Today General Motors filed for bankruptcy. We’ve known this was inevitable for months, but still held out delusional hope. Living with the uncertainty has been rough, trying to figure out all the possibilities, what each might mean to us, which permutation would be better or worse for us.
So now we know for sure that husband’s assembly plant will become idle in September. At least it isn’t being closed outright, but there’s no guarantee that a car will ever again be assembled there. So in reality we’re still in limbo. Should he retire now? Or take unemployment and see what happens next? Will the job he does now continue through September? Or will he be forced to retire in July? When they idle the plant will there be maintenance work for him to do? Or is it best to take the buyout and walk now; leave all that stress behind?
We had planned on having him retire in a couple of years, so this is really just a bit early. So maybe this is the best of times. It’s a major change in our lives and will warrant more discussion, more thought, and a good bit of adjustment for each of us. I’m not working full time and the decision would be easier if I were still working at my previous career. I’m trying not to feel guilty that I left a lucritive career to move into something that pays so little. And that I’m still part-time to boot. Who knew back in 2006 when I made that decision where we’d be today. I’m sure I could go back to that life, but I’m not ready to give up my dream yet.
So. Is this the worst of times? Or the best?
Change Is Hard 
June 2, 2009 at 4:57 am
When I was young, my Dad always told me, “You go to school to get an education, not to get a job”, and “You spend more time at your job, than you do at home, so find one you love.”
You made the right decision pursuing your new career. Life is short – you know that. Unfortunately, Dad’s advice doesn’t always help to pay the bills 🙂
This must be a very difficult time for you and your husband, as well as the whole community. I hope that what may feel like the worst right now, turns into the “best”.
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June 2, 2009 at 6:43 am
We feel your pain. My husband has always worked for companies that supply the auto industry. So he had to take a huge pay cut recently. I guess its better than no job. I hope everything works out. Diana
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June 2, 2009 at 9:01 am
You always have such a good attitude. I really do believe that so much of what happens to us is affected by how we choose to react to it – we can bemoan our fate or look for the bright side, and whichever one we choose affects how we feel about what has happened to us. You’re a great example of someone who makes a choice to see the best in everything, or at least try to. I really appreciate that about you. I wish you both the best as you adjust to this new wrinkle.
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June 2, 2009 at 10:31 am
I agree with Sara. I hope everything does work out for the best. *hugs*
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June 2, 2009 at 6:41 pm
When one door closes another opens……but you do have to be looking for it …….so heres hoping the great things in the future
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June 3, 2009 at 8:33 am
There’s no way you can go back. FORWARD! We all want to keep hearing about the happy librarian. Not the miserable mortgage banker. Perhaps a full-time post in the TC library is now possible. 🙂
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June 3, 2009 at 8:39 am
I think good things always come – just not always in the time or way we expect. I hope the best for you both, whatever that may be. (And I hope that includes you being able to stay in libraries!)
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June 4, 2009 at 10:16 am
“Is this the worst of times? Or the best?”
Yes. Or maybe something else.
You’re probably familiar with the common misperception that the Chinese character for “crisis” is made from the characters for “danger” and “opportunity”. It turns out that the real meanings of the source characters are slightly less obvious: it’s more like the characters for “danger” and “incipient moment” (or “crucial point”). But the idea is still reasonably sound.
While the Chinese people probably don’t respond any less fearfully or anxiously than you and I do when a crisis strikes, like the one you’re going through, Dawn, we can use the concepts in the preceding paragraph as a lens through which to view our situation.
Like your husband (apparently), I’m of an age where retirement is incipient. So far, knock wood (big lump on my head results), I’m still getting my paycheck and my boss seems happy with what I do. I’m one of very, very few people on the planet who do what I do (literally numbered in the single-digit thousands worldwide; literally one when counting my specialties), but my job doesn’t bring revenue in directly — it’s “forward looking” (which most companies aren’t). So I live with the constant “fear” of that pink slip arriving unexpectedly.
What would I do if I got laid off? I dunno. It’s extremely unlikely that, given current economic realities and my age, that I could ever again get a job doing what I do, no matter how unique. And, frankly, I’m too tired to start a new “career” in my current field.
So, maybe it would be time to reinvent myself entirely. Really retire and go sailing for a few years. See if what I learned writing technical books can be used to help me write fiction, or travel books, or something else. Learn to say “Would you like fries with that?” 🙂 Who can say?
I know that I’m not quite ready to voluntarily chuck it all, ’cause I’m dead, flat broke paying for Sheltie Rescue of Utah! But life will go on, even if a little less exotically, if I find myself unemployed. The same goes for you and your husband. And (we all hope) that means that we can still hear about your lives through your blob!
A sailing magazine to which I subscribe (Latitudes and Attitudes) has an fun, if slightly trite, philosophy: Don’t dream your life, live your dream.
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June 16, 2009 at 11:53 am
I’ve fallen behind on my blog reading. It’s so hard when something like this happens to keep the perspective that others have already said along the lines of “to every cloud there is a silver lining.” Sometimes the cloud is damned dark and thick and pouring rain and shooting lightning. Yeah, ok, kicked that metaphor to death. Sometimes when people I know have been forced into situations that they hadn’t planned on…like early retirement.. they’ve discovered that they can actually make it work, just not in the way they had expected, and they have to make some changes, too, but have usually been much happier in the long run. The world works in mysterious ways.
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