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

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

Yesterday I learned of two former colleagues who lost their jobs. Not a week goes by that I don’t get this kind of news. And right now, I just feel really sad.

One of these two was memorable because he was one of those guys who’s just an all-round nice person, someone who remains above the office complaints and bitch-fests, someone who seems to be unwaveringly cheerful and optimistic while everyone else around him is gossiping about industry politics and office machinations. In other words, someone very unlike a lot in the business.

It didn’t matter if he just learned he’d have … Continue Reading

If you watched the Golden Globe Awards last weekend, you may have seen a new Monster.com commercial. It’s part of a just-launched ad campaign accompanying the launch of Monster’s rebuilt web site. And according to the ad agency behind it, (BBDO New York), in the face of massive layoffs, people just want to laugh. (You can watch it here at nytimes.com.)

Now, that could be true. Attendance at movies is up as it was during the … Continue Reading

I’ve been unemployed now for exactly 5 weeks. And it’s taken me that long to follow through on a promise I made to myself.

Five weeks ago I told myself, that as long as I’m not working, I’d use some of this time to do something I don’t usually do, something that I may have wanted to do but never found or made the time for, something that would be uplifting and soul-giving.

And I said the same thing to myself 4 weeks ago. And I said it again 3 weeks ago. And … 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’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

I wasn’t expecting to see a connection between the film Milk and today’s unemployment issues.

Milk, of course, is the newly-released film about the life and death of Harvey Milk, a supervisor for the city of San Francisco during the 70s and America’s first openly-gay elected official. He was one of the gay rights movements’ most prominent heroes, and Time Magazine included Milk in its list of the top 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Yet Milk served in office for only 11 months before being assassinated along with San Francisco … Continue Reading