Out of work is something I hope nobody else ever experiences

03/31/08 06:24 PM

The subprime mortgage mess has left a lot of turned up lives in its wake. People who have walked away from their homes and people who have lost their jobs in the financial sector. CNN.com has been running profiles of those people who have lost their jobs in hopes of putting a face on the statistics but I can tell you firsthand that nothing you have ever experienced can prepare you for being laid off from work..NOTHING !

I was laid off from work in the late 90's when the company that I was working for was acquired by another company in the Midwest. I had just moved to Florida and gave up a great job with a consumer electronics company in New Jersey to take the job in Gainesville and I found myself out of work in a town that didn't have many employers. When you lose your job this way you feel worthless and when you send out resumes only to have business colleges turn a cold shoulder to you things can go from bad to worse really quickly.

It took me over 6 months to find another job and I had to relocate back to the Northeast, at my own expense, to take the lateral position. To this day the bitterness is still with me and I have come to the realization that we are nothing more than number on a balance sheet. While CEO's ruin companies and then leave with multimillion dollar packages middle managers, like myself, continue to work and hope that we can gain enough skills to make us employable at other companies.

I went back to school 6 years ago and earned my MBA in Internet Marketing and I continue to stay on top of all the latest trends and skills needed to make me valuable to potential employers. Although at times I can be bitter at "corporate America" I realize that it's a companies job to make money and good returns for investors. That being said American companies still have not learned that one of their greatest assets is its employees. The better you treat these people the more they return the favor in hard and dedicated work.

For those of you reading this BLOG I hope you never experience being out of work. It is a horrible thing to go through and really makes you question your self-worth. There's something wrong with that but that is who we have become today and that alone is sad...