Just a few hours after getting home, I was hanging out with some friends when one of them asked if I wanted a part-time job. I figured it'd be better than sitting on my ass all day; I gladly accepted.
So for the past ~10 months, I've spent 4 hours a day helping people get home from work. It's basically just answering people's questions about the shuttles (what time their bus leaves, where x bus has stops, if & for how long a bus is late, etc. etc.). It's a pretty sweet gig - I get this great opportunity to meet and talk to people while helping them out. I learned about 2 weeks ago that the company that was contracted to fill the position would, unfortunately, be losing that responsibility at the end of the month - leaving me jobless.
Fortunately for me, I've been accepted to Teach for America and will land in Louisiana in ~2 weeks. Although being laid off won't have any effect on my plans, I realized that I'd be much more distressed if the layoff was more serious.
I'll start with a timeline of events:
- On May 4, my boss gave me a call to let me know that my replacement had been hired. Sounds shitty right off the bat, but he said I'd be working 'til the end of the month; I didn't mind because I'd be leaving then anyways.
- Friday the 8th, he texted me not to come into work and that we'd talk on Monday. This is more than writing on the wall, as he's expressly told me not to come into work.
- Come Monday, he calls me in the morning to tell me I'm laid off and that I just need to come in to pick up my last check.
In the space of a week, I'd gone from having what amounted to a 4-week notice to not having a job at all. As I said, this wasn't so painful because I already had plans in place. However, it still gave me a ton of insight as to how such an experience could be devastating.
Some things to consider about being laid off if this were a job that I had been dependent on:
- I might not have had money for rent/food/other necessities.
- Needless to say, I would have had to find another job ASAP - which could realistically take as little as a couple weeks all the way up to a few months.
- The mental stress of knowing that I'm a fully capable adult willing to work and yet unable to.
None of these things were concerns for me. I bunk in my parents' house, I can work in a tax office or on a food truck, and I'm already looking forward to working as a teacher. However, I can still say I've been laid off and got a glimpse as to the devastating effects it might have on a person. I'm sure there's a lot more to being laid off that I will (hopefully) never encounter, but it's a shitty experience that makes me really relieved to have 1) parents who support me and 2) plans for my future in place.
