"""- fear of homelessness has way too many times in my life gotten my ass out of bed in the morning for a soul-crushing minimum wage gig. Being poor or sick or mentally ill should not be criminalized, unfortunately, that ship has long sailed."""
It doesn't help with all the layoffs that subsequently caused people not to be able afford previous living conditions- which means having to have had to relocate far- far away from family.
A lot of former IT colleagues of mine have degraded their way of living to sleeping on friends couches or leaving the industry altogether for manageable pay.
Personally, I've always had the paranoia of getting axed for being sick 'at a bad time' for one of my previous employers. My current company seems to be mostly sympathetic, which has left me in a awkwardly distrustful/appreciative state. But with things winding down right now- I'm not sure where my future lies come the turn of the year.
There's a difference between production cost and sale price. The latter is the one being referred to by the GP. The article itself is about neither: it talks about software freedom, not monetary cost.
I don't normally post here- normally I lurk. But this spoke to me.
Learning and research is something you(someone) has to impose on themselves as a self-discipline(like working out, eating right or some other habit). I learned this early in my adolescent years- but it was not honed or realized until university. Once I got into college, I found out that I need to push myself to do the research for things I wanted to pursue- even if it wasn't directly related- in order to achieve my end goal. In comparison, as a naive kid- I would research hitboxes, best shooter tactics and related gaming notes. Now, I open myself to anything and everything- because I realize now 20 years later, that I can easily make what I learn into something I benefit/enjoy from with enough effort and perspective insight.
Long-story-short(tldr)?
Just because you don't know something now, doesn't mean it won't be important to you later. When that day comes, the last thing on your mind will be passive interest- and moreso long-term passion. Which, in retrospect- the former is the dopamine calling you home to stay placated with who you are- rather than you want to be.
Semiconductor company laid me off after working there since 2018. I kept a lot of leaks quiet and helped save a lot of trouble/money. Went above and beyond the call of duty and even relocated my wife and kids to be closer so that I could be on-call(not in job description). I took leadership and management positions without compensation just to keep workflow going. Although I had clearly indicated I was interested in those positions, I was blocked from them because I was not going to be compensated for the additional responsibility.
Now I'm left with a mortgage, debt and other payments that Unemployment can't begin to cover.
I asked if I could keep my job or get relocated to another dept- 'No'.
Everything is frozen- everything is stagnate and people are afraid of more layoffs happening for both contract workers and direct-hires.
I tried for years beforehand- to get moving up, but told it wasn't possible(yet). I even tried playing the 'I have another offer elsewhere' lie card, with nothing to show for it.
What's additionally frustrating, is that many local retail places won't hire me.
My experience at the company has cut me off from other work- for fear that I may not stick around for the long-term.
DoorDash is no longer taking applications in my area(that was a shock). Retailers wont take me because of my accomplished work history. Lyft/Uber wont allow me to work for them because my car is too old.
I have applied to soo many Craiglist, HN, Dice, Linkedin, Indeed, Gov and GlassDoor jobs that I my feeling of self-worth had diminished what has felt like eons ago. It's not that I don't get decent offers- it's that I get turned down relatively quickly despite my time at Semiconductor Co.
I'm at the point where I just want any income- the desperation to feed and provide for my wife and kids is what's driving me right now.
nelsoch (OP), please don't be offended by what I am about to say, I don't intent to offend you. I am just sharing a valuable advice I received for everyone in this boat.
When I was at my first job, I too went way beyond my scope of job descriptions and did many things. Everyone appriciated me and I felt I was a vital part of the company. That is when my new manager gave this advice. Though that the time, I was annoyed by him and felt he was a pain in the ass. I was too young and stupid to understand what he was telling, so he just forced me to comply. Which, in the end, helped me a lot.
I had to fill an excel sheet of all the things I did and forward to my supervisor. I only filled what was my job and didn't put in the extra things. The manager asked why I was not informing the company of what I was actually doing in the company. The manager said that I was not giving enough focus on the work I was hired to do and doing other things. Though, my supervisor was very happy with my job.
Then I started begrudgingly (curing my manager) filling everything I did in the company. Again I was called by the manager for not fully reporting what I was doing. When I showed, that filled everything. It turned out my supervisor was deleting the extra stuff I was putting in. That is when I realized that my supervisor was just praising me. But didn't report this to the manager.
So, I just stopped doing other things and just did my work and avoided anything that was beyond my description. Then I started getting official email asking me to do extra things and started getting "certificate of appreciation". That lead me to getting extra pay and bonus. My increments were also higher, and I got promoted too.
Then, when I moved to other companies, I just stuck to my job description and didn't do anything more. I set the tone from my interview. Whenever I was asked to do anything extra, I always bargained for what I was going to get for the extra work. I made sure that extra expenses (like petrol,road toll & parking charges for travel) were compensated, and I got extra time off.
Basically, I understood that only when the company was paying for my extra services, did they appreciate it.
Management always value you based on how much they are paying you for your services. They are not going to asking around and see how much you contribute.
Well said. This is the way, unless you work for yourself or with something you're passionate about. Sometimes, just meeting the bare minimum is all that's required or should be done. Anyone can be let go at anytime; we’re expendable.
> I even tried playing the 'I have another offer elsewhere' lie card, with nothing to show for it.
You probably should've actually gotten an offer elsewhere, maybe even had it in hand and quoted the number for them to meet/exceed. Not actually having one can backfire. It's really an ultimatum, and one you should probably follow through on if called. Maybe it's not a factor in your case, but this can result in souring a relationship with your employer.
> Retailers wont take me because of my accomplished work history.
Can't you just remove it from your CV then? I thought that CV is like personal marketing material: you only list things there that help you to get a specific job – and skip everything else that doesn't.
EDIT: It's possible to list your previous employers without listing your work accomplishments.
Having to explain the gap in employment from 2018-2023 would be hard. A requirement for many retail jobs(I don't remember it being this way 10+ years ago) is to list 5-10 years of work history and explain gaps.
I don’t think it’s that tough. Lie about 2018-2020, then blame the pandemic, lie again about a short stint someplace 2021-2022, and then say you got laid off late last year.
If the options are lying or not getting a job, it shouldn’t be a hard decision. Get friends to be fake old bosses. Try to remember a local restaurant that shut down. Do whatever it takes.
> Went above and beyond the call of duty and even relocated my wife and kids to be closer so that I could be on-call(not in job description). I took leadership and management positions without compensation just to keep workflow going.
>I tried for years beforehand- to get moving up, but told it wasn't possible(yet). I even tried playing the 'I have another offer elsewhere' lie card, with nothing to show for it.
This is why you don't lie about it. Get the other offer first, and if they don't offer any remedy, you actually leave.
what's your skill set? did you lower your salary requirement and look in other industries?
i'm a software dev. i got layoff many times before. what i do is lower my salary requirement to get a job then start looking for a job with better pay within 6 months to a year so it doesn't look like i'm job hopping.
I have an intimate familiarity with a wide breadth of both hardware and software. Working on pre-production products and supporting post-production to customers has required us to be flexible to new requests, per contract.
My current salary is really low for the industry- I've been willing to take paycuts so that I can provide, so I've applied to such positions. But I still get turned down.
The ability to be a human swiss army knife has allowed me to survive all the waves of layoffs(publicly-noticed and otherwise) up till now. When I was a stand-in manager interviewing people a year ago- I was told afterwards that my questions were too intense for what they were _then_ looking for. At that point, it got me wondering why they were setting the bar so low when I was previously being grilled and nearly passed.
Have you tried the consultant/contractor angle? Many companies that were forced to downsize will be looking into contracting out some of the workload they still want to be done.
