How Job Cuts Feel
By Deirdre Bradley
What job
cuts look like isn’t always evident, I can tell you how it feels.
Last year my
husband, Jim, had signed a one-year contract.
I had signed one for eleven months.
Things were looking well. We had
put a fortune into our cottage and were looking forward to paying it off then
figuring how to give it to our children without the government taking a huge
chunk. The alternative would be waiting until
we die and all of our life insurance could pay off any government taxes.
Morbid, I know.
It has been
a year since Jim worked and we are getting increasingly antsy while our savings
dwindle. We had to pay taxes when we dipped into our
savings, and despite that, and Jim not having drawn a paycheck for six months
of 2024, he stills owes income tax. It
really is the middle class who pay for
everything. I don’t consider us middle
class any more, so call us “those who don’t know what they are going to
do in a few months”.
My contract
was cancelled three months in: “sorry to
let you go but your contract is the only thing we can cut from our budget”. I managed to scramble into a new one in
October of last year with a not-for-profit.
It’s a job I love – but it belongs to someone else who is on leave. I work from month to month hoping it
will last until Jim gets another job, or
I get a long enough extension that I can finally, after a year, exhale.
In the first
few months we thought being out of work would be temporary. The
only gaps we had in the past were short, or due to delayed paperwork. We cut back on subscriptions, dining out and
magazines. Birthday parties, Valentine’s
and Easter chocolate were cut. Take out
Friday is a thing of the past.
I am a reasonable cook and I understand eating
at home his healthy, but I do miss spontaneous lunches with my friends and
daughters. And shopping. Today
I returned an impulse buy before even opening it because I knew I didn’t need
it.
Here is
where things get painful for me. I don’t
mind giving up things, cutting the budget and keeping up with that when things
improve. One of our daughters is getting
married in October and I have not been able to contribute to the wedding. I wanted to at least buy her wedding dress or
flowers or cocktails but all I have done is arrange a wedding shower at her
sister’s house. It will be fun with all
of us girls there, but it still makes my heart hurt.
My full knee
replacement went well but the partial on my right knee did not work properly. I need another full knee replacement. I could get one in four months, but I can’t
afford the recovery time. A full
replacement requires and epidural, nerve cutting, a stapled up incision then
physiotherapy. This I don’t mind, but I
can’t take off the time right now because I have no paid leave. I am relying on
weight loss and better shoes to keep the pain at bay.
Perhaps
things would have been different if, when I was younger, I had sought out
permanent employment with a benefits package.
Certainly, staying home with my children and taking time off to care for
my husband after open heart surgery does not matter to the employment world
where gaps on your resume make you look like a job hopper or worse – unreliable. During COVID I worked hard to make sure there
was no gap in my resume. It took six
months for the department I was to work
for to develop their remote plan. In the
interim I wrote and researched four
scripts for a Canadian podcast so I had something on my resume. They are on Spotify so I can listen to them
and feel I accomplished something.
Jim has had
a lot of false starts this past year – a verbal offer that came to nothing, and
a scam job that asked him to pay for equipment (he dropped that one). Now he is renovating a room for a
friend. Thankfully, he has taught
himself many skills. At Queens University, the male engineering
students would pay him to iron their shirts for special occasions. Usually he is in information technology
Yesterday I
reactivated my InstaCart shopper app. I thought trying to make more money would be
better then grinding my teeth. It’s a lot of hustle and doesn’t pay well, but
will help me get out of the funk I am currently in.
When the 25%
tariffs on auto parts came into effect today, I heard about job losses in
Canada. I know how that feels. Losing employment,
no matter what your job status is, is painful, humiliating and causes self
doubt. It would be nice to get a new car.
I don’t need one- the one I have is living in the driveway with a hole
in the exhaust, because I can’t afford to fix it.
Many people
complain our new Prime Minister is going to increase the deficit and throw
money around. I would be fine with him
throwing some money around as long as it lands somewhere that needs our skill
sets.
-30-
Deirdre
Bradley is a flustered writer, mom, wife and temp worker. She has fostered animals for 15 years which
proves she is reliable.
