[I still care]

Life is tough. The same thing happened to a friend of mine when Clinton was president - fired the month before he became eligible for a pension, after working for a company 19 years.

There have always been deceitful employers and always will be. And people will get laid off, get disabled, and run into financial trouble - That is why God gives us brains, to prepare and deal for the hard times when they come. And families to give us a hand.

People somehow always seem to think that good times are the natural way of life, and they are entitled to always do well. But the natural law is that nothing stays the same, good or bad, and you better be ready to deal.

[oceanview]

I can't see how, because he could have just taken a 1 year leave of absence to become pension eligible, if he just needed one month. unless you are saying he needed 1 year, 1 month, to qualify.

[oceanview]

sure, fine.

But we are doing our fellow americans a dis-service if we think that there aren't some massive dislocations going on in the job market out there, and that people aren't hurting. because there are, believe me. and this is one area where Bush, in a second term, has to do better. the private sector middle class is the core of the republican party.

[Crusher138]

When I worked for a major electronics retailer years back, it was common practice for them to fire managers who had large bonuses earned, but not paid. There was a corporate rule that if you were not employed by the company at the time of distribution, you could not collect your bonus earned. At the time a store manager would make about $20K a year in salary and $20K to $30K in bonus in July. We use to just dread the last week of June, the end of the fiscal year.

I decided I didn't want to work for a company that does that and went out and got a straight commission sales job where I would get paid what I earned, not what someone decided to give me. Over time I moved up in the company and am now one of the owners.

My wife found herself laid off after the birth of our first child. She could have b & m'd, but instead she took the situation of being stuck at home with her newborn and turned it into a positive. She started an in-home day care and was soon grossing $700+ a week, which was considerably more than she had been making as a retail manager.

Stories like ours are legion. This is a great country where you control your destiny and make your future. Sometimes stuff happens, but you MUST keep your mind open to new possibilities. Maybe you need to get retrained, maybe you need to move, maybe you need to adjust your lifestyle. Start your own business. Change careers to something associated with what you did before, but maybe with a great risk, but a greater chance for reward.

[Lijahsbubbe]

People somehow always seem to think that good times are the natural way of life, and they are entitled to always do well. But the natural law is that nothing stays the same, good or bad, and you better be ready to deal.

Well put and very true.