Can we go back to 2022? I don’t like this one so much.

Had to put my dog of 12 years down last week.  That really sucked.  Still sucks.  Today I worked from home because of storms yesterday. Lots of power was out, trees down. All good stuff. Mid morning, one of my employees sends me a message it's been nice working with me, saying his goodbyes after he was just layed off.

why was he layed off without anyone telling me? I called my boss to find out wtf was going on. He answered with, "I have lacey from HR in the room with me as well". It kinda all made sense at that point. But good news, I did get one weeks severance, so at least I have that going for me. 

Ive never gone thru this before. I haven't not had a job since college.  Dealing with all of this, the looming end of health insurance plus 3 kids and a type one diabetic wife, good lord it's a lot.  The kinda encouraging thing is there's a lot of product development engineering positions open. I'm not at the point where I can appreciate positive things right now. 
 

Corporate decided to phase out my division, so everyone in my department was let go. When I'm able to appreciate positive things, It does help that it wasn't anything I did.  

Ah crap.

Keep us posted on what comes next.

That blows.  We're pulling for you buddy. 

My dad lost his engineering fire protection job with 5 kids in a big house and mortgage he bought 3 years earlier.  He decided to go freelance and made it work.  Self financed it all and it worked out even better.
 

One weeks severance? Jesus that's awful. Good luck man we're pulling for you. 

dculberson said:

One weeks severance? Jesus that's awful. Good luck man we're pulling for you. 

Yeah, that's really brutal. I'm kind of amazed they went that short.

Best of luck, man. You could use it.

I really really appreciate the words and support. Thank you.  
 

The company is sinking pretty hard. The layoffs last week they didn't give any severance.  Very glad I rolled over 80 hours of vacation last year, so that helps. 

I'm really sorry to hear that. 
I just googled the distance, and it would probably require a move., but Pratt & Whitney in Columbus Georgia is hiring ME's and IE's. PM me if you want info or a referral. 

Man, that is brutal. I'm sorry to hear that. Do you have a LinkedIn profile you could post here? You never know who might see it.

If you do not get my message through the board please post here!

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Got it, and sent. Thank you!

In reply to NY Nick :

Trying to stick with local so kids can stay in their schools. Thank you though!

In reply to dyintorace :

good thought! can't hurt to share. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-pangburn-44ab3420/

Sorry to hear. Good luck to you. It's a weird time. People in certain industries are getting laid off. Meanwhile in my industry (civil engineering) can't find enough people to hire. 

Sorry for your issues this year.

I, personally, want to erase this decade so far. I'll not pain you all with the why. 

The 2020s can suck everything I think unholy and swallow it.

Holy carp.

I saw your answer to the Pratt & Whitney offer, but if you change your mind I am in the industry and may know people who know people.  In the odd chance I can be of help, please let me know.

An illuminated cross at a local church just caught fire.

OK, OK, we can take a hint.

I spent 5 hours interviewing at a japanese company for the side by side design engineering. I really don't want to work there. its massive, the role is a hell of alot of stress, and the commute is an hour. interviewing at a place where you don't want to work is wierd. I interviewed at a company that makes equipment for trains, should have a 2nd interview for that this week. I really don't want that job either, but it wouldn't be horrible. Interviewed for a military drone company today, should have a 2nd interview this week. 

So interviews are going okay. they aren't as often as I'd like, and to be honest I figured I would have a job at this point. I hate unemployment. I have money coming in for some side work so its not even the money. its the uncertainty I really suck at handling. that and the lack of insurance right now. 

I am meeting with my old boss tomorrow to talk about working with his fabrication company. It would be managing the fabshop employees, plus some design work. Its by far the most exciting possibility I have right now. I really enjoyed being out of a corporate position for 2 years, so finding something that keeps me out of it would be pretty amazing right now. 

lnlogauge said:

Dealing with all of this, the looming end of health insurance plus 3 kids and a type one diabetic wife, good lord it's a lot.

You should be able to do COBRA to continue the current insurance, no?

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

Obamacare is also an option. Even though open enrollment is over for 23, this definitely qualifies as a life change so you can still sign up. There is that option, as COBRA can be brutal.

In reply to Appleseed :

Cobra can be used retroactively, so I can cross that bridge if I need to. Last time I changed jobs it was around 1800 a month. Quite sure it hasn't gone down. 

lnlogauge said:

Cobra can be used retroactively, so I can cross that bridge if I need to. Last time I changed jobs it was around 1800 a month. Quite sure it hasn't gone down. 

I think it's the same premium that the company used to be paying for you. 

In reply to lnlogauge :

The only reason I suggest Obamacare is it may be cheaper. But you might have more suitable coverage under COBRA. Worth investigating.

Also, if things get tight, I have found a few workarounds for your wife, as I'm Type 1 as well. Email me directly if you need to as PMs don't work for me.  k4rt80y at yahoo.

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

lnlogauge said:

Cobra can be used retroactively, so I can cross that bridge if I need to. Last time I changed jobs it was around 1800 a month. Quite sure it hasn't gone down. 

I think it's the same premium that the company used to be paying for you. 

And depending on where you work, especially with a family, that premium can be absolutely brutal. 

If I had to pay COBRA for my current insurance just for my fiance and I, it would be around $1000/month. We have pretty good insurance and don't pay much for it, the company handles like 90% of mine and 70% of my fiance. 

z31maniac said:

And depending on where you work, especially with a family, that premium can be absolutely brutal. 

Sure, but it's the same coverage for the same price as you were getting while employed (modulo some tax stuff), the difference is that the cost is now surfaced to you directly rather than being a less visible form of compensation from your employer.

People often say "COBRA is expensive" and while that's true it's not the whole story.  Yes, it's expensive, but it's not any more expensive than getting the same coverage somewhere else.  In fact, the leverage that the employer gets from buying larger group policies means that they're almost probably getting a better price on that coverage than you can get as an individual.  You're not likely to get the same coverage anywhere else for less, so it's a choice between paying for COBRA or accepting a lower (or zero) level of coverage.

Also changing insurance during the year usually resets your progress towards deductibles and annual out-of-pocket maxima.  I usually wind up hitting the annual OOP max every year, but the last time I changed employers I had to pay it twice, once for the old employer's plan and once for the new.  (I then had to pay it twice the following year as well, due to stupidities in the way the plans were set up, but that's a different story).  I don't know if it resets when you go from employer-paid to COBRA (I would hope not, but who knows?), but using Obamacare as a stopgap between two employers may not provide the savings that it would initially appear to.

And yeah, there's a retroactive provision in it, so you can wait a bit and see what happens before making that decision.

Edit:  Due to chronic condition I know exactly how much it costs me to go without healthcare coverage, which may give me a different perspective on just how much value I get from the the expensive premiums.

Ended up taking the job for the railroad equipment manufacturing company, and started work yesterday. I started looking for jobs before I got laid off, and this one happened to be from a recruiter I started working with before. The perk of that is when I had a job, I had confidence in my starting pay. After losing my job my salary requirements got lower and lower. All that to say I got a hell of a raise with this job change. I miss my old company, I don't really love this position yet but we'll see. 

Thanks for everyone for advice, or for reaching out to me with work connections. I really, really appreciate it. 

My wife really missed having a dog. a few weeks ago she found this girl from the shelter, and we were finally able to bring her home last week. She's quite beautiful, and loving. has a few behavior issues but with training she has potential to be a great dog. 

On another equalizer note, I was home for 6 weeks. The day I started work, I got a water alarm on my phone (highly recommend govee water monitors). Had my dad turn off the water, and got home to a polybutylene elbow leak, as well as a clogged AC consensation drain line. two sources of water, on the same day. spent my evening replacing more garbage polybutylene with pex. 

In reply to lnlogauge :

That all sounds great - I'm really glad things are workout out well, if maybe not ideally yet.

The pup looks like a sweetie.  She's young - with consistent effort I am certain that you can get her issues dealt with.

Glad it is working out to some degree. I hope the new place grows on you fast!