The year 2023 started out with a bang! On my first day back at work after the holidays, January 3rd, I was laid off from my job. To make things even worse, it happened via video call on Skype.
For nearly all of 2022, I poured all of my energy into my new tech job for a small company. When I was initially offered the job after several years of self-employment, I grabbed it because the salary was attractive and the job offer came fast. I quickly changed my work lifestyle from one where I got to make the rules to a new one where I was on a strict schedule and had to be reachable and responsive at all times. I was told repeatedly by my boss that I was doing an amazing job and sometimes even praised by the CEO. Although I saw a number of people that I worked with get fired during the year I was employed, I was reassured by my boss that my job was secure and it would not happen to me. He told me I was irreplaceable (Ha!). But then it did happen to me. I was completely shaken because it caught me totally off guard! In retrospect, I should have been better prepared.
So, there I was, back at work on the first actual workday of the new year. Thirty minutes in, I was told I needed to meet my boss on Skype. This was not anything out of the ordinary as this job involved a lot of video calls. My boss was also someone who had become my friend, someone who I genuinely liked and trusted.
Once we were on the call, I learned I was getting let go. I was told that I had been doing a great job and that I was incredibly smart. I had been told the whole time that I had been doing a great job, and this is a job I have been busting my ass for, seriously, for almost a year. Working late quite often, sometimes working on weekends when needed, I even worked on a special project throughout my holiday vacation days. I put in a lot of extra time and effort and often made myself available outside of work hours and on the weekends.
The reason for the demise of my job was unsettling though. In so many words, I was told that because I also prioritized my family, I was not 100% available for them. Reading between the lines, he meant that because I am female and because I have children and a husband with a lot of medical issues, I was not always available for my job, especially outside of work. They needed someone who was available more than I already was. From my viewpoint, the only way that could be possible would be if I were a man who had a woman handling everything for him outside of work.
As you may already be aware (especially if you are female), women power through it all. We do all the things that we need to do and we get them done. We juggle as needed and we just find a way to do it all. Yes, my family is my number one priority! Of course they are. However, I also put everything else I had into my job. I simply cannot imagine a man being let go because he has family obligations. A man juggling family responsibilities with work is often put on a pedestal and admired, while a woman is criticized for not being to handle it all. Gender equality is such bullshit. We still have such a long way to go!
I was given one full day’s notice that I was getting laid off from my job. I learned that the next would be my final one. They weren’t being generous, this was just so that they could get all the important information from me before I left. I received no severance package.
My last day quickly arrived and I chose to do what a lot of us here immediately do upon losing employment here in the US. I filed for unemployment. We all know that unemployment is not great. However, it is supposed to be a safety net for people who lose their jobs. Filing for unemployment turned out to be a wasted effort because nothing ever came from it. I had high hopes that it would be something to fall back on right away, but those false hopes were quickly dashed. This put me in an unexpected position of having to start over completely, and fast.
Not one to overlook the beauty or meaning in an unfortunate situation, I decided that this all must be a sign from above that I am supposed to be on a different path. After a few days of no longer being tethered to my job and on call all the time, I realized how much less stressed I felt. That feeling only became more apparent as time passed.
As any smart, resourceful woman would do, I decided to resort to all my prior knowledge of ways to earn a living. As I mentioned before, I have been self-employed for the past fifteen years. During those fifteen years, I experimented with many ways to earn money. A lot of these are unconventional. However, almost all of these ways have been effective. Being that I have a family to support, it is important to do whatever it takes to pay the bills, put food on the table, and make sure my kids have everything they need. When it comes right down to it, this is what we are all working for.
But then I decided to take it a step further. I thought how much more fun it would be if I wrote about my journey. Surely, I cannot be the only one out there who wants to do anything they can to make money and save money! So that brings me here.
Here at Broke Ass Mom, I try out different ways to make money and save money. Then I write about them so that I can help you do the same! Welcome to my blog. ?
