My boyfriend’s mother was laid off recently. It’s sad because she works for a prominent national charity as a fund raiser, and busted her chops to bring in the money in a down market, but even so, they let her go in a mix of layoffs and office politics. This is her second lay off in 2 years. Before that she worked in the mortgage industry for about 5-10 years. (It’s also sad for me because this charity directly funded a friend’s PhD and post-doc research and I’ve worked with them as a volunteer in MD. They do some wonderful things with their donations.)
On one hand I don’t feel bad because she had a great run in the credit bubble and she did very well for herself and she got the fund raising job pretty fast after being laid off the first time (halving her income though). But on the other hand, she’s an older woman and I think it won’t be quite as easy to find another job this time. My perception of the world-at-large is though some economic indicators might be improving, it’s still very hard for people to find work outside of DC.
Boyfriend’s mother has worked very hard her whole life. (Think Slapshot. She nearly ran over the film crew one morning going to the mill b/c she was late for her shift. Ok, maybe this is her third lay off in her life. Thank you BethSteel!) I think it’s devastating to lose your income after a lot of years of financial independence. She’s remarried and her second husband is still working. Through his work he can support both of them, but I think it is still pretty hard for her not to contribute an income into the mix. I don’t care what anyone says, we all have some ego tied into our salaries.
Like me, boyfriend took some money from his mother to buy a home. Since we’re going to have surplus cash flow starting this Autumn, he’s going to be paying her back monthly with interest. It’s not an inconsequential amount, but it won’t cover nearly all of her lost income. We were hoping to save that to buy another place together, but that may take longer than planned.
On the upside, she’s coming this afternoon to help us move into our new place!
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Ooof, sorry to hear she’s been laid off. Even though it’s happened to me, I still hate hearing that it’s still happening to other people. Sort of feel like they should be spared, like I took one for the team. Team what? Dunno!