November 18, 2010

A Brutal Day

This was the second day of layoff notifications. It hit closer to home and was even more brutal than yesterday.

The person in the cube adjacent to mine was let go. They're experiencing some personal challenges at the moment, so I feel for them even more than most. Two others I didn't work with as closely were also let go.

And, not only was my closest co-worker, who I work with on literally a daily basis and am also personal friends with, let go, but in her case, her last day is tomorrow. I understand why they did that, but it wasn't really necessary. It also means we have 8 hours to figure out all the stuff I might possibly need from her, and as of Monday, my workload doubles. I've been working 14-16 hour days and working on weekends for the last couple of months, so I'm honestly not quite sure how I'm going to fit more in.

I'm being told we're expected to "work harder".

I told R that we're going to spend time this weekend taking a very close look at our budget and "work harder" making cuts so we can boost our savings.

We have a decent savings account, and at the moment I don't plan to look elsewhere. My work is in an emerging niche, and I think there are still a lot of things I can learn in my job. With a few more years of experience, more opportunities may be open to me, and those opportunities may come with a nice salary boost.

So for now, I'm willing to stick it out. But R and I both have corporate jobs, and I don't want to be beholden to corporate America.

I want the option of being able to tell them where to shove it if they expect me to continue working ridiculous numbers of hours with no end in sight, then turn around, walk out the door, and not have to have a second's worth of stress about how we would survive indefinitely if need be.

On completely unrelated notes...

We ordered the pool fence yesterday. Assuming they're able to install it in the timeframe they say they are, our home study visit will be in 2.5 weeks.

I've scheduled our first LIT treatment for Dec. 11, but I'm still playing "should we, should we not?" with the idea of crossing the border.

I've been comfort eating for the past two days. Yesterday's dinner consisted of butter pecan ice cream with chocolate sauce. Today's dinner was garlic parmesan fries with a kicky paprika aioli, pepperoni pizza, and meatball pizza, topped off with more butter pecan ice cream, with an even more generous squeeze of the chocolate sauce bottle. Oh, and did I mention the bag of peanut M&M's I had while still at work?

Meanwhile, I've earned exactly $0 running dollars toward a massage so far.

7 comments:

lastchanceivf said...

Mmmmmmm, the food sounds delish (minus the meat parts)....!

I'm so sorry about your coworker, that is really awful. And also your work load doubling, ugh.

I am so curious as to your field....I've never worked in corporate America, only as a teacher and now in healthcare. Sometimes I realize the sales reps talking to me about drugs make tons more money than I can ever make and it makes me think....

Hang in there!

Libby said...

That really sucks. I thought I had it bad because my good friend/co-worker was recently relocated to a different floor, and I don't have anyone to shoot the breeze with now. I know things are tough out there, so I guess I need to suck it up and be more appreciative of my job :o I already know I wouldn't be willing to do corporate America because my boss is way too flexible with my schedule. Spoiled, I am.

Hope you are able to weather this storm while missing your friends. I would be eating a ton of sugar too.

Sorry too about the tough decision with the LIT. All I hear about the boarder is the scary news stories. Yikes.

Sue said...

I am so sorry about the work stuff. I have no idea how you do it. I worked ridiculous hours in corporate America in NYC in my 20s. I still remember taking a cab home to queens and getting up and crying b/c I thought my car was stolen (um, it was at the train station? remember the cab?). So, it is super stressful. Great idea on boosting the savings account. It is a great stress reliever to to able to say "take this job and shove it" if necessary:-) But, I realy am sorry about your coworkers and the amount of stress you are under.

Great news on the homestudy soon and the fence. I am, however, on the fence about the LIT. In theory, I think I understand it, but something about having to cross a border for treatment makes me really nervous. What does Sch think about it? Did you ask him? They are so weird about immune issues that I am just curious...

Would LOVE to meet up if we are in town at the same time:-)

Sue said...

BTW, I was thinking about my comment the other day and it sounds judgemental about the LIT. I AM NOT at all! I am just ignorant! I was thinking, in my history of infertility, I did IVIg even though I tested negative for immune issues because my crappy RE told me that it MIGHT help. Seriously. Blood transfusion even though we had no evidence it would help. It didn't. Needless to say, I would have done anything in my power to have a baby....so I totally support you in this! I just get nervous about things that some doctors believe in and others don't and you have to go out of the country for. Ugh. Why does it have to be so hard for us?

Anonymous said...

So sorry to hear about the layoffs. It sounds like a really crappy situation between your workload and losing your work friend. My husband was laid off last year and it was really hard. I hope they are able to find something new quickly.

I think saving up is a good plan. I hate feeling trapped in my job, having savings definitely makes it feel not so bad.

Good luck with the LIT decision! And I think that's great about the fence and the homestudy!

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