Just got layed off

[knight errant00]

And what really sucks is my boss who did it was not only the guy who recruited me into the company 2 1/2 years ago, but also a friend since college (almost 20 years). I wouldn't have expected our relationship to save my job (it's his family's company, so keeping all them employed is priority #1), but I would have thought he at least wouldn't have blindsided me, handed me a check, and told me to go -- the way it went. I'm still mad and frustrated and worried about it.

But in the meantime, anybody got any leads on technical or business writing work? I'm located in St. Louis, but I've handled projects by email and phone before.

Thanks,

--Pat

[spaceace35]

that sucks
sorry to hear it

wish i could help ya i'm just a self employed guy who makes nothing

good luck to ya

[joshvox]

Sorry to hear that. I've been there before--and it sucks, but I think I always ended up with a better gig--so here's hoping the same for you.

[toys2cool]

Sorry to hear that Pat,but keep your head up..everything happens for a reason and I'm sure something better will come up

[Omegasupreme]

sorry to hear that that really is some bad news best of luck

[Hulk]

Sorry to hear it. I am sure it was not an easy decision for your friend to make. He may have been advised to treat you the same as others for legal reasons, so you may want to give him the benefit of the doubt, for the sake of your friendship. Good luck finding work, I know that finding good tech writers is not easy, so hopefully your skills will be recognized and appreciated sooner rather than later.

[miguet]

Pat, sorry to hear you got layed off. Hopefully, you'll find a new job soon. Best of luck to you!

[garagesale]

Pat:

I know relocation may not sound like a great option, but you should think about coming down to the Oklahoma-Texas area... we're weathering the recession (yes, the U.S. IS in a recession) better than most... I think if you look around Houston, Austin, and Dallas, there might be some tech writing opportunities around.

If you have an MA in English (I don't know what your field is, but we give a tech writing MA at my school), many universities will be taking applications for adjuncts in the coming months (part time work)... tech writing is a high-demand field in teaching, as is English composition.

Best in these hard times... you will make it!

JamesD

[mitchedwards]

Sorry to hear you got laid off.

[Meule]

Sorry to hear about this, good luck

[megocrazy]

Best of luck in the new job search. I hope everything works out for the best.

[JPkempo]

Welcome to the club. It's been 4 months and only one interveiw. Hope you have better luck than I have.

[fallensaviour]

Sorry you got laid off.Same thing happened to me this summer after ten years with the company.The decent thing to do would be to give a guy a little heads up so he could budget for it.
Take it from me it hurts but in the end you will be better off.I'm making $5 an hour more at the new job and love it.Had to live off my savings for a couple months but worked out in the end.
Try to think of it as not an ending but a new begining.

[knight errant00]

Thanks for all the support and sympathy, everyone.

And in no particular order . . .

Welcome to the club. It's been 4 months and only one interveiw. Hope you have better luck than I have.

Yeah, I did 10 months in 2001-02 when my then-employer paid the CEO a $600K bonus and then needed to get the money from somewhere, finding Sept. 11 was a great excuse to make *them* look like the victims in their press releases.

He may have been advised to treat you the same as others for legal reasons, so you may want to give him the benefit of the doubt . . .

To be honest, I don't expect him to talk to me again, unles we bump into each other. We were never close friends, and I think he knows he didn't do right by me and will duck me from here on. But when it comes to this stuation -- I appreciate your call for perspective, but I don't expect anything of anyone that I don't expect of myself, and I don't expect anyone to do anything that I wouldn't do--or haven't done--myself. When I've held management positions, I've run counter to upper management when it came to anything I felt was wrong toward any member of my team -- which has cost me in the past. He knew how I'd been layed off before, and I've always asked him for one thing regarding any potential layoff --

The decent thing to do would be to give a guy a little heads up so he could budget for it.

-- *EXACTLY* From what he told me in the exit interview, they've had this planned since some time in October or November. And if he'd come to me then and said "Dude, this is what it looks like we're going to have to do 1Q of next near", I wouldn't have liked it, but I could have started planning for it, instead of feeling sucker punched and spending waay to much on Christmas, since it was the first in five years that my family was financially back on its feet. He knew how hard my last layoff hurt my career and my family's finances, and time to put money aside and look for another position wouldn't have cost him or the company a dime. Yeah, I'm still mad . . .

I know that finding good tech writers is not easy, so hopefully your skills will be recognized and appreciated sooner rather than later.

I like to believe that, but everyone seems to think it's easy. Or, as I was told "a luxury we can't afford." Good user manuals a luxury? No wonder you can't increase sales . . .

If you have an MA in English (I don't know what your field is, but we give a tech writing MA at my school), many universities will be taking applications for adjuncts in the coming months (part time work)... tech writing is a high-demand field in teaching, as is English composition.

I only have a BA, with a decade-and-a-half of experience. I ran into this problem the last time I was out of work, and applied for a business writing position at the community college. Yes, I know they have paperwork that require instructors to have certain levels of education, but realistically, is the grad student with the MA that got the job really going to serve the students better than the guy with a decade of real-world writing and training experience? I should probably start my master's sometime, though, to be able to tap that.

I'm making $5 an hour more at the new job and love it.

I can only hope that happens this time . . . last time, I ended up taking a 50%pay cut to get working again, and it took me a total of five years to work back up to my old salary level. I'm hoping I don't have to start over again . . .

Thanks for the opportunity to vent guys. Looking it over, it sounds maybe angier than I intended. I'm really just frustrated by how this has happened to me *again*, only this time done by people I really trusted and considered friends. And I'm frustrated by the effect this is having on my family, with a big vacation we've had to cancel and my son's birthday in a few weeks that has to be downscaled on him now. As unfair as this is to me, it's doubly unfair to my kids.

I appreciate everyone's well wishes. Wish me some luck, and LMK if you happen across anything!

--Pat

[brannon86]

That sucks. Hang in there. There is something better around the corner...