Job search tips : forced to resign

I am devastated by being forced to resign on Monday. I am a qualified professional person and have worked in my field for 25 years. (In this job only 4 years.) This is an "at will" state, so an employee can be forced to leave for ANY reason. My husband is in nursing school full time and we have a child in elementary school. Financially, this is devastating. I am so upset and numb at the same time. I am glad Monster is here to help with my search. I am eligible for unemployment, thankfully. But, our insurance costs are going to be $1200 per month!! I feel fairly confident that I can get another job in my field. I'm just so ashamed and embarrassed that this happened. For those who have been through this, could you give me some advice/support?

While every situation is different, it is sometimes better to actually have been terminated than to resign. Why did your employer ask you to leave? Was it due to a company restructure in which your job would have been downsized so your employer wanted you to leave immediately? Did a new hire decide he/she didn't like you and started trouble with the boss for which you were blamed? Did a new manager come in and change established procedures to something which caused the job to not be done efficiently?

Do you have some type of savings that you can fall back on so that you can take a couple of weeks to regroup, find out what your previous company will say on a reference check, do a craft project with your child's class, take a drive to scout out locations of companies you would like to be employed.

Here is a cute project which you can do with your child's class at school. Thanksgiving is coming up and instead of the draw a hand on construction paper or heavy manilla board paper and color to look like a turkey project, do this variation:

Get 8" X 8" squares of posterboard from any craft store. The squares can be any color except white..
Draw your hand or your child's hand on the board and cut it out. You may want to actually have that done at the craft store because they have a special cutting tool. You can also buy precut hands, but they can be quite costly.
Buy feathers in varying sizes and colors.
Buy a few bags of assorted miniature candy.
A glue gun works best but you can use super glue. Elmer glue will dry correctly on the posterboard, but the finished product will need to be left UNTOUCHED for at least 24 hours before the child can move it.
Large pine cones and glitter optional.
Outline two eyes and a smiling mouth on the palmof the posterboard hands.
_____________________________________________________________________________
On a table, spread out the feathers and assorted miniatures.
Give each child a posterboard hand,
Have the children place one miniature on each finger of the posterboard.
Either yourself, the teacher or any other adult helper glue the miniatures on the fingers.
Have the children pick out two or three feathers for each finger.
Either yourself, the teacher or an other adult helper glue the feathers on the fingers.
Sprinkle glitter on the pine cones.
Let the children color the outlined face at their desks.
Put some glue in the cracks of the pine cone in your desired spot (we preferred the spot about one third out from the fattest end of the pine cone).
Place the heel of the hand through those cracks to the glue.
If enough feathers are left over, kids can glue the feathers to the pine cone behind the hand.
Let dry before letting kids take home.

Ask the school for some assistance with providing the feathers, glitter and pine cones. Perhaps to get ready for your visit, the class can go on a pine cone hunt outside the day before. Maybe ask the teacher if she/he can use the educational discount some stores provide to teachers. Without help, the cost of the project could be as high as $50-$55. (small squares of posterboard isn't expensive. Usually only .39 to .59 cents each square.)

HOLD ON! If you resign you MAY NOT be eligible for unemployment. You better check that VERY carefully. Sometimes you are better off if they terminate you as you retain your right to unemployment. See if they will say they eliminated your position. I wish you well with this.

Read many of the forums and the old ones too. If you have a problem, ask. Many problems have been discussed, but may not know how to ask it or realize there is a solution to your problems.

It is very important that you keep your last employer COBRA medical insurance. I had both knees for total replacement surgeries, if you have insurance you can still ask for assistance on the remaining bills. Which I did and the bills actually exceeded what I paid for the insurance.

Do not let anyone shame you, many of us have worst stories to tell. I found the Public Library and the Internet full of free information. Most good jobs these days are contract assignments, especially for the older workers, because employers don't want to pay for healthcare. As an alternative to permanent, you must consider this option. It is scary, but never feel embarrassed, because this takes your confidence away. Keep positive and hope you have home equity on your mortgage or savings to pay for expenses. Don't let anyone push you into taking any job, you have skills that will lead you to new opportunities.

It is very normal to feel numb or upset, learn to be patient . Remember this is not the end of the world, just a new challenge and will take time.

Thank you for your kind, sensible words. It does sometimes feel like the end of the world, but I know it's not. I know the COBRA insurance is a must, it is just so expensive! I'll definitely continue it. We are grateful that our house is paid for, as are our cars. I was terminated, so unemployment is available. I've applied for it already. The shame of telling my friends and family is the hard part. I will go back and read others' posts about this issue. It's nice to feel like I'm not alone in this, that others have dealt with is and survived..

I worked for a company for 9 1/2 years, and they cut my position, but tried to reassign me to a department within the company that was in trouble and no one has successfully stayed in that department for more that four months. I know how you feel. I was told about the change and given two weeks to make up my mind. I wrote a formal letter explaining that I could not take the offer of the other job and that I was informing them of my last day to work. I later found out that resigning wasn't neccesarily the smart thing to do, but fortunately someone in human resources finally declared that I lost my job due to restructuring in the company, so they had to pay me unemployment. Did you ask them if they were going to pay a severence to you? Don't worry, be encouraged, this could possibly be the best move yet for you.

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Based on others that ths has happened to, there is no severance offered. I am eligible for unemployment and applied the next day. Your situation sounded awful, similar to one my husband went through a few years ago. He was encouraged to resign from a co. he worked for for 25 years. Fortunately, they provided a good severance package which allowed him to go back to school. In May, 2008 he will be a nurse! So good things can come of these bad things, I know. I believe God didn't want me in that place anymore, was possibly protecting me from something else. My faith has gotten stronger and I am convicted that I will have the right job soon. How did things turn out for you?

scoutmom07,

I know your first reaction is not to tell anyone you lost your job - but please rethink this. I had my entire church family praying for me when I was looking for a job. Practically everyone has a family member who has gone through the same thing sometime in the past few years. Not only did they pray for me to find "a job", they were praying for me to find just the job God had in mind for me.

Many members of the church offered to act as references. Several gave me job leads because they knew of openings at their place of work before the job hit the papers. One church member happened to know the president of the company where I had an interview scheduled - and called him to let him know I had applied for a position at his company.

Also, it is a lot easier to ask people to 'keep me in your prayers" instead of 'do you know of any job openings?"

So, don't be embarrassed about a job loss - let people know you need their prayers as you try to discover where God wants you to be. Don't be surprised if this sudden job loss turns out to be a blessing in disguise.

Mary

I have been down that road before. Been fired, almos lost my home and had my car repossessed BUT I got it back!

It took me three years to find my current job and I thank God I am paid enough where I can set aside $5,000 a month to rebuild my depleted 401k account and pad my "emergency fund". I had to take out $85,000 from my 401k account because of unemployment because I had no savings at the time. Although my 401k had over $800,000 in it, I wanted to retire at age 55 but because of my 3 years of unemployment I had no choice but to withdraw $85,000 which can impact my nest egg by over $300,000 because of lost investment opportunities. I now have no choice but to retire at a minimum of age 62.

By the way, once your husband receive his BS degree in Nursing, he should look into joining a Registry. One of my friends is a Registry nurse who is making $50 an hour working whenever he wants. He hated working for a hospital. Now he works for a registry that gives him gifts when he works a certain amount of hours.

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