Yo necesito encontrar un trabajo nuevo.  I need to find a new job.

Each of us was called into a meeting today and told the news.  The company is shutting down the office where I’ve been working due to ‘lack of work’, so we are all being laid off.

The rumors had been going around for a long time and I just got tired of worrying about it since there wasn’t anything I could do about it anyhow.  So I stayed out of the gossip circle as much as possible.  I have to go back tomorrow to actually get my personal belongings because I was on the motorcycle today and was unable to take much with me. 

The company has an office in Melbourne where my hubby has to drive to work everyday, so they may actually offer me something there.  But after thinking about it most of the day, I don’t think I will be able to do that because of school.  I could manage for the rest of this semester but I’m registered for a day class in the summer which will probably present a problem for me as far as getting a full time day job.  I’m not about to switch my schedule around in the summer because I really need to take that particular class because of the professor.  I doubt too many places would be very willing to work around me having that class, unless I’m working on a part time basis.  Then again, not having a job will probably strain me financially somewhat and there is no financial aid in the summer. 

I really don’t want to deviate from my plan and being laid off could definitely throw a kink in it.  I applied for unemployment today, but it will be about 3 weeks before I see anything and then of course it won’t be as much as I was making.  We were just about to spend a sizeable chunk of money to drop an engine and tranny into the Honda, but now I want to take a step back and rethink things.  If we do that, hubby has more reliable transportation (and cheaper on gas) to go back and forth to work.  But then I will be scrambling to come up with money to pay my tuition which I think is due at the end of this month for summer.  I’m looking at about $900 that I will need to come up with, plus money for books.  I could cut it in half by only taking 2 classes this summer and having to go another entire semester in the Fall which will push me back a semester, but that’s exactly what I don’t want to have to do.

And naturally this month I seem to have a higher electric bill, phone bill and water bill than the last couple of months.  I was trying to figure out how to juggle those bills before I got laid off.  Obviously if hubby doesn’t have reliable transportation, then he doesn’t get to work and right now I’m having to depend on his income until I get something else coming in.  So any way I look at it, it’s problematic.  Actually, it plain out sucks.  I find someplace that I actually enjoy working and this is the kind of crap that happens.  And I’m not sure how it is in other parts of the U.S., but down here when they lay you off, you don’t normally get any severance pay, pay for vacation days not used, or even any lube before they screw you in the ass.  It’s all about money in the pockets of upper management.  One place I worked I had a boss tell me that he couldn’t afford to purchase the needed supplies for me to do what he wanted me to do.  Of course he couldn’t.  He had a brand new Jaguar out in the parking lot and a riverfront house to pay a mortgage on.  I have no problem with people having nice things, but it’s extremely rare to find a company that actually values and takes care of their employees, at least down here.  From what I’ve been told, companies do a better job of taking care of employees up north for some reason.

I’m slightly pissed and upset about this, even though I knew it was a possibility with the rumors that were going around.  What I’m mostly upset about is the possibility that I might have to go an entire extra semester because of this happening and being short of money.  I’ve never been the world’s best at creating a plan because I tend to be more the spontaneous type, but when I do have a legitimate plan in place, I hate for it to get disrupted in a way that is going to cost me money or time or both.  Especially when it isn’t my doing.

Anyhow, I think a garage sale is in my future and possibly selling the Demon and hubby’s Mercury (if he will part with it).  I have a 401k from this job which I can roll over or cash out.  I need to find out if I get the huge penalty on cashing it out if I use it for school.  I know there are a few exceptions where you don’t have to pay the huge penalty for cashing it out before retirement age.  If so, that’s probably what I’ll do.  I don’t figure I’ll retire anyhow.  Hell, I’m just trying to start an actual career at about 45 years of age, so I probably won’t even have the student loans totally paid off before it’s time to retire, so I don’t see an actual ‘retirement’ in my future realistically.  But if I at least have a satisfying and non-boring career that pays me well, then I suppose it won’t matter too much and I’ll just try to take some nice vacations when I can.

Or I can sell everything I own and probably have enough money to live comfortably on for the rest of my life down in Costa Rica.  It’s a thought…