Tag Archives: unemployment

One Last Work Happy Hour (or I Guess I Really Am Unemployed Now)

Posted on January 31, 2014 | 1 comment

To be perfectly honest, it didn’t hit me that I’m actually unemployed until yesterday. Before then, it just felt like one of our usual breaks from work. But it’s now sinking it that I don’t have a job to go back to in a few weeks.

It’s actually been a while since I was really unemployed. In 2011 I started working at a credit card dispute company. I worked there until I got my telesales job in May of 2012. I’ve had plenty of times that I’ve been out of work, but this time feels so different because I had been working pretty steadily for a while.

Part of the reason the unemployment is starting to sink in is because I only have one more show shift at work. I’m working tonight, and then after that, they might not have any people working a member table at shows anymore. If they do bring it back, it won’t be for a few months. I’m still trying to see if there is another position open for me at my old work, but it’s not looking too good.

Another reason this is all hitting me now is because yesterday was the goodbye happy hour for my boss. Everyone in telesales was invited as well, but I was the only one who could make it.

Everyone else at my work is still pretty much in shock that our entire department was let go. All through happy hour people kept asking me what I knew about the lay offs and what my plan was to do next. I wish I had a plan, but right now, I’m just trying to get my cover letters and resumes in order and start going crazy with applying for jobs.

Happy hour was fun, but it definitely had a somber vibe to it. I think that with so many people being let go at once, everyone is feeling a little insecure about their jobs.

After most of the people left happy hour, there were still a few of us who wanted to hang out and get some dinner. We had a great time just chatting about crazy things that have happened at work and random facts about our lives.

It’s a little sad that most of the people I worked with I didn’t know too well. The trailer that the telesales team was in was a little isolated, but I always tried to make an effort to get to know people. But I have to say that at the dinner part of the happy hour hangout, I got to know my co-workers better than I had in the entire time I worked there.

Eventually, we all had to head home. Everyone else had to be at work early the next morning and I just wanted to get home (it’s a bit drizzly out and my hip was killing me).

Tonight will probably be my final goodbye to my workplace. I know that I’m going to see some of my co-workers again (we are trying to organize a monthly get together even if we are all working in different places), but it does feel like I’m closing a chapter on my life. Hopefully the next chapter just gets better from here.

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Default ThumbnailReadjusting (or I Guess I Forgot What It Felt Like To Work My Work Schedule) Default ThumbnailHappy Hour Inspiration (or Just Having Fun After Work) Default ThumbnailHaving Something To Celebrate (or Another Bodega Happy Hour) Default ThumbnailHappy Hour Party (or Getting To See Co-Workers Again) Default ThumbnailHappy Hour and Happiness (or I’m On Another Blog Now) Default ThumbnailA Happy Hour Celebration (or Looking Forward To Another Wedding)

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff, Work

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Take Two With Day One Of Unemployment (or Doing Some Fun Stuff, Finally!)

Posted on January 29, 2014 | Comments Off on Take Two With Day One Of Unemployment (or Doing Some Fun Stuff, Finally!)

I’m going to share my second attempt at my first day of unemployment, but first, I want to do some updates.

First, an update on my job. It was officially announced yesterday that we are not coming back. They have decided to use an outside company to do telesales, which is what they did before I started working there. I’m hoping to see if there are any other opportunities for me at my current work, but I’m also working hard on finding something elsewhere.

Second, an update on my health. Thanks to everyone who tweeted, Facebooked, or messaged me that they hoped I was ok. I’m almost feeling 100% back to normal now. Those antibiotics really worked quickly!

So after my first day of unemployment was spent in pain or at urgent care, I wanted to try to make my next day be a lot better. I was calling it my do-over first day.

I spent a lot of my morning binge-watching “Veronica Mars” on Amazon Prime. I’m almost done with the second season and I know that I’ll be done with the third season before the movie comes out.

I met a friend of mine for lunch in downtown Culver City. She saw that I posted on Facebook that I was looking for some recommendations of places to go to in New York when I take my trip with my sister-in-law. She used to live in New York, so she had a ton of recommendations! She was going to email me a list, but since she and I are both unemployed right now, I said that we should meet for lunch so she could go over her list with me.

We met at Ugo and they have an awesome lunch menu where pretty much everything is under $7. I had a sandwich and she had some fries (sadly, I forgot to get a picture of the food but it was delicious!).

After eating, we went over the list that she made for me about New York. When she mentioned making me a list, I thought maybe it would be a couple of things in a few categories. No, this is an awesome list that had more suggestions than we’d have time for!

Photo on 1-28-14 at 9.28 PM #3

I know you can’t really read it in that picture, but just know that it’s a full-page list that is double-sided!

After lunch, I had some time to relax and then I went off to work to work a show shift. I personally didn’t think it would be awkward, but since everyone had just found out about us being let go, others thought it was. A couple of people who work there came up to me in shock that we weren’t coming back. I guess I’m not too shocked because I had a warning that this would probably happen about a week ago. I’ll be working 2 more show shifts this week and then I’m not too sure what will happen after that.

All in all, it was a pretty good 2nd try at my first day of unemployment (although can I still call it unemployment when I worked 2 hours at my old job?).

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Travel, Work

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An Interesting Start To My Unemployment (or Trying To Always Look At The Positives)

Posted on January 28, 2014 | Comments Off on An Interesting Start To My Unemployment (or Trying To Always Look At The Positives)

My first official day of unemployment was pretty weird. But this required a bit of going back to say what’s been going on the past few days.

On Thursday this past week, we all found out at work that there is a chance that we will not be returning for the next season. While it wasn’t completely unexpected news, it was still surprising. On Friday, I started to feel a bit off. I joked to my boss that my body was rejecting the idea of the job ending forever. I didn’t feel sick, but I didn’t feel right. Saturday I was doing worse. My stomach was killing me. I took some painkillers but it wasn’t helping. Saturday evening I made a stop to a drugstore to get some medicine my dad recommended before working a show shift. I still felt pretty off, but I made it through the 2 hour shift.

Sunday, I was miserable. I had told my parents all my symptoms (I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but my mom is a retired pediatric nurse and my dad is a retired OB/GYN), and they said if I didn’t get better by the next day, I should call the advice nurse at my hospital and see if I could get a prescription for some antibiotics. Monday was just as bad as Sunday. I called the advice nurse at the hospital and unfortunately they couldn’t give me a prescription over the phone. I ended up going to urgent care and spending about 3 hours at the hospital.

I’m feeling almost completely better now (antibiotics really are the best!). But all through yesterday I kept on thinking that even though I was in pretty bad pain and not really able to do anything, at least I didn’t have to work.

At the hospital, the doctor who saw me offered to write me a note to turn into work (I guess some jobs require doctor’s notes?). I said I didn’t need one since I was out of work. The doctor felt so bad that I lost my job and had to deal with urgent care all within the same day. I told her that it was ok since I would rather be sick at home than at work. She couldn’t believe I was being positive and having a good attitude about it.

I wasn’t going to have a bad attitude about getting sick. This is so minor compared to what many people have to deal with. In the waiting room at urgent care, I was pretty much the healthiest one there (I wore a face mask because so many people had colds or flu-like symptoms). And while I’m not entirely grateful that I’m out of work, I know it could be worse. I do still have some work at my old job and there’s a small chance that they will need us back next season (I’m not depending on that).

I know that I’ve been working hard on focusing on positivity in the past, and I think this weekend proved that it’s starting to pay off and I’m becoming a much more positive person in general in life.

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Posted in Health, Tough Stuff

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Day One Of Unemployment (or Trying To Not Stress Out)

Posted on January 27, 2014 | 1 comment

I’m out of work again for the end of the season. This is now the third time we’ve had this break, but this time it’s different.

We aren’t sure when/if we are returning to work.

Nothing has been communicated with us officially, so I’m still waiting to see for sure what is happening. But just in case, I cleaned out my desk before I left after my last shift on Saturday.

I’m still working some show shifts (I did one after my last shift on Saturday and I have another one tomorrow), so I’m not completely out of work, but those show shifts aren’t enough to live on.

I’m going on unemployment again, but I’m looking hard for a new day job. I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m out of work for too long. And best case scenario, we do get asked to come back to work for the next season and all of this looking is unnecessary.

But this uncertainty has kind of screwed up my plans for this time off. I was planning on taking an improv class (finally). At UCB, they have an intensive class where you go every day for 2 weeks instead of 1 day a week for 8 weeks. But now I don’t want to take that because I don’t want to be unavailable if I get a new job.

And I have my trip in March with my sister-in-law to New York. No matter what, I’m still going on that trip, but I have to remember to mention that to any potential new jobs as a non-negotiable vacation.

I’m still planning on having fun, I just have to be more structured with my time. I’m hoping to make it to Disneyland this week (my pass expires soon and I want to make sure I get a few more visits in before then). And I’ve made plans to see friends who I feel like I haven’t had a chance to see in forever.

I know that I’ve been saying for forever that I want to get a new job. Now, I pretty much think I have to. I don’t have the crutch of my other job anymore to rely on. I am going to see if there is another job at my workplace for me, but I’m not sure there will be one with enough flexibility for me. But it can’t hurt to ask.

I’m really not trying to worry about things, but when everything is up in the air like this, it’s hard not to think of the worst.

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Back To Busy (or It Comes Back So Easily)

Posted on October 23, 2013 | Comments Off on Back To Busy (or It Comes Back So Easily)

Yesterday was my first day back. And man did I fall back into my work pattern quickly.

Not all of my co-workers were there, but it was enough of us to feel like a normal work day. And we really got back to work as if we had never left.

There were some changes we all had to note, but those happen all the time so it wasn’t something that made it feel like we were returning from a break.

And while the day did seem to take forever (it doesn’t help that the sun keeps setting earlier), I did make it through the day. I think the fact that this will be a short week will help me.

Most weeks until after Thanksgiving will be short weeks for me. This week we skipped Monday. Next week, I’m missing Saturday because I have a 5K. The week after that should be a normal week unless something comes up. The week of the 15th my dad is coming to town for a show (and he’s going to check out spin class with me too!). After that I have the film festival. And then it’s Thanksgiving. So that’s only one full 6 day week until Thanksgiving is over.

That will definitely help me feel like I have more time. Even though my days off will be packed with other things, they are all things I chose to do and love (well, maybe I don’t love the 5K but I tolerate it).

I’ve already let my boss know about my crazy schedule, and since I told him in advance he’s cool with it. I just have to make sure I make my work days as productive as possible so I can make enough money to pay for everything.

I know that the next few weeks are going to fly by, but the day-to-day life at work can be a bit slow. So I just need to focus on the big picture and I know that I can make my time at work as efficient and profitable as possible!

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False Start (or My Real Last Day of Unemployment)

Posted on October 22, 2013 | Comments Off on False Start (or My Real Last Day of Unemployment)

So I was supposed to start back at work yesterday. I was all set to go back until Friday evening.

I was working the show shift at work and once the show started, I checked my phone. There was a text message from my agent letting me know that I had an audition for a recurring role on a tv show on Monday. The audition time was at 3pm, kind of in the middle of my shift at work. So I let my boss know that I would try to come in, but since the audition was in the valley and I work in Santa Monica it could be tough with traffic.

My audition went great. It’s hard to tell when you only have a few lines to say, but the people in the room smiled after my read and genuinely seemed to enjoy it. I was done and ready to deal with all the crazy traffic to get back to Santa Monica when my boss called.

I guess nobody else was able to work yesterday either. 2 of my co-workers had to work at another job, one had a doctor’s appointment, and the other showed up but he had to go home sick. So my boss let me know not to come in since he was leaving. And our first official day back was moved to today.

It was a relief not to have to rush back to the other side of town. I was able to take my time driving and run a few errands that I forgot to do over the weekend. I spent last night catching up on my reading and getting to bed at a decent hour so I would be nice and rested for work.

It was a nice surprise to have an extra day off. Even though I was prepared to go back to work, having the audition really made yesterday a more stressful day than I would have liked.

So now I’m off to work today. Of course, I could have another last-minute audition come in or something that prevents me from working the entire shift, but that’s how my life is.

I expect the unexpected.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Work

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The End Again (or Back To The Real World)

Posted on October 18, 2013 | 1 comment

My unemployment is ending again. I technically still have this weekend, but I’m working a show shift tonight and am going to a show for fun on Saturday. So it’s kind of going to feel like a work weekend.

Looking back on this time of unemployment, I’m proud that I got a lot more done than I did last time. I did focus on looking for new work, but there was nothing out there right for me right now. I also worked on seeing if I could be self-employed, and while I think it is possible, I think to be fully self-employed is at least a year or two away.

I also focused on seeing friends and doing fun things. I made it to a bunch of screenings that I wanted to go to.

The big thing that I didn’t get done was start improv class. I really wanted to do that during my time off, but it didn’t fit into my schedule. I was looking at doing one of the intensive classes (where you go through an entire level in 2 weeks instead of 8), but the intensive class was when I thought I might be going home for a visit (that trip ended up being moved to December).

While I didn’t do everything I wanted to do, I was so much more productive with my time this time. It’s a good step for me. I wanted to prove to myself that I could stay motivated even without a set schedule. And while there were some lazy days, a majority of them weren’t. This makes me think that being self-employed is really an option for my future.

I’m making the most of my last weekend of freedom. Besides working and going to the show this weekend, I’ve got a WIF mentor meeting today and a paintball adventure on Saturday (I’m scared how bruised I might be after that).

While I’m not excited to go back to work, I’m excited to start making some money again (I still haven’t gotten anything from the unemployment office). And I’m excited to keep pushing myself to find a new and better job.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Work

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End Of Another Week (or Almost Back To Work)

Posted on October 11, 2013 | Comments Off on End Of Another Week (or Almost Back To Work)

I have one week left of unemployment, although technically tonight I’m working a show shift. I’m really trying to maximize the free time I have left because I don’t know when it will be like this again (hopefully in March like this year).

Yesterday I got a bunch of other errands done that I had been putting off and I had a friend over for happy hour (there will be a recipe coming next week). And today I’m going back to “Let’s Make A Deal” and hopefully I’ll get called up to play this time! I’m going straight to work after the game show, but since it’s a show shift that’s not too bad (I’ll just have to change in my car).

This weekend I’m planning on going to another SAG-AFTRA Film Society screening. And next week I’ve got a few other screenings to go to as well as another Women in Film mentoring meeting. I’m also going to the Patti LuPone at my work on the 19th that I’ve been looking forward to since it was announced!

I’m hoping to get a hike in next week as well. My hip is still bugging me but I’ve only got 2 weeks before I have my next 5K (and that starts my 3 5Ks in 13 days). I know that I want to get stronger and faster before the race. I’d love to continue to bring down my 5K time! I have a goal time in mind, but I don’t have a time frame to get that done. I know that my speed isn’t always in my control so I don’t want to “fail”.

I’m so happy that my last week of unemployment has so much fun stuff in it. I’m sure after a week or two of work I’ll be complaining again about not having any free time. I do know that November shouldn’t be too horrible because I have so much stuff on the weekends already schedule that I will only be working one weekend in the entire month (I’ve already given my boss the heads up)!

I’m hoping to make the most of this last week of freedom. I saw some things on Pinterest about freezer crockpot meals and I’m thinking of taking a day next week to make those recipes. I just have to find a set that has recipes that sounds like things I would enjoy.

Next week, I promise to have my recipe from happy hour as well as my recap of my second attempt of being on “Let’s Make A Deal”!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Work

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Unemployment Honeymoon (or I Need To Be Doing Things!)

Posted on October 8, 2013 | Comments Off on Unemployment Honeymoon (or I Need To Be Doing Things!)

I’ve hit what I feel like is the end of an unemployment honeymoon. It may have something to do with all the issues with unemployment I’ve had this time. I did finally get my letter in the mail that they are processing my claim, and I don’t believe that for any reason it should be rejected.

For a while, it was nice to sleep in late (until 8am sometimes!) and not have to worry about rushing around. But now I’m at a point where I’m working on trying to find things to do. It’s not like I can just go out and work. I am still registered as a substitute teacher but the district I work for hasn’t needed me. And I can’t force auditions to come my way.

So I’ve been working on finding something to do everyday. Sometimes it’s easy like going to Disneyland, but some days it’s tough. Yesterday, I had nothing that had to be done. No errands, no friends to meet up with, nothing.\

I know that I spent way too much time online yesterday. Time flew by while I was reading various news sites and before I knew it, it was the afternoon. So I went for a walk just so I would get out of my house. I’m sure I could have just spent my day without ever stepping outside, but I don’t want to get into that habit. When I’m working, sometimes it’s ok to have a day like that. But when I don’t have something that is forcing me out of the house everyday, I feel like staying inside all day could become a very bad habit.

I know I probably sound really ungrateful right now. There are plenty of people out of work who can’t receive unemployment benefits. At least with that, I should be able to pay all of my bills on time even without getting a paycheck this month. Not everyone can say that.

I went through this same thing last time I was unemployed. The grass is greener on the other side, no matter what side you were on. If only I could find a day job where it feels more like I’m unemployed while still getting a regular paycheck. That would be the ultimate dream!

But for now, I’m trying to be happy that I get to have free time like this and relax for a bit. And maybe I should stagger my errands so I don’t do everything in one day and then don’t have anything I have to do the next day.

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Unemployment Issues (or I Shouldn’t Stay Quiet)

Posted on October 4, 2013 | Comments Off on Unemployment Issues (or I Shouldn’t Stay Quiet)

My last day of work was on September 20th. I was done at 1pm and as soon as I got home, I got on my computer and filed for unemployment. It took about 15 minutes and I got a confirmation online that I had filed. I was supposed to get a paper confirmation of my unemployment status within 10 days.

I never got anything. At first, I thought it was because we had a new mail person for a few days and they never brought anyone the correct mail. But I started to worry.

You can only talk to someone at the unemployment office on the phone between 8am and noon. You can also submit questions online. So I did the form online but I also called.

Everyone must have been calling because for 3 days, I could not get through on the phone! I still hadn’t gotten any other response from the unemployment office so yesterday I knew I needed to keep calling.

Somehow, I got through to somebody around 9am (I made about 100 calls prior to that yesterday with no luck). They looked up my confirmation number and said that I never filed for unemployment.

That’s just ridiculous! I know I filed and that I filled out all the paperwork. I re-filed on the phone yesterday and they let me know that they backdated my filing but I still would not get any paperwork for about 10 days.

So by the time I get my paperwork, I might be back at work. I will still get checks for the weeks that will have passed, but I might not have the money by the time that my rent is due. And I don’t have enough saved right now to pay rent without my unemployment money.

I guess I was thinking too lightly about unemployment. It was so easy last time and there was almost no delay in anything. I thought it would be like this again.

I also should not have just figured it was a mail issue behind me not getting my paperwork. I wish I had spoken up sooner so the delay wouldn’t have been as long.

But as people say, hindsight is 20/20. But I know for the future to take more responsibility for all of this and to speak up sooner if I think that something is wrong.

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