All my life I have always heard that longevity in a job shows you are stable and looks real good on your resume’. Well, I am a stable person by nature anyway, so staying at the same job is no problem for me. The problem is the career path I chose. Actually, I didn’t choose it, I fell into it quite by accident.

Way back in 1982, I saw a want ad published by a recruiter for a dental assistant for $15,000. I inquired about it and when I had the interview with the recruiter, all she talked about was a job with Loyola Federal as a mortgage processor for $6700.00. I asked what about the dental assistant job? She said, “oh, that’s not available”. So there goes my start in the mortgage business. I was only 17 at the time and still living at home, so I was not pressed to make a certain salary. Anyway, fast forwarding to 2011, I made an observation. I never lost a job the first 14 yrs in the mortgage industry. In the last 16 yrs., I have been laid off 4 times. I have now been laid off for 7 months. I am a mortgage underwriter and my 30 yrs of experience apparently is meaningless in this crappy economy.

In my most recent job, 4 out of 8 people in our MD office were laid off a week before Christmas and only 9 days after the company Christmas party. Real nice, huh? The rest of us were gone when office was shut down all together, which was no surprise. Problem that I see is that in the first 14 yrs. I never lost a job because I would leave a job before it got bad enough for offices to start closing. I would say safe zone was 2 – 3 years. So I have concluded that longevity in a job doesn’t pay. Keep on moving..

This post was submitted by Irene .

When I am home for the summer it is always near impossible to find employment. However, I responded to a Craigslist ad for a seasonal job, and I got an interview. The interview was with the owner of the boutique, and she said that the job would last until labor day. I was upfront and said I couldn’t work until then (because of school) and she said that she would discuss me with the manager. I was hired, even after expressing doubts, but the owner assured me that she needed me.

So I work for two months in the retail industry. However, the boss is very difficult. For instance, she wanted me to circulate the overall store more, but also pay specific attention to individual (white) customers in the fitting room. I was also told to watch the Hispanics and Muslims (don’t know how you can tell what religion people are by their looks) because they were prone to shoplift. Now I know what she was doing was wrong, but I kept the job because I really needed money. It did become stressful to work though. The owner kept giving me tasks and then changing her mind and holding me accountable. However, I did everything to please her.

After two months, the manager called me in after a shift and out of the blue and told me I was being let go. The reason? I wasn’t a right fit. I guess because I refused to racial profile, I did not belong. I’m glad I’m not a right fit because I’m not going to school to be a retail slave. However, I was upset to be let go. Now my boss used to hold a Cabinet position with the state so she is well published. After doing some research I found out that she didn’t pay income taxes because she often claims losses on her business. Funny how someone can cheat the system! Well I am unemployed but I guess I learned my lesson about working for horrible people.

This post was submitted by EC.

I worked for the owner of a small company, a very difficult man, for over 12 years. He was very happy with my work but was having dire financial problems. We all kind of expected the doors to close at any time.

While I was on vacation at my nephew’s wedding, waiting for the ceremony to begin, my cell phone rang. It was my fiancé, at home. He said, “You got an overnight letter from your company. Do you want me to open it and read it to you?” Expecting it to say the company was closing its doors, I said, “Yes, go ahead.”

So he read me a terse letter saying my position had been eliminated, the HR guy would help me collect my things, and thanking me for my years of service!

Needless to say I was majorly bummed out during my nephew’s wedding. My mother looked at me quizzically when I got my second gin & tonic at the reception (unusual for me). I didn’t want to spoil her beautiful day, so I kept the news to myself until later.

Just today I learned that the jerk won’t give me a letter of recommendation because it’s “against his policy.”

This post was submitted by MktgGirl.

It was 2008. In May, I left my job at my hometown television station as my wife and I left for “greener pastures” in the next state. A more tolerable schedule and pay scale.

While there were disappointments regarding the work environment, and it was a bad year for local TV overall, I felt secure, even when the salary freezes were announced. I was a hard worker, dependable, turned out my assignments quickly and satisfied clients; plus, the company had just invested in a four-day trip to a major city for training.

Six months to the day after being hired, my company had its annual “Thanksgiving lunch.” After I’d just finished my dessert, I got a call from the general manager, asking to stop by his office. Oblivious, I tried to figure out what he wanted. I still didn’t get it when the HR director was there when I showed up. I thought it might be a disciplinary thing, but couldn’t understand what I could have done wrong.

And that’s when it started. “Hardest part of my job … I hold myself responsible …”

What was I going to tell my wife, who I’d moved down to start a new life? How would we pay our bills? Would I ever realize my dreams of film school and filmmaking?

This story might have a happy ending, though. I’m in film school now, making my thesis feature, and it was inspired by my layoff and nine months of unemployment. You can learn more about it at the webpage I listed. I hope you will stop by.

This post was submitted by Cineaste Auteur.

I was recently laid off…

Prior to getting laid off there were talks about possible layoffs. However the day before I was laid off everyone at the organization was basically assured that good news was coming and not to panic or worry.

The very next day my day off the person that does human resources calls me and asks me if I can come in she needed to talk to me. Which immediately gave me reasons for concern. All these things were running through my head, what is it? Why can’t it wait till the next day I come in? Is it a time sheet issue, no that doesn’t make sense it’s the middle of the week, middle of the pay period. So I knew something was up and it wasn’t good.

So I head in to work go to the HR’s person’s office and the news is delivered. I melted down right there in the office cried and I am not one to cry in front of people. I was shocked, I was told the day before things were looking up. The only question I was able to get out was will I qualify for unemployment, I was only part-time. The HR person told me yes. She tried to reassure me it had nothing to do with my performance. But that still doesn’t help much, it’s like if I am such a good worker why are you letting me go?

I worked with some really good people essp. those in my department I made good friends with them as well. I ran into one of my co-workers one I was friends with too, as I was walking out of the office and told her she was very supportive. Then my supervisor saw me and was like hey what are you doing here (like it’s your day off), when I told her she was like WHAT!? So they didn’t even forewarn her.

The next day I heard from another work friend it happened to her too and someone else.

I just don’t understand why they would say no one needs to panic, if they were planning to lay several people off the next day.
And since I was only part-time it was my only job despite effort to find either a 2nd job or a full-time job. I basically have no savings and am kinda scared right now. =/

This post was submitted by Jane.