You are probably doing fine working a normal 8am-5pm job today without any worries of losing it. Then one day you hear that the company you work for is laying off a couple hundred people. The following day reality hits you and you receive notice that your cut is one of the ones being cut. What do you do?
Perhaps this is not normal for you but for some where work is scarse, this is reality. Unemployed is a scary place to be in life because money runs out fast and one cannot survive on unemployment checks, even those do not last as long as you think. This is how a families budget can get hit hard. Can you imagine having a mortgage, car payments, credit card debt, student loan debt, personal loan debt, and no job?
My heart really goes out to those who have recently been unemployed, I know a couple of people close to me who have lost their jobs recently, its a sad situation. Laws continue to be put in place to help those who lose their jobs. Companies are also starting to come out with initiatives to help people as well. I heard recently that some car companies, GM and Ford for sure, are offering to sell you their vehicle and if you lose your job, they will let you skip payments for a certain amount of time or even pay your car payments. Wow, this is really crazy, obviously they are really trying to sell cars at this point. Also it makes the person who is scared of buying a car because of lack of funds want to go out and get it anyway.
Unemployment is starting to change the way we do business with companies. People are finding it harder to negotiate wages as well. Think about it, despite the economy you have been performing well enough to demand a raise but you don’t because there are so many people that are losing jobs that you do not want to ask for more money. People just want to stay employed and many will take a pay cut so they can keep their positions and their income.
I suggest from here forward that you do what you can to manage all unsecured debt. Pay off as much debt as possible so that if your family goes through unemployment you have a plan in place that can still manage your debt and take care of your families needs. You should always have an emergency fund in place, no matter what.
I understand people’s thinking on not asking for a raise. For a year, (since I first thought the economy might really plummet) I took on a ton of extra responsibility at work (hell I created it when it wasn’t there). This year I asked for a huge raise citing numerous things that only I did. The initial response was of course no. I said I understand that you said no, but I feel like that is unacceptable. Long story short, I got the raise and even more job security. Don’t let fear stop you!