Fired for Now: Getting fired, laid off, and hired again

You can’t finish up a year without 10-Best-Lists appearing everywhere, not to mention 10-Worst-Lists too. So it only figures that someone came up with the 10 Worst Employees of the Year. This one seems to have originated with CareerBuilder.com (10 Worst Employees 2008) and it’s proliferated like mosquitoes in a swamp across the media, both on and offline.

On the other hand, the list naming the 10 Worst Corporations of 2008 hardly made a dent in the media rounds. (10 Worst Corporations of 2008). Do we take more delight in the fall of the individual, more specifically, in ordinary … Continue Reading

Here’s a little quiz:

• Are you worrying — even obsessing — about things more than usual?
• Are you unusually quiet and seem unable to share what’s bothering you?
• Are you more irritable than usual and maybe sometimes lash out at those who try to offer help?
• Are you sluggish, fatigued, and lack your usual interest in things you usually enjoy?

Guess what – you may be depressed. But you probably didn’t need this handy list to tell you that.  I didn’t.  I think most of us have a pretty good sense if we’re depressed without a formal label being applied.

In the past few weeks, I … Continue Reading

I’m unemployed. My extended health care benefits run out at the end of the month, in exactly three days. I’m taking a short-term contract job in the new year that will offer zero benefits.

But if my health or the health of my family is threatened, I’ll be fine. We could develop a serious illness, have a major accident or just develop a  garden-variety sinus infection. Doesn’t matter. I and my family will get the health care we need, employed or not.

Why? Because I live in Canada.

And if I lived in any … Continue Reading

You have a bullet-proof resume, stellar references, and you just aced the interview with the HR manager for the job you really, really want to get. But you don’t get it.

Who knew that sharing would come back to bite you and leave a huge black mark on your job application? After all, we all grew up being reminded over and over that sharing is a good thing.

Well, it turns out some companies are now using social networking sites to check out job candidates. And social media has made it easier than … Continue Reading

Image by Leraism

With the glut of bad layoff news coming daily, you wouldn’t think we’re living in a time that shows progress. However, based on the astounding insensitivity of Northwest Airlines two years ago, you may actually think employer-employee relations have evolved.

In 2006, Northwest announced massive layoffs. This was back when the company was struggling for survival before its recent merger with Delta. Along with pink-slips, they began handing each laid-off employee a booklet called “101 Ways to Save Money.”

Included in this prize of helpful hints … Continue Reading

With two different holiday parties to attend this past weekend, I got to thinking about the party I wasn’t invited to this season.

I was sacked the week before my company held their annual holiday soiree. To be honest, my days of delighting in corporate parties, or embarrassing myself at them, are behind me. There’s something about not remembering how I found my way home that I’ve outgrown. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be invited.

It’s like being the kid in the class who didn’t get invited to the cool kid’s birthday party. Even if you didn’t especially like … Continue Reading

Turning tragedy into comedy.  Iowa artist and comedy writer Andrew Shaffer saw the opportunity and developed a line of holiday cards featuring Depression-era photographs of soup lines and the homeless. It’s dark humor, but don’t feel guilty. It’s good to laugh.

To see Andrew’s whole line of cards visit: DepressingTimes

I don’t have a definitive answer on whether the auto bail-out is in everyone’s best interests or not. The more I read, the more conflicting viewpoints I’m juggling.

But I was glad to get a laugh out of this!

(I’d credit the person who created this fake ad, but I don’t know who authored it.)

I’ve now realized that job security is an oxymoron. Seriously, the two words just do not go together as they once may have. So when I was offered the chance to accept a 3-month contract, there wasn’t much to think about.

Yes, I accept! You’ll take me – even if you don’t know if you want me past 3 months!

At an earlier time, I may have held out for a permanent position. (There’s another oxymoron). Yet in some pre-economic-meltdown era I would have second-guessed this about a hundred times. I would have … Continue Reading