Part of Dan's termination package is 3-month access to a company that trains people in getting their next job. Dan's been attending webinars twice a day on a variety of topics. It's been 19 years since he looked for a job, and things like resumes and interviewing have changed. Then he spent time updating his resume, and he's been searching for the right job and situation. He doesn't want to start until after Carson graduates. We talked about him starting a job earlier and getting an apartment somewhere else and traveling back and forth, but I told him not to let his former company and this layoff also take away his last months of Carson being in high school and watching him do track and other things. It's always been very important to Dan to support his kids in their activities and be there physically to cheer them on. A job can wait longer if we have to move. If he finds a job locally, he can start anytime.
Over a week later, different former coworkers are still calling and texting him each day and night, to keep telling him how shocked and upset everyone is that he was laid off, and it's the topic everyone's talking about. Last night a friend/coworker called and told him everyone's been looking at the list of who was laid off, and some people make sense, but others like Dan make no sense. They were important and well-respected top employees who had been committed to the company for many years. Dan's had good yearly reviews with no indication his job was in jeopardy. Today a friend/coworker called and told him he heard each engineering division had to get rid of a certain dollar amount in salaries, and instead of choosing two junior employees, his new boss chose one senior employee (Dan) whose pay maybe amounted to the two junior employees. We'll never know. But it's good to know he has so many people on his side who feel he was wrongly laid off and miss him. It does no good to dwell on the situation now and get angrier and bitter, except to know he didn't do anything to deserve it - in his opinion and in others' opinions - that he could have done differently, because I think he's been wondering. There's a lot of distrust and worry in the wake of these layoffs.
Last night we looked more into the health insurance options -- paying a ridiculously high monthly price for Cobra which will allow us to keep our insurance and doctors and medicines, or shopping around and paying a lower price for another insurance that may disrupt the doctors and medicines we use and cost more in deductibles and out-of-pocket maximum than our current plan we're used to.
