Lay Offs, Obamacare Scare, and Moving on from there

It was back in November of 2007 that I pulled up to our house from school and wondered why in the world John's car was home.

I hoped he wasn't sick, but in my heart, I knew he wouldn't ever come home sick, he never gets that sick.

When I talked to him, my heart sunk and I felt like I was the one who was going to be sick.

Laid off, laid off, who even thought of such a thing

and

completely blindsided at that.

After years at Yaggy Colby, the company had to lay off employees to keep the company afloat.

 

Way back in 1976 when John started his first job in Elkhorn working for Jensen and Johnson, we never had even heard of a lay off.

Back in those good old days, you could switch jobs at will.  There were plenty of opportunities out there.

The only lay offs I ever heard of were those in the construction field where you got laid off for a few months in the winter and then got your job back when the weather was warm enough to build again.

John made $4.00 an hour in those days and we were more than comfortable with that.

We had all that we needed.

I am ashamed to say that we took health insurance and retirement benefits for granted.

They just came with the territory.
John went on to work for the city of Watertown, left there on his own accord to work for an engineering firm in Milwaukee and left there when he found a better opportunity at another engineering firm in the area.
And finally, he found the job at Yaggy Colby where he planned to stay until he retired.
It was that November day our world fell apart and we never took health insurance or other benefits for granted again.

It was a hard lesson to learn in 2007 at that first lay off

 

John applied for unemployment and spent every spare minute searching for a new job.

We found a cheap major medical insurance to cover us till he found a new job

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving and Christmas that year because it was nice to have him home.

 

In January 2008, John started his new job at McClure in Milwaukee.

It was never a great job, but in true John fashion, he went faithfully every day and did his work.

Complained a lot about Rita, the secretary and was never completely happy there, but it was a job and it was in his field and it was paying our bills.

 

On a sidenote, we were quite pleased with how much unemployment paid us

We were making 300.00 per week and we used very creative ways to make that work for us.

We did not realize that we would have to pay taxes on that money.

Live and learn.

By the next time, we knew to have those taxes taken out.

And, before you ask, yes, there was a next time and a next time.

 

Shortly, before our daughter's wedding in August, 2009, John again came home from work in the middle of the day.

Another Lay off and once again, he has one of the shortest straws.

We called it a vacation and fully enjoyed Alissa's wedding and the arrival of our first granddaughter, Tizita from Ethiopia.

John did spend most of his day applying for jobs and once again he fortunately landed one at Realtime Electric in Madison, starting there in Sept. 2009.

With a promise of "we never lay off anyone in this company" we happily pressed forward.

The commute was long and entailed battling Beltline traffic on a daily basis, but, yet again, John does not complain.  He feels blessed to have a job in his field and actually at this job, he is learning new things having to do with electrical planning.

We enjoy one very fun Christmas party where we rub elbows with the boss, who has too much to drink just like we did.

We all sang, "we are family" with arms linked.

When one's wife has arms linked with the boss, one feels quite confident in one's job security.

Let me just add, that the cost of that one Christmas gala would have easily paid John's salary for a year.

By now, John is getting pretty good at smelling a lay off and sure enough this company that never lays anyone off, laid off at least ten employees that bitter day in February 2011.

John did not even stay to listen to the shpeel from the boss, but got right up and announced, "I have to call for unemployment, I know how the system works."

 

This lay off was the longest and the most painful.

John almost hit rock bottom when he actually considered selling cars or working at Walmart.

Now we laugh, but it was not so funny at the time, although, I have to admit both of us kept our humor and knew God had a plan designed just for us.
"
Patience and waiting for a job in the engineering field paid off and six long months later, John started working for Kapitan in Sauk City, an hour and twenty minutes away.
He still proclaims, "Thank heavens, I did not have to work here" everytime we walk into Walmart.

During those six months, I was only teaching mornings and my old employer offered me a job helping with marketing in a childcare center in Oconomowoc.  God had certainly provided us with that opportunity.
Not sure I did much as a marketing specialist, but they paid me well and that money helped get us through some tight times.
It was during this long lay off that I discovered Aldi and I still do all my shopping there.

As I said, the commute is long for John each day.
No one should have to spend three hours in a vehicle daily unless they are working for UPS or FedEx, but he never complained.
I didn't even realize he had concerns about this job which went far beyond the long commute.
I knew that he had his resume out on many sites, but until recently I did not know that he is really worried about Obamacare and what that would mean to us.
You see, at Kapitan, we had to find our own insurance.  We could only afford major medical and we did find one with a very high deductible with the understanding between us that we are not allowed to get sick and if we are in an accident, we die!
Seriously, it is not funny, but unfortunately there are many people who are in that same boat.

Well, on May 1, a company showed interest  in him.
I don't think he even shared any of that with me because this interest usually fell through, but not this time.
The company kept pursuing him and that is where we went last weekend for the interview in Iron Mountain, Michigan.
Today he got an offer, too good to refuse.
Benefits, better than any he has ever had before and a feeling that he is really sought after by this company.
I am so happy for him.
It has been a long haul with much instability since that first lay off in 2007,
but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
God is good, all the time and He is in control.

Oh. and by the way, the job is in Pewaukee, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump away.
He will spend a month up in Michigan learning a few  new things and getting acquainted with the company, but we are excited about this and so anxious to press forward

If any of you reading this, are unemployed at the moment, do not give up hope.
And I realize that there are many, many worse things than being unemployed and we never forgot that.
We had each other and our girls and their familie.
We did lose a grandson in early 2011 and unemployment is nothing and I mean nothing compared to that, so I am not trying to light of anyone's losses here.  I am not trying to make it sound like we had it worse than anyone else, because we didn't, but I wanted to document these past six years.
Thanks for reading, if you are still here.