I know I haven’t been doing a lot with my blog lately. I moved it to a paid site and it has been driving me crazy since then. I’ve had a hard time even getting to where I can make a post lately.
It seems I’m at some sort of crossroads here. I just got laid off from my ‘real’ job. Yeah. I was on vacation in Nicaragua and they (finally) sent me an email. They wanted to know why I was refusing to return their phone calls!
I sent them an email back and told them that they should have known not to call me (besides the fact that we have NEVER done anything over the phone). I worked over last hitch for a month expressly in order to be able to take this vacation and my ‘boss’ (the pool co-ordinator) knew perfectly well I would not be available til at least mid August.
Anyway, we finally made contact on the phone. I was thinking it was probably for bad news and I was right. They called me around 2 am Sunday night so they could tell me I was being laid off. Yeah, nice of them to call me. Kind-of put a bummer on the rest of my vacation. 🙁
According to the company, due to the low price of oil, they have NO MONEY in the budget anymore for anyone in the resource pool. That is where I’ve been assigned since they hired me. I have no idea why they kept me in the pool. In actuality, I was getting more than a little sick of it. Still, it always sucks to be fired (laid off- same thing). Unless they give you a nice severance package, which of course they did not in this case.
I wonder how they plan to cover for all the people they have left when they need time off. That is what we were in the pool to do. They couldn’t really even manage when they DID have people in the pool! They have over a dozen ships they need to keep crewed up and each one has to have 4 DPOs onboard at all times. They only had 2 DPOs in the pool to cover for all those peoples vacations, sick leaves, time off for courses, etc. I know they kept me busy all the time.
Not my problem anymore. I know.
Now, my problem is to figure out what to do with myself. I’ve always worked and I’ve always been lucky enough to have skills that have been in demand. That is no longer the case all the sudden. For months now, I have been watching the news and hearing from friends how jobs have been cut by the thousands. Most of my friends have already been laid off.
I’m pretty sure there will be no work available in my field until the price of oil goes back up and stabilizes and the companies start hiring again. Winter is always slow anyway, so I don’t expect there to be ANYTHING til at least next Spring and maybe not even then.
So. Now what?
It’s hard to click like button when you really don’t like what is going on with the person’s situation. I pray that the new door that opens provides you a more wonderful position of employment.
thank you, I hope so too. I have already been looking, and hoping something opens up, but with so many thousands already in the same boat I think I’ll probably have to wait it out a while.
Start writing those query letters to media outlets, magazines and such related to your industry, pitching articles written from the relatively rare “female perspective” in a male dominated field. You have the outlook, experience and skill sets to monetize some of what you have done over the years. Good luck to you
I like rixlibris suggestion about contacting magazines and other outlets. We all know you can write otherwise we wouldn’t continue to follow you. Think outside the box of what is normal to you and the perfect opportunity will be there. I am sure you have thousands of beautiful pictures from your journeys over the years. You could probably write a coffee table book with just sunsets or sunrises from around the world. Praying that you find something sooner than next spring.
Well, Jill, now you have more time to figure out your blog. I wish you a quick and successful job search!!
After a few weeks resting you will figure it out, I like the suggestions above, good luck in whatever you decide.
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