little money to pay for legal stuff, maybe skillset certification, and to get by until you develop a customer base, but after that if people like you the word of mouth will likely get you way more work than you'll even have time for.

Then doing that you might be able to look for full-time work at your leisure and take only what you want. For me I've decided to stay totally independent. At least for now. I do software database software development too for example, but between the 2 things the peaks & troughs of both types of enterprise software vs small biz tech support work get smoothed out. When both are high I get by with very little sleep and knowing that I love what I do, since there are certainly times that it's pizza, caffeine and very long days.

Click to expand...

I'm actually giving some serious thought to just that anyways. It's just a matter of figuring out how to develop the client base.

I heard about that on the radio today. Said they laid off 250 of y'all, total. Amazing. How many employees did they have prior to that?

I'll send you a PM, my employer might be looking for an IT guy. Our office/ shop is in Goodlettsville. Ironically enough, Dell is one of or bigger customers.

Sorry to hear this. I'm in the engineering job market (graduating in Dec) and I gotta say, it doesn't look good. There are CERTAIN types of engineers it feels like nearly everyone is tripping over themselves to get, but the rest of us, forget it. No one wants us, it feels.

Moral of the story, if you're a process engineer, yippie! Mechanical? BOO and cry. Guess which I am?!

DieselTech said:

I heard about that on the radio today. Said they laid off 250 of y'all, total. Amazing. How many employees did they have prior to that?

I'll send you a PM, my employer might be looking for an IT guy. Our office/ shop is in Goodlettsville. Ironically enough, Dell is one of or bigger customers.

Click to expand...

Thanks, DieselTech. I will be giving them a call tomorrow. There were about 150+ in my queue and the Gold Tech Support group had I think about 200 or so. My queue (XPS) was laid off completely with all managers and everything. We made up the bulk of the layoffs today however I believe that Gold is not far behind. I have heard they plan to have all support gone by mid Feb of next year. I made a post about today in my livejournal if you want to have a read.

havand said:

Sorry to hear this. I'm in the engineering job market (graduating in Dec) and I gotta say, it doesn't look good. There are CERTAIN types of engineers it feels like nearly everyone is tripping over themselves to get, but the rest of us, forget it. No one wants us, it feels.

Moral of the story, if you're a process engineer, yippie! Mechanical? BOO and cry. Guess which I am?!

Click to expand...

Hmm, I'm going to guess electrical.