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rivkaAs some of you already know, Michael lost his job on Friday.
On Wednesday, they announced that they were eliminating the online magazine he worked on, and moving him and his boss to the PR department - where neither of them wanted to be. His new boss in PR was horrified, for some reason, to learn that Michael worked a flextime schedule and spent Thursdays home with Alex. Michael tried to explain that the benefits were mutual, and even had the opportunity to demonstrate it when something went wrong at 5:00. ("No problem - I work until 6:30, and I'll take care of it.")
The new boss said, "Let's both sleep on it, and we'll meet Friday." Friday, he kept Michael busy with projects all day, and was "too busy" himself to meet until 3:00, when he called Michael's former boss in for a meeting to discuss future plans. "Does Michael need to be there?" Former Boss asked. "Nope." Because... Michael had another meeting, with HR.
We're both shocked, of course, but we're keeping our spirits reasonably high. Michael has already been referred to two headhunters, and has drawn up a list of prominent people who know him and his work and are likely to want to help him out. (Mostly folks who go to our church and know Michael from the Board of Trustees. He's the church treasurer.) We're trying to arrange things so that he has two weekdays per week exclusively for job searching - the other three days he'll be full-time with Alex, and doing job search stuff while she naps.
I feel awful about our nanny. We're giving her three weeks of severance pay, and hoping to retain her for one day a week. (She'll be looking to work for someone else part-time, and was optimistic about still being able to give us a day.) But I really feel as though we're leaving her in the lurch. I know she lives paycheck to paycheck. I'm trying not to even think about starting the childcare search all over again when Michael does get another job, because obviously Meaghan will have found another position by then. We've been lucky to have one caregiver for Alex since I went back to work when she was three months old. She's so attached to Meaghan. For Alex, this will be like losing a member of the family. At least we'll still have Meaghan one day a week... for now.
On Wednesday, they announced that they were eliminating the online magazine he worked on, and moving him and his boss to the PR department - where neither of them wanted to be. His new boss in PR was horrified, for some reason, to learn that Michael worked a flextime schedule and spent Thursdays home with Alex. Michael tried to explain that the benefits were mutual, and even had the opportunity to demonstrate it when something went wrong at 5:00. ("No problem - I work until 6:30, and I'll take care of it.")
The new boss said, "Let's both sleep on it, and we'll meet Friday." Friday, he kept Michael busy with projects all day, and was "too busy" himself to meet until 3:00, when he called Michael's former boss in for a meeting to discuss future plans. "Does Michael need to be there?" Former Boss asked. "Nope." Because... Michael had another meeting, with HR.
We're both shocked, of course, but we're keeping our spirits reasonably high. Michael has already been referred to two headhunters, and has drawn up a list of prominent people who know him and his work and are likely to want to help him out. (Mostly folks who go to our church and know Michael from the Board of Trustees. He's the church treasurer.) We're trying to arrange things so that he has two weekdays per week exclusively for job searching - the other three days he'll be full-time with Alex, and doing job search stuff while she naps.
I feel awful about our nanny. We're giving her three weeks of severance pay, and hoping to retain her for one day a week. (She'll be looking to work for someone else part-time, and was optimistic about still being able to give us a day.) But I really feel as though we're leaving her in the lurch. I know she lives paycheck to paycheck. I'm trying not to even think about starting the childcare search all over again when Michael does get another job, because obviously Meaghan will have found another position by then. We've been lucky to have one caregiver for Alex since I went back to work when she was three months old. She's so attached to Meaghan. For Alex, this will be like losing a member of the family. At least we'll still have Meaghan one day a week... for now.
