Herm, a year severance is amazing. You've been given a gift to find something new and exciting. Still sucks, but the one year cushion is amazing. It's actually better that it happened now because you are still young. I bet it'd be a whole different story for you 10 years from now.
I can't imagine what working for 17 years at one place is like. But, it seems like you must have thought you'd be there for life.
Just to echo what C7 mentions above, 1 year of full severance pay (including bennies) is very rare these days. "Make the most of it" etc.
It was being laid off that caused me to take the plunge and open my record store. A lot of times, I gripe about the various downsides of my job... but I'm really lucky to be doing something I love in a time period where I almost certainly would've been let go or laid off had I been working elsewhere.
All of which is to say, think about starting a business. It can end up being more stable & dependable than working for Teh Man. That's not the conventional wisdom, but it's true in my case.
There was an article in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago about how office drones are starting businesses and finding it to be more than they bargained for. It made appreciate what an achievement it is for people like Jonny to create a successful business from scratch and that it damn well better be something you like to do because you're going to do it a lot.
Maybe It???s Time for Plan C
By ALEX WILLIAMS
Published: August 12, 2011
Plan B, it turns out, is a lot harder than it seems. But that hasn???t stopped cubicle captives from fantasizing. In recent years, a wave of white-collar professionals has seized on a moribund job market, a swelling enthusiasm for all things artisanal and the growing sense that work should have meaning to cut ties with the corporate grind and chase second careers as chocolatiers, bed-and-breakfast proprietors and organic farmers.
Indeed, since the dawn of the Great Recession, more Americans have started businesses (565,000 of them a month in 2010) than at any period in the last decade and a half, according to the Kauffman Foundation, which tracks statistics on entrepreneurship in the United States.
The lures are obvious: freedom, fulfillment. The highs can be high. But career switchers have found that going solo comes with its own pitfalls: a steep learning curve, no security, physical exhaustion and emotional meltdowns. The dream job is a ???job??? as much as it is a ???dream.???
???The decision to become an entrepreneur should not be made lightly,??? said Paul Bernard, an executive coach in New York who has advised professionals on starting small businesses. The press, he said, has made heroes out of former investment bankers and lawyers who transformed themselves into successful dog-jewelry designers and cupcake kings. ???But the reality is that, even during boom times, most new businesses fail.???
Many are surprised to find the hours and work grueling.
/**snip**
I was sort of thinking about this too...not to crash anyone's dreams or anything, but there seems to be a bit of economic blindness involved in this decision.
I mean, the macroeconomic conditions that lead to the layoff are not those in which a small independent start-up can necessarily survive.
That being said, those who are passionate about something and have the wherewithal to see it through have obviously found success (i.e. Jonny).
Best of luck, Herm, I'm sure you'll land on your feet.
since you have no wife and children......dude you need to go to Brazil and live it......whores and coke is what you have been missin and if you been workin 17 years your due for fun......start now....all that is left is to die and since you have no wife or kids.....run forrest run
dude I bet you dont pay for girls.....your using a messageboard for advice on life....
start livin boys.....life is too short to be wrapped up in your own shit.....loosen up and have fun is the point!
Joined Jan '04 and has posted 17 times? So you waited 7 years to post this kind of comments? Nice one!
Dude got laid off and you advise him to fly to Brazil to enjoy hookers and coke.
Please wait another seven years before you post your next deep thought, YO.
So.. apparently having a deep knowledge of effect pedals, and psychedelic records are not marketable job skills. How come it feels like my whole life people just want me to be not me. The only way I've honestly found work is I'm good at being something other than who I am. Then it doesn't actually matter to me cause it's not me. I think I've overstretched what I've can be, and would like to focus on being what I am.
So.. apparently having a deep knowledge of effect pedals, and psychedelic records are not marketable job skills. How come it feels like my whole life people just want me to be not me. The only way I've honestly found work is I'm good at being something other than who I am. Then it doesn't actually matter to me cause it's not me. I think I've overstretched what I've can be, and would like to focus on being what I am.
I'm just trying not to be so homeless. Ya know?
- spidey
Maybe start by not signing your name "spidey"? Just a thought.
So.. apparently having a deep knowledge of effect pedals, and psychedelic records are not marketable job skills. How come it feels like my whole life people just want me to be not me. The only way I've honestly found work is I'm good at being something other than who I am. Then it doesn't actually matter to me cause it's not me. I think I've overstretched what I've can be, and would like to focus on being what I am.
So.. apparently having a deep knowledge of effect pedals, and psychedelic records are not marketable job skills. How come it feels like my whole life people just want me to be not me. The only way I've honestly found work is I'm good at being something other than who I am. Then it doesn't actually matter to me cause it's not me. I think I've overstretched what I've can be, and would like to focus on being what I am.
I'm just trying not to be so homeless. Ya know?
- spidey
Maybe start by not signing your name "spidey"? Just a thought.
Hm, I've been doing it so long now maybe my keyboard is broken?
Since my layoff, I joined Murs and tagged along on the Hip Hop & Love Tour. He's been asking me to come along for years but I was in too good of a position at work to take him up on it. It's now day 29 of the show and I've been in 24 cities (currently in Detroit). I'm leaving the tour early to enjoy a free trip to The Bahamas. A good friend of mine won an all-expense paid cruise for two to see a Pitbull concert there. He's recently divorced and has no one else to go with so he invited me. I'm hoping to rejoin the tour after the cruise. It's quite the experience and I'm having a lot of fun. Plus the tour ends in my hometown anyways.
Comments
I can't imagine what working for 17 years at one place is like. But, it seems like you must have thought you'd be there for life.
Just to echo what C7 mentions above, 1 year of full severance pay (including bennies) is very rare these days. "Make the most of it" etc.
I was sort of thinking about this too...not to crash anyone's dreams or anything, but there seems to be a bit of economic blindness involved in this decision.
I mean, the macroeconomic conditions that lead to the layoff are not those in which a small independent start-up can necessarily survive.
That being said, those who are passionate about something and have the wherewithal to see it through have obviously found success (i.e. Jonny).
Best of luck, Herm, I'm sure you'll land on your feet.
That sounds like something a chick would say....
I say many things a chick would say.
Peep.
start livin boys.....life is too short to be wrapped up in your own shit.....loosen up and have fun is the point!
Joined Jan '04 and has posted 17 times? So you waited 7 years to post this kind of comments? Nice one!
Dude got laid off and you advise him to fly to Brazil to enjoy hookers and coke.
Please wait another seven years before you post your next deep thought, YO.
So.. apparently having a deep knowledge of effect pedals, and psychedelic records are not marketable job skills. How come it feels like my whole life people just want me to be not me. The only way I've honestly found work is I'm good at being something other than who I am. Then it doesn't actually matter to me cause it's not me. I think I've overstretched what I've can be, and would like to focus on being what I am.
I'm just trying not to be so homeless. Ya know?
- spidey
Maybe start by not signing your name "spidey"? Just a thought.
Hm, I've been doing it so long now maybe my keyboard is broken?
- diego