My Husband lost his job after 31 plus years

[RetailSlave]

They called him into the office at the end of the day on Friday and told him they were eliminating his position. He has worked there for 31 years...starting before that really working summers in the factory, then once he got out of college he came back and started in the factory, then a couple of months later (the week before we got married in fact) they moved him into the office as a cost analyst. When they started getting computers in he taught himself how to use, program and fix them...and eventually became an IT person. He was the IT manager over two plants...they are closing the one and moving all the production to the other one, since he was the sole IT person we figured his job was pretty secure. WRONG! They decided to to all their support from one of their main facilities 2 hours away!! Since all their equipment is computer controlled, I think they are gonna regret not having someone "on site" (we live 5 minutes away from the plant).
He is getting 26 weeks severance pay plus a $3000 insurance allowance and that is it. 31 plus years of loyal service all for nothing. We are doubting he will find anything making anywhere close to what he made there ($52,000 plus bonuses and retirement plan matching) and he is having to start over at age 54 after basically working his entire life for that company. Since I was on his insurance plan we are without insurance...I can get on mine but I have to wait for open enrollment which is several months away. COBRA insurance for medical is outrageous...dental and vision is decent though.
He is filing for unemployment but that doesn't kick in until the 26 weeks is up..we will get the $26,000 less taxes in a couple of weeks, then we have to pull his retirement money out and hope he can find something soon. I talked to my boss about him getting on there for a while until he can find something else and she said if he put in an app she would have our HR secretary pull it on Monday and see if she can get him set up and in for an interview. It won't be much but at least it will be a paycheck until he can find something else.

[Hyndis]

Welcome to the 10% of the economy.


Been looking for work for months now, the only nibble I've had was someone trying to scam me out of money.

[cinema guy]

That sucks.

On the flip side he has 6 months pay without having to go to work. If he has ever harboured a desire to start his own business, write a novel, make and sell knitted giraffes, or whatever, he has a safety net.

Or if he gets a job quickly, you then have a chunk of cash to pay off your mortgage, put a down payment on a house, or save for a rainy day.

[Millahtyme1983]

I'm real sorry to hear that, believe me it sucks I'm sort of in the same boat right now. As far as the health insurance goes, and I should preface this by saying I am not a lawyer, I believe losing health insurance due to the main policy holder being laid off counts as a "life event" and you can sign up for yours at work without waiting for open enrollment. I could be wrong on this, and it may differ depending on what state your in, but it is something to look into.

[Pedersen]

Since I was on his insurance plan we are without insurance...I can get on mine but I have to wait for open enrollment which is several months away.

While all of the rest of this sucks horridly, I may have one small piece of good news for you, especially if you're in the US. Most (not necessarily all) insurance programs through employers let you make changes to insurance at one of two times: Life events and open enrollment.

Life events are defined as births, deaths, weddings, divorces, and job status change (usually for either partner). This is done specifically to deal with the case you're in: It allows you to get on your workplace's insurance immediately, thus removing the need to deal with COBRA.

Double check with your HR people tomorrow. You might at least get one bit of good news to help soften the blow.

[volatile]

I know that given your situation, and the fact that I am not you nor your husband, it's kind of out of place for me to give you financial advice...but I urge you to not touch your retirement if at all possible. With all the early withdrawl penalities and taxation you will be getting much less than you put in and for you to bring your retirement investments back to the same level would take you exponentially longer. This is especially true because it is a down market and you would be selling it while it is at a horrendous low. (This is assuming it's not a pension and is a 401K type plan) Given that I am a stranger, you can take my advice with a grain of salt, but I urge you to find any way you can to subsist without touching those funds.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

My dad is 55 and in a similar position.

I myself got laid off from a job a few months ago. I have another job now. It pays less and offers no insurance, BUT at least it's something to keep the bills paid while I look for something else.

That severance pay is lucky, a lot of people as experienced as your husband aren't even getting that.

It's tough out there.

I was reading about a bank that had five teller positions open that paid $7.50/hr and THREE of them went to people with MASTERS degrees. Yes that's not a typo, MASTERS degrees.

[iradney]

*HUGS* I'm sending you and your hubby a great big truckload of happy thoughts, ok?

[PuckishOne]

Re: The insurance issue... Loss of coverage due to the situation described in the OP SHOULD be considered a "qualifying event" under the ERISA laws (the federal laws governing employer-sponsored healthcare) and you should be able to enroll with your own employer without waiting for open enrollment, RS. PM me if you need more info or if your HR people give you crap - I've done enough HR and insurance to be able to give you some creative ways to tell them to get stuffed.

Re: The rest of it: That so sucks. I'm due to lose my own job at the end of March and, like a couple others here, am literally looking for ANYthing even vaguely suitable even if it means a huge (as in, 50%) pay cut. I just don't want to be not working if I can help it - tough enough at 38, I can only say that I feel for what it must be like at 50-plus. I hope things get better for you guys soon, and hang in there.

[Kiwi]

My mum is 50 and was made legally disabled last year

Her job is being threatened right now, and because shes a government worker she gets NO serverance pay AT ALL.
She told me she has 20 days paid leave saved up but wanted to take a holiday to get away from the stress.
I convinced her to keep all of the paid leave she could until she knows shes safe again.

Her 10 year anniversary is coming up in 2 weeks and shes ranked number 1 our of the 24 other people in the country for her job. The stupid thing is, because she works for the welfare branch (training new case managers) and the case managers are so overloaded with people who have been laid of coming in for unemployment

they are saying her job is no longer needed.... thats right because the economy will NEVER improve and the employees will NEVER want to upskill they are going to fire her even though her performance has been outstanding. Only to have them turn around in a year or so to have to rehire people for her exact position again.

Shes fighting it believe me, out of the 24 doing her position 12 are suconded and the other 12 are saying to keep their jobs they will take over the other 12's work... doubling their workload. They are also willing to take on extra admin work so that the case mangers have more face time with clients, and/or running finding work seminars where they fix resumes, help them apply for jobs etc

It makes me very scared for her, she doesnt handle her money well at all in the best of times. My brother went over there the other day and told me there was NOTHING in her pantry. When I asked what shes spending her money on she told me to "mind my own business"

she couldnt even barely pay her mortgage on welfare payments let alone all the bills and eat to!

[powerboy]

I know how you feel right now. My dad was laid-off at the beginning of the year. My mom and myself has been laid off since Jan 30th. My dad is 57 and it is hard for him to get a job. And ofcourse age play a factor in it. I have a couple of job leads right now, so hopefully it will work out. And ofcourse we, did file for unemployment. It fuckin sucks, being unemployed.

[Bella_Vixen]

Mom was forced into early retirement* due to a hostile takeover. After working there for over 19 years.

*she either had to retire or would be fired. The new owners have age restrictions on all the jobs now.

She's eligible for unemployment because a foreign company bought the factory out (hence the age restrictions), but someone at the unemployment agency fucked up and put Mom as ineligible. (When you retire, you cannot collect unemployment, except in rare cases, such as this.) The HR lady and a nice lady from unemployment have been playing phone tag for 2 weeks now to clear this up.

We are now 4 days late on the rent because Mom is being dicked around and I work 18-25 hours a week, and am lucky to pay my bills. Luckily the money one of my nephew's owes us is starting to be paid back, but it's still not enough.

[Estil]

I was reading about a bank that had five teller positions open that paid $7.50/hr and THREE of them went to people with MASTERS degrees. Yes that's not a typo, MASTERS degrees.

And I thought I was overqualified for my job (grocery cashier making now $10.40/hr; just NOW got full time with two bachelor's degrees). Sheesh....

[JLRodgers]

What's worse than the masters degree people working for basically min-wage is this: people who have practically doubled their workload and work some hours without pay (yeah, they still have the same hours they have to be there -- but their hours have been cut as far as pay).

'tis a sad thing when people will work for nothing just to make sure they won't get fired.

Worse yet is, I've had no new clients for a year (website design, software development, etc) because the businesses aren't wanting/able to spend money.

[powerboy]

being dicked around

That is what is happening to me. They have a claim that I opened in the past and using that as why I cannot get unemployment. I have been calling every day for the past week and cannot get no where.