River got laid off from his job on Monday this week. We’re still trying to get our feet under ourselves. No severance pay for him, but one more partial paycheck. Meanwhile, the need to continue to make payments marches on. The house we bought, our first, which seems like just yesterday. The pre-school for our youngest. Food. Utilities. And now, health insurance, all out of pocket.
We’ve been down Layoff Alley before. This time around, it doesn’t feel like such a shock, like it did when River got laid off just three weeks after 9/11. That was bad. The kids were so much younger then—one, two and three years old—and I couldn’t bring in much income at all, although I tried. These days, I’m able to figure out some income-earning opportunities from home, and I have the time and space for it. But health insurance?
River was already scoping out job prospects, because he’d been considering quitting for a while. Trouble is, the local economy doesn’t offer him much. One local company he tried to interview with refused even to have him come in to talk once he revealed his then-current salary. Everyone wants to hire at entry level, looking for young folks with zero to two years’ experience, fresh out of school perhaps. So… eastward, to Boston.
He starts Friday, contracting at a small design shop in Somerville, a two-hour drive east. If the job goes well, maybe it will turn permanent, and we’ll have good health benefits. If the job doesn’t go well, I don’t know what we’ll do. There’s time to figure it out. Best not to think too much, and just take it one day at a time. But in my mind I’m already packing.