“Better not get fired. In this state you can’t be fired and draw unemployment. It has to be either a layoff or ‘quit for cause’, and the latter takes certain very specific criteria. I believe it is much the same elsewhere.”
Yeah, your right, I think I meant “laid off”. Companies are cutting staff right and left, just be a mediocre employee (not bad so you end up fired for cause) and your likely to get “laid off” and find yourself on the government gravy train.
I have been laid off from the top of the payroll and the bottom. New hires and top hands go first.
My last layoff, I was at the top of the stack, with my work bringing in a third or more of the company's gross revenue. The boss blew a sales call, lost the contract, and because I was also at the top of the payroll, I got the axe.
If prospective employers are paying attention, sometimes the folks who got laid off were among the best employees in their company, but too expensive to keep when the cut came. While mediocre employees can do an adequate job in most circumstances for a better bottom line (because they are cheaper), if you want the guy who can improve efficiency, and has the experience to deal with adverse or unusual circumstances or developments, then quality counts. In the oil industry, that can make the difference between poor to disastrous results and a great well.
I'm going back into the business with my own company now, starting out for the same client I was doing work for when I got laid off--without a middleman.
In the meantime, I have worked for a couple of employers at temporary positions, one good, one not so much, but I never drew out all my unemployment because it just would not pay the bills--despite owing little and cutting our budget in half.
It isn't any gravy train if you have any responsibilities, and at my former pay grade represented an 85% pay cut. Maybe if you own nothing, live in mom's basement, and don't have any kids in your venue it would be OK, but not for me.