Being canned.

• Author: Stearns, Judy
• Position: Journal Entry - Unemployment - Column

My last day on the job was a Thursday, print deadline day. It was a week before Thanksgiving, and I had to cram five days of work into the upcoming three-day workweek. The morning was hectic, and when my boss buzzed me, asking me to come to his office, my only thought was. "I hope this meeting doesn't take long." It didn't.

"This is very difficult," he began. "You've been with us for over six years. We've been pleased with your work and the way you fit into the organization." The printer's deadline faded from my mind as what he had just said sank in. "Jeez," I thought, "I'm about it be canned."

My boss explained the structural reorganization that was leaving me jobless: the multimillion-dollar conference center the organization had opened two months before with great expectations, and the ensuing lack of business.

My only victory as I left my boss's office was that I didn't cry and I didn't shake his hand as he wished me well. Happy Thanksgiving to me.

I packed six-and-a-half years of office decorations in fifteen minutes. A friend helped me load up my car. I took the usual route home. My employment and my emotional ties with the staff were over. Or so I thought.

Working at a nonprofit organization, I had no unemployment benefits. This is entirely legal. I would also have no continuing insurance. The COBRA act, a Federal regulation that allows an ex-employee in the private sector to retain insurance coverage for eighteen months after being let go, does not apply to people who work in the nonprofit sector. I not only had to find a way to bring in money, I had to make sure I didn't get sick.

The next day, disbelief and shock helped keep my mind numb and my motivation high. I hit the ground running, called everyone I knew to spread the word that I was looking. I signed up at the job-placement center at my alma mater. By the end of the day, I had made dozens of phone calls and had six resumes in the mail.

By Monday, three days before Thanksgiving, I had a promise of free-lance assignments that would begin in January, and a positive call-back for a full-time position that I would interview for the following week. "This is going to be easy," I thought, and celebrated the holiday with my family.

But the following week, the prospective employer wasn't returning my calls. I kept going, trying to ignore the anger that was turning to grief. Losing a job is like having a loved one the unexpectedly. I missed the people I had worked with. How were...