So I lost my job

Thank you again everyone!

I took the weekend to get all the sulking out. Now I am networking and taking advantage of any and all good references I have. I am even considering contacting my previous company.

One the bright side, as long as the hubby doesn't get laid off (knock on wood) then we will be ok if I don't find something right away, though it will be tight.

Silver lining to the cloud: I hated my job and now I may get to spend more time with my children.

At least I get the holidays off!! And I will be paid up until the second week of January as the office closes on 12/16 and I get 4 weeks severance.

I just keep telling myself 'deep breathes'. I don't know what it worse, everything I worked for in a career being taken away without a thought or working with the knowledge that all the work I am doing now is useless.

At least I am on vacation this week, it is much needed, it has gven me the opportunity to step back and evaluate everything.

Thank you again for all the advice!

And Thank you George but as you know I get lost easily and tend to stick to the south shore because Boston and beyond is a little scary for me!!

Sound all good!

There will never be enough money to pay the bills of an unsatifactory life... The object is, to take every interlude to get ones mind right, and to reassess ones goals, and steel ones self for the coming effort... We let our jobs dominate our lives instead of seeking and holding employment that fulfills our lives and ambitions... We too often identify ourselves by our jobs rather than by any other character trait... I am an ironworker, or at least used to be... But I was never just an ironworker... Yet we give so much to our jobs that it is inevitable that we should lose our minds and our selves in them... Where the body is there is the mind too... But even aftet work we must plan our escape, and then plan our commute, and when we buy our clothes or cars, and even insure our cars and lives it is in relation to the jobs we hold, and so with the places we would see, or events we would attend... What freedom has that person who must always be face to face with a watch??? Work changes the whole nature of time, and so changes our lives... Everyone I have ever known who works for wages usually falls into a time warp around quiting time, so that your off work fifteen minutes to go- sometimes takes a month and a half to get there... And that fifteen minutes like so many spent at work is ones life, and it is torture, and like torture, it causes people to wish away what they cannot live without, and will have no other of... That is a fcking crime... Is the job you are doing essential... Does it acutally make a contribution to humanity, or is it, rather, and assult of some form on so many human spirits, with yours included...Is your job productive??? Is it both creative, and re-creative... The reason so many slaves could be happy while so few master could, is that the slave reproduces himself in his production, and recreates himself with his creation while masters stand by, the slaves of their slavery, unfree, eating off the work of others, like a parasite...

In modern times that situation has been reversed... The rich now believe the poor workers they hold in bondage are living off of them, and the workers, often trapped in meaningless employment, some times meaningless because their fraction of it gives them no part of the whole except that part that pays their wages... They can never see the meaning because they cannot see the value, and to be honest, some employment is without value unless negative value is considered as value... Many jobs are in employment totally anti- social, against the good goals of society and humanity, and the wages they pay are the price of treason... People should think before they act, and since most employment requires activity, thought is essential...If we whittled down the jobs we need done, and take turns at them, we might all support our selves with 10 hours of work a week with all the rest now done, going to profit, waste, and taxes... What makes a good job good???

The person struggles to pay her mortgage or rent and bills and you want to talk philosophy?

What color is the sky in your world?

They struggle, and we all struggle because of the want of philosophy, the failure of philosophy, and the unwillingness to apply philosophy to our moral problems... We do not have to work so hard... Even primitives could only work while the sun shone, and not even so hard as us for our keep... Why with all our labor saving devices do we work so hard, even when it means others will not work at all??? The answer is that we let injustice rule us, because we refuse to live without it, blind and ignorant, in denial of our own pain... We need more philosophy and not less...

I'm glad there is a silver lining to the cloud, CL. Enjoy your time with your children.

And, what you worked for in your career is still under your belt in terms of experience--you know how to work your way up. If you hated your job, maybe this is some sort of blessing in disguise, even though this is certainly not the way you'd prefer to receive your blessings. But, it will force you to shift gears and change direction, and that can be a good thing.
Focus on what you'd really like to do, or the type of work environment you prefer. If you need more education or training to do something different, that you might like more, look into financial aid for that--they have financial aid available, particularly for adult students who have life and work experience behind them. If you enjoy being with your children, focus on looking for something part-time, either in terms of work or school.

Think about doing some volunteer work--ask at your local library for some suggestions, and even the library might be able to use your services. Volunteering is a form of networking--you never know who you might meet, or where it could lead, and it's a productive way to stay busy. If elections are coming up near you, volunteer to work for a candidate or party, or go to meetings of a political club. Any community meetings, of any organization or group, will help you to make contacts locally. And, let the people you meet know you are looking for work, they may be able to help you.

It's a definite bummer to have the rug pulled out from under you that way, CL, and I sympathize with you. I do believe that when one door closes, another one opens somewhere. I hope that's true for you, CL, and I hope that other door will open for you sometime soon, and may it lead your life in an interesting, and satisfying, and rewarding direction.

We are sold cheap because that is the going price, and because we are cheap our time is monopolized by people who hold us in contempt, and see us abused at every opportunity, and we spend our lives in meaningless drudgery, wishing our lives away, never having the moment, throwing away all our nows for some future we will only have when too old and abused to enjoy it...

Life is time... Enjoy your time with your children... Enjoy every moment or find another thing to do for money... You can live without money... No one lives without time, and life without time spent on step ahead of the second hand is madness, though all too common... Think of your children, and how often you will have to tell them to consider their futures... If you have no moment, no now, then you have no future... Seize the moment... Live in the here and the now... Retire first and then work yourself to death later... Look at everything worth having on this earth and ask how much will you enjoy them when your body is crippled by age, or you are dead...

I have bought a lot of nice **** at estate sales... People never miss it, and the treasures their loved ones prized out of an unwilling existence they sell cheap to better enjoy their own lives...If people find they are unable to ask for their due, and that the very asking of it puts their lives in jeopardy, then it is not themselves they should change to better accomodate their circumstances, but it is time to grasp reality and change their circumstances... Put a price on the head of every person who wants to sell and buy your life below the price of keeping it going, expecting you will make up the difference parting with the capital of generations, if you have any...

Demand your life as the price of your labor... Chastise all who sell out cheap because they are only supporting luxuries they can live without while others struggle with necessities... Be conscious of your exploitation, and do not support the exploitation of others or the environment...Demand your rights, one of which is happiness, which a good government and a good society should make possible for you...

You're repeating yourself fido, particularly with the threats against the oppressive ruling class

Gnats don't threaten Elephants, or the other way around... They hate me and I hate it, but they are insignificant... That is; the problem is us, humanity, which from a demoralized state is in no position to change anything... Look at the statement: I have lost my job... My Job??? My, My, My; cut off from our groups, our communities, our kin we have no recourse but to take what they give; and one of the things they give, as Chrystal Christy shows, is a definition of words, such as morality, designed to make us feel in the wrong for seeking our rights... People are taught to believe they are individuals, and that they have no groups, but they do not have the courage true individualism demands which is the honor and character essential to strike out at those who wrong them... If they did not know in their hearts what immoral bastards they were, and how they have taken their sustenance out of the rest of the world, and how they have celebrated the loss of another if it meant their gain so that when injustice striikes them they know it is deserved, then they could strike back...

It is our own immorality; our dishonor that keeps us as victims... We look around at others like us, exactly alike in gross, and only different in detail, and see ourselves reflected in them and are repulsed... No wonder we identify with our exploiters who are, from the standpoint of their groups, not demoralized, clearly aware that they are taking their livings out of the lives of the oppressed and ever eager for more...They know who they are, and the fact that they pretend to be one with us makes it easy for some to feel one with them; but it is all a ruse... We are hosts, and they are parasites... The confusion is ours and the profit is theirs...

As long as people think they are what they do they will cling to their jobs as to their identities, even if it means slavery... If they knew that they were their honor, their character, as a reflection of the people who had a hand in making them, and if they knew that the freedom past generations fought for was their right, and was the obligation of them to defend for generations to follow they would grasp their honor... Instead we sell our birthrights and the birthrights of our children for a job, waiting for another to give us hope, afraid to rock the boat, or take what is our right... It is a part of Christian teaching to put peace before justice, but the reason so few accept the beliefs of Christianity is that it is a denial of morality, and the more people practice Christianity the worse Christians they become... But then, Jesus was the most immoral of them all, rejecting even family for his new religion...