Off the rollercoaster

[gwyn]

Update on the employment situation. First, to those wonderful people who sent me kind thoughts, thank you so much: morgandawn, cynlock, jorit, destina, caille, and lizyjn. (And you too, CS!) It really meant a lot and made a very bad day easier to get through.

My fellow editor just left. He ended up taking the voluntary layoff, which essentially "saved" my job, although I'm not sure how I feel about that. They were, apparently, going to lay me off -- as I suspected, my name was at the top of the list. But his volunteering flip-flopped it, and frankly, I think they're insane to not axe both of us, only I think that MeanSupervisor probably said if they both go, I go, and they kept me. All the bigwigs spent time today with me, worried that I was going to be angry and hate them for finding out I was at the top of the list to go. I don't -- I knew it was coming. But they're freaked I think it's insulting. They actually already had me off payroll! So I won't get my check for a bit. :-D

I really don't want to work here anymore, though. It's miserable and depressing, and two others who took the volunteer thing I adored -- one super cute young designer, and our so gay he's post gay strategy guy. Now I don't have anyone to be bitchy with. So, I'm going to reduce my hours to four days a week, and start trying to really ramp up for freelance work, and maybe, eventually do that completely. In some ways I wish they'd laid me off and my fellow editor's decision hadn't affected me; in others, I know I need the paycheck and the benefits. Now I guess I have to start, if not a new chapter, then at least a new page.

And hey, there's still the T1 connection here at work. And next week is vacation to La-La Land and Escapade to see my friends. ;-)

Comments

[caille.livejournal.com]

Hey, sweetie, it's going to be weird, but you know what they say: when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Think of it as having your freelance set-up and/or new job search subsidized! You have two jobs now - the one that you have to show up at four days a week, and the real one.

Try to stash as much of your paycheck as possible (I'm going all Momish on you here; hope you don't mind), pay off any credit cards, take care of niggling medical and dental things, and most of all, don't get sucked into doing the work of three people. I don't know your situation, but all too often these layoffs have little to do with not enough work. Trust me. I nearly wrecked my own pathetic self in a similar situation. Do the minimum for your office job. I mean, do it properly, because it's easier in the long run, plus it's good karma. But remember it's not your job to save the company or your supervisor. (Hell, if I was your supervisor and realized your check would be late because they already took you off the payroll, I'd write you a personal check rather than make you wait. It seems honorable. But maybe that's what gets me into career wrecks. Going away to be sullen now.)

Seconding That Advice!

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

The one thing we did when HP was planning on laying off 30,000 - we immediately cut back on spending and pretended we were actually laid off. Then we set up an automatic savings transfer that took the money from our paycheck to set cash reserves aside. The longer we stay employed, the more we save -- a good incentive to get through each day at the every increasing sucky workplace.

And here's to a subsidized freelance career switch.