I spoke with boss today about my wife being laid off and my concerns about decreasing sales at my company. He agreed that things are bad and said there will likely be another reduction in workforce in January or February. Thankfully, he told me that I am a core manager and would be one of the last people let go.

We discussed other areas I can contribute while the product line I manage is in the dumps. I was very encouraged to learn that I have a bit more job security than I had thought, although my boss was careful to say that nothing in this world is guaranteed. If we do have another layoff in the next couple of months, my boss indicated that we may also go to a 4 day work week with a 20% reduction in pay. That would be tough, especially with my wife on unemployment, but it’s still doable and better than the alternative.

Oh, and in other good news, my wife already has a job interview lined up for Thursday. What a blessed day!

My wife was informed this morning that her last day with her company will be December 31st. We were expecting it, but now it is real.

She is already on top of the search for a new job having updated her resume and cover letter last week and requested letters of recommendation. She even applied to a few companies over the weekend and updated her profile on job search websites.

We’ve begun taking a look at were we can dramatically reduce our monthly expenses and have started gathering information on unemployment. My wife has a few vacation days that she will cash in before her last day. More importantly, my wife found out on Friday that she will receive a $3,544 quarterly bonus on 12/15. Thank God for his perfect timing. She also learned that she will receive another quarterly bonus in March, even though she will not be with the company.

With ~$450/week for employment and earning the rare buck or two baby sitting our neighbors child, we shouldn’t have to pull any money from savings for quite some time.

There’s a lot happening right now, I’ll keep you posted.

After returning to work from my business trip, I found out that my company ended up laying off 7 employees (1 more than my manager told me). I was surprised by a couple of the employees chosen for the reduction in force, especially a woman who had been with the company for nearly 20 years and appeared to be a hard worker.

It’s never a good time to be let go, but right before Thanksgiving has to be one of the harder times of the year to lose your job. Many companies operate on a skeleton crew during the holiday season because everyone is on vacation. I have to think this is not an ideal interviewing time, especially with the unemployment rates increasing because of the economic downturn. I hope they are able to find new jobs quickly.

I learned that the employees were given 1 week of severance for each year of employment. Should the worst ever happen to me, it’s comforting to know that I may get the same package. That would be ~7-1/2 weeks of severance for me. I’m going to work my tail off to ensure that it never comes to that though. God willing.