I have not done this before, but I'm hoping it will help. I'm not really a social media person, and still new at this. Yes, I have a Facebook account but never used this site. I mainly use FB to keep up with friends and family and have not ever tried to get followers. I don't even want a lot of followers on FB.
So first of all, the title "Under and Out" stands for Under employed and Out of work. I am the Under employed. I have a degree in Elementary Education. I graduated with a Cumma Sum Laude. I had a 4.0 with several education accreditation. But due to the state of the economy and the state I live in, there is just no work for teachers. The whole market is glutted. Didn't matter what my grades where, getting a teaching job here is all about Who you know, not What you know. So I have been working for the last few years as a part time cashier. I make about $180 a week.
I was sad, but my husband had a good job, our bills were paid, and we had a little money left over every month so I wasn't too worried. But then on Feb. 28 he lost his job. So my husband is the "Out" as in "Out of work." His former boss is a complete and utter twit. Of course "twit" is not the word I have been recently calling him. But I want to keep this blog fairly PG. First, Twit, (I think that is what I will refer to my husband's former boss as) begged my husband to come and work for his small start-up business for years. But my husband was reluctant to leave a good paying job with benefits at a fairly good size company for a job making the same about of money at a start up business with no benefits.
But then the economy tanked at the company he was working for started to down size. Well my husband job was ok for the first year or so, he was a "tech supervisor" an managed the repair shop for a retail company and paid salary. Then after a few years into the bad economy the company he was at decided to change his job title to a "sales manager" and his salary would be almost entirely commission based. But his job duties would be the same.
This would not have been so bad if he actually could spend time on the sales floor. But his job duties required him to be in the tech shop so he was not able to really make any money so he left that job and took the job with Twit.
Things did not start off well. Twit had very radical religious and political ideals and was constantly trying to engage my hubby into conversations of that type. Which made my husband highly uncomfortable. He did not want to discuss religion or politics with his boss, particularly since my husband's beliefs were almost 180 degree difference from his boss's. Then he started getting the impression that his employment was not going to be long term; that he was just hired to get things going and off the ground. This turned out to be the case. Then Twit's nephew came to work at the company and things just went down hill.
On Feb. 28 Twit asked my husband to have the software they were using to do something that it would just not do. My husband said the software does not work that way, and it had it's limitation and he would find another way to get the job done. Twit said that wasn't good enough and to get out. Just leave and not come back.
So since then things have been very, very scary. And emotionally things have been difficult to adjust too. We have two teenage children, one who is autistic. The kids are holding up well, and my husband is doing his best and I'm trying to be a good wife and cheer-leader and keep up every body's spirits but damn, it is hard at times.
We had a little money left over--but car repairs did take a chunk out of that. Plus while my husband's car is still running he is going to need a new timing chain soon. A $500 repair. And of course since he lost his job the microwave has died, the washer is on the fritz and our cat is sick. None of which we can afford to take care of.
We can live without the microwave, and friends are letting us use their washer, I am trying to find a vet or agency who will help us with the kitty. But these are things that usually we could take care of. But not having the money now--oh god it's stressful.
I try to keep a brave face on, but sometimes I just want to sit down and cry. I don't dare, though. I did once, but it upset my husband. So I don't know what to do. I am hoping that writing about it all will help me sort out my emotions and give me an outlet for it all. So that is what is happening and I will write more latter.
