I Got Fired Today
Okay, it wasn’t actually today. I got fired two weeks ago. But, my boss, my former boss, we’ll call him Frank, decided that since he would like to be given two weeks notice, he’d extend the same courtesy to me. Of course, he first offered to make December 2nd my last day and then decided he’d shorten that to today.
Does it make much difference? I mean other than a couple of weeks salary?
Well, yeah, kind of does.
Insurance. The way that works is that your insurance benefits continue through the last day of the month you are employed. If your last day is November 21, your benefits last through November 30. If your last day is December 2, your benefits last through Dec 31.
My lovely wife works for a medical provider. She will get insurance. We were going to switch to hers in January. Fortunately, me losing my job counts as “life event.” So, her insurance will start December 1. No harm, no foul right?
Again, not really.
We’ve paid our out of pocket maximum on my insurance. That means for December we have no co-pays. No deductible to be met. Her insurance, also has the requirement for meeting the out of pocket maximum. So, for the next month we will need to pay for co-pays, and the deductible. Oh, and those amounts reset in January. So, if I get cancer, insurance will cover it. But, my sciatica? We’re going to pay for a lot of that.
Even another couple of days would have been worth a week. Thursday and Friday are company paid holidays. Had he given me to Wednesday, it would have been as good as giving me to Friday.
Still, I can’t complain too much. Utah is a right to work state. Technically he didn’t have to give me any time at all.
I’ve been fired in worse ways. His exactly statement was “It’s not working out. . .Are you surprised?”
No, I wasn’t. I’ll talk more later this week about why.
In the mean time, what’s next?
I’ve given a lot of thought to that. Writing is coming next. I’ll still look for a full time job with benefits. Our family is pretty well prepared for this setback. We have a storeroom full of food. We’ve paid off all our debts except the house, and that has an absurdly low interest rate.
So, tomorrow I’ll wake up without a place to go. I’ll come down to my home office. I’ll apply for some jobs. I’ll write a short story called “Suicide Ship” to submit to an anthology. And I’ll write another post here about getting fired.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren. Order Miscellany III A Collection of Holiday Short Stories, an anthology including his latest short story, “You Can Call Me Dan” here
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