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

I was recently contacted by a reader with a great writing style eager to share her own musings on job loss.

Her post below hits on a topic I think a lot of us will identify with — why you may not want to be best friends with the people you used to work for.

Like me, she’s leery of using her real name for fear of burning bridges in the working world. So from here on, let her be known as DWF.
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It’s not you. It’s me.
by DWF

Hi. I … Continue Reading

A few weeks back I posted about the quintessential recession marketing tool — the T-shirt. You could argue that it’s the most egalitarian form of public self-expression. (Or perhaps it was until blogs appeared.) And that post had some examples that made me laugh-out-loud (like “Scumbag Millionaires”).

You don’t need to have big bucks to pay for media. You don’t have to rely on some editor somewhere to judge your letter as print-worthy. You just have to lay put on a shirt and take to the streets. Herewith, Part … Continue Reading

When I was laid off, my children knew right away. I’m not good at hiding things and I sometimes wear my heart on my sleeve too much for my own good. Plus, my kids are big. Like young-adult big.

So when I lost my job, I felt a deep sense of shame in telling them the news. I felt like I had failed them. I wasn’t the parent they could be proud of. No child boasts about a parent who spends their days at home in sweat pants, on the phone and net in between reruns of Law and Order … Continue Reading

Last weekend I wrote about a casual mention broadcast by CBC that Value Village was owned by Walmart. It was news that took me by surprise me so I did my own research. I didn’t turn up any link between Value Village, Savers (the U.S. for-profit company that owns Value Village) and Walmart.

However, I did contact CBC directly and yesterday I received a reply. Here’s what I was told when I asked about the claim they’d made:

That was our mistake. The episode you heard was a repeat and after it … Continue Reading

First, thanks to everyone who took a moment to share your kind words of support in the previous post. I could definitely feel your solidarity against the big bad spam enemy.

And second, the forum will stay up. The developer who helped me mount it has made a very generous offer to reduce his fee dramatically in exchange for adspace. So let me give him a shout-out here.

His name is Yoav Givati and his company is called Chalk It Out. He does web consulting and development including building sites, widgets, desktop apps, database development, blogs  — just about anything you … Continue Reading

Almost two months ago I added the forum to Fired For Now (that tab up there next to “Home”). I did this because I had started to notice that people had begun responding to one another in the comments section of the posts. It seemed these economic times begged for community, so I decided to add a forum to the blog and throw it out there. I didn’t know what to expect — whether it would be ignored or jumped on.

Now, I’m turning to you to ask if it should be … Continue Reading

Is there a future for affiliate marketing with advocates like Milton Cai?

Maybe I have something in common with the tabloid press ’cause here I am outing someone again.

Milton Cai is an affiliate marketer. And he’s so passionate about what he does he wants everyone else to share his love for affiliate marketing. He twitters about it all day long. That’s him and his tweet right below there.

I wrote about Milton and about his mentor Tissa Godavitarne in … Continue Reading

I have a confession to make.

I have to admit to a small-minded, not-so-pretty response to hearing the news that 16 more people were just let go by the company that laid me off last November.

Without question, my heart goes out to those affected. But there’s something else going on. While I hate what’s happening to the individuals, I also feel a sense of satisfaction at the news.

Okay, now you must think I’m some awful cruel-hearted monster. But no, what I’m feeling is a sense of vindication. And I think that … Continue Reading

Fabulously Thrifty

I was minding my own house-cleaning business today with the radio on in the background, CBC to be exact (which Canadians will understand), when I heard a factoid that stopped me in my tracks.

Value Village is owned by Walmart?

WTF?

It was just a throw-away mention so I had to get to the bottom of this. I started snooping around on the net. That’s when I learned that Value Village is the Canadian division of the second-hand American retail chain Savers. Uh oh, this is sounding … Continue Reading

I just got to experience job loss from the opposite side of the company door. And it is so terribly, awfully surreal.

As some of you know, I’m now a working stiff again. I’d barely warmed my chair here as a full-time employee when a senior employee of 15 years, with a VP to her title, left the building.

An email from the president announced the news. It blindsided everyone here. The “parting of the ways” was “effective immediately.” As a newbie, I had no history, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. All were in a state of complete … Continue Reading