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As a 50+ who may be weeks away from being laid off myself, it was frightening.

Don't worry, there's a bunch of FReepers here who will tell you to get off your ass and get another job, move out of state, stop yer whining, yada, yada, yada........Been there myself brother.

My company here in S.E. Michigan closed down 12/06, I was 56 at the time, looked for ANY job throughout 2007 without any luck. Fortunately I was eligible for a pension which I started 12/07...........

I have a friend who lost his job at the G.M. Tech Center in Warren, MI a few years ago. He took a temporary contract job with a company in North Carolina for a few months. In the meantime, he had to sell his house in Shelby Twp. and move back into the Warren area so he could continue to make his mortgage payment. He took a huge loss on that house.

The contract job ended, they offered him full time employment which meant that he would have had to sell his house here, find a house there and move down there. Fortunately for him, he turned it down. That company closed up 8 months later.

He's now working a contract job in Germany...which he absolutely hates. Fortunately, he has SKYPE loaded on his computer so he can talk each evening with his wife here......

Did I mention that my friend Wayne is 63 years old? I wish you all the best my friend, I really do. If you do lose your job, which I sincerely hope doesn't happen, you gotta rely on your family for psychological support. I never had that opportunity so losing my job was extremely difficult for me to cope with........but ultimately I did.

If you need to talk with someone other than your family, please feel free to freepmail me............

Seen that story too many times. I’m a technical guy, too, but considerably younger (42). Ten years ago I saw the writing on the wall - lifetime employment, or even the good chance of getting a new job quickly - was disappearing for tech workers.

I started my own consulting business, had a tight few years, but am not reaping the rewards. Yeah, I traded away 5-6 years of my prime earning years (mid-late 30s) but I now have a career, a large stable of current and past clients, and am the one who signs my own check.

Best thing for you or your friend in Germany to do: get a website, write 3-4 pages of technical/impressive fluff, pump up the 1 page resume mightily, then walk in to any potential employer and tell them you’ll consider working on project X/Y/Z (scour the tech journals for their new projects) for only $100-$200 (choose a number at least double, if not triple a typical salary) per hour. You’d be surprised how many companies will take you VERY seriously, and give you shorter (4-8 week) contracts just because of your experience AND confidence.

But it takes big, brass, clanging, shiny balls to do it! Puff and bravado will get you 90% of the way there, so they will look at your abilities and experience and seal the deal.

Good luck, and if you can ever manage it, never, ever let another man sign your paycheck!

Thanks for the reply. I hope that I can still stay on with my current employer and they’ve allowed me to interview. The company itself is strong and stable. Living in Texas, I feel I’m much better situated than living in Michigan.

But it breaks my heart to see these people who played by the rules and made rational financial decisions based on what they knew before the crash who are now almost unemployable because their last job paid so well and they’ve been out of work for so long that they’ve exhausted every avenue they can think of.

I don’t mind them for feeling abandoned or betrayed. I just hope they vote with the understanding that the current government is failing them by trashing businesses and putting every impediment possible in front of them.

This election needs to be a “refudiation” (thanks Sarah) of the status quo - which is the socialist/marxist style of government the Democrats want to implement.

I really appreciated your post. I get so sick of FReepers saying the “young” deserve this because they voted for 0, or you shouldn’t have gone to college anyway because the trades are better. And then, as you said, there are those who blame the “out of work” for being out of work.

If you’ve won the employment lottery and your job hasn’t been affected then it’s easy to point figures, assign blame. But there are lots of good people in this country (who didn’t vote for 0, nor were “yuppies”)...and they are in a bad way.

Everybody’s been affected one way or another, your house value, your retirement savings, and for many their salaries or jobs. In our house, we managed to keep our jobs, but pay cuts came. My kid is a solid conservative and has a bachelors and masters. He has a job, but is underpaid, as is another guy I know who’s an engineering grad from GaTech. Companies are offering decreased salaries, because they can (supply and demand) and people snatch them up because at least it’s a job.

Anyhoo, just wanted to say thanks for the post...it was something that needed to be said!