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

Yesterday, I met my first prospective tenant. I’m making a big change in living arrangements in order to avoid making other changes – like selling my house.

So I’m giving up my privacy. My sense of self-containment. My freedom to act, behave and express in any way I want at any time of day or night — well, within the limits my family will accept. It’s certainly not as big a change as others have had to make, and it’s probably radical in the view of some others.

What adjustment … Continue Reading

If any of you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you may have noticed that this past week or so I’ve been rather quiet. That’s because my free time lately hasn’t been so free.

In the past month, I’ve been preparing my house to take in a renter in my basement. And it seems lately every evening and weekend is being spent clearing out over 20 years of living and getting it reading for the next 10. That’s a lot of clearing out to do. And a … 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

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

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you may know I’m Canadian. Don’t hold it against me. As it turns out, we may finally have something to be envied by others: our banks.

For as long as I can remember, Canadians have had a rep for being conservative and cautious, especially compared to our American neighbours. Sometimes it’s well deserved, sometimes not.

After all, could a country that’s given you a range of people like Mike Myers, Jim Carry, the creators of Cirque du Soleil, William Shatner, … Continue Reading

Mike Darnell, the sleazy chief of alternative programming at Fox

I was a little behind on this stomach-turning piece of entertainment news.

I first got wind of Fox’s upcoming new reality show, “Someone’s Gotta Go” via fellow blogger Tania Khadder at unemploymentality.com

If you’re behind too, here’s the scoop:

The Fox television network is currently in production of a new reality show called “Someone’s Gotta Go”. Each episode will feature a real company with about 15 or 20 employees who decide which one … Continue Reading

I’ve never taken a class in economics and my eyes glaze over at a page of tables and numbers, so anything that helps me make sense of the current economic mess is appreciated.

When it explains that mess so thoroughly, at a pace that makes the minutes disappear and entertains as well, it’s a not-to-be-missed documentary for our times. That’s the film I.O.U.S.A.

Some critics have said I.O.U.S.A. is to the U.S. economy what An Inconvenient Truth was to the environment. It’s taken the dry subject of economics and cogently explains how the … Continue Reading

Another recession film is getting under way, this time on the east coast by a director who has won some of the film industry’s most respected awards. It will focus on how these extraordinary economic times are impacting families, and to that end, the filmmakers are reaching out to people in suburban or small town communities surrounding New York City.

That means communities that fall within a one to two-hour radius from the city in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and, of course, in New York state. And they’re interested in talking to … Continue Reading