Fessing Up

OK, I guess it's time for me to fess up. I've been avoiding this but I guess here it is:

David quit his job at NXS Technology at the end of September. Basically his boss, Dave, hired a new guy a few weeks before all the drama started. Scott (David's supervisor; just under Dave) assured David his job was not in jeopardy and we relaxed. The new guy had more experience than David but was working another job and was a bit demanding. Then one day Dave calls David into his office and basically says "We've been having customer complaints about you. You need to write me an essay detailing why I should keep you or I am going to fire you. If I decide not to fire you, you can stay but in a probationary state where I will fire you immediately should you screw up in the slightest." Well David brings this "list of complaints" home and it is the biggest bunch of crap I've ever seen in my life. It's stupid stuff like "David took too long" when these people have NO idea what David is doing and how long it is supposed to take. We talked about it and David felt that even if he spent the time writing the essay, Dave would probably fire him anyway and I said it looks better on a resume to quit rather than get fired, so he quit the following day and immediately began searching for a new job. Because of his increased experience we didn't expect it to take long. He got several interviews within the first week. One was with Galileo Processing, which is where Michael Carey works. This job was $40,000 a year and was basically 90% Communications and 10% IT, which is basically David in a nutshell. He interviewed and was one of the top two and right before we were supposed to hear back, the company goes into a hiring freeze. They call David and assure him it is simply a hiring "frost" and that it should be over by the end of the week. David keeps interviewing with other companies but basically tries to hold out for Galileo. After 2-3 weeks of stringing him along, they inform him that the hiring freeze will probably last until January. Go figure. By this time we're pretty desperate so David asks Michael to help him get in the Galileo call center, because at least it was something. Bottom line, they guaranteed Michael they would call David that very morning but they didn't and when Michael went to find out why they said their training class was full. Galileo went from hero to zero in my book and they have shown themselves to be nothing but flaky.

So David went to our bishop and explained what was going on to see if there was anyone in the ward who knew of any job openings. One of our neighbors, Phillip Lundquist, who lives in the building next to us in the complex, approached David with a proposition. Phillip and his wife run an IT business out of their apartment and were thinking of hiring a Marketing Director. Since David has his Communications degree and knowledge of IT, he was a good fit. The good news is that the pay will be good and increase steadily as David makes sales/increases the size of the company. The bad news is that he is on a commission only basis until he reaches 5 sales. (A sale means a $500 sale. The company has options that are $250, $500, $1000, and $1500 depending on the size of the client company, so a $1000 sale=2 sales, etc.) Based on past sales, this could take a few months, however this is based on sales by people who aren't focusing on sales. A little background: The company is called Extrotech. Basically they offer IT support and website design/upkeep for a monthly fee as opposed to other IT companies that charge by the hour. From what David has told me, it is quality work and it's a good "product" they just need someone to come and focus on sales. Other good news is that they need an Office Assistant and they heard that's pretty much what I do, so they have specifially asked for me. When the company gets large enough they will bring me on with a salary of $25,000/year.

This might not have been quite so bad except for the fact that my company, Great Dane Cranes, has been sinking slowly like most companies in this fabulous economy. Because I was hired through and am paid by OfficeTeam, I cost the company over $18/hr, even though I'm only paid $11/hr before taxes. Basically I was becoming too expensive. My boss informed me I had to start working part time, and my hours got cut from 40 to 30 per week. I have tried looking for a second part time job (as has David) but so far no one wants to hire anyone who is taking a two week vacation right at the busiest time of the year. David was even offered a job (albeit a poor paying one) on the spot if he agreed to skip our trip to Ohio. I told him I'd rather be together for the holidays so he turned it down. (It wasn't enough money to be worth it, anyway.) As much as I'm looking forward to our trip and spending the holidays with my family, I am a little worried. We have enough savings to cover our bills for December but if we don't find another way to get some money we will run into problems in January. If nothing else, I'm sure we can find part time jobs in January once our vacation is finished. My job at Great Dane is extremely stable (which I am very grateful for) and I have a promise of a return to full time as well as a raise in the next 3-4 months, but until then things are rough. We have faith that the Lord will take care of us, but we have been cutting back on a lot of things.

As far as Christmas goes, we already bought about half the gifts we need for our Ohio trip, so that is helping us, however we are not sure how we are going to get the rest. We are joining my sibs for several group gifts but I do not know if we will be able to pay our share at Christmas. If Andy especially is willing, we might have to wait and pay him a few months after Christmas. I'm fairly embarrassed because we have been married 3 1/2 years and have never run into financial problems like this before. Watching my mom, brother, and sister go through everything with the house and dealing with my dad, I never felt like we had room to talk because we were much better off than they were. Only in the last few weeks have things really started looking grim. I just wish we could find a way to pay our bills and pay for Christmas. We've already decided to count our airline tickets as our gifts for each other. We were going to still do stockings for each other but I don't know if we'll even be able to do that. Like I said, I've always prided myself on being financially stable, but I felt I should inform people of the situation since it is starting to affect others things and people.

On top of everything else, there is more. As I predicted, Chris and Amber have run into financial problems as well. Amber, who is about 12 weeks pregnant, had to quit her job because they would not allow her less time on her feet even though her doctor told her she needed to. Since her income was about 60% of their family income, they very quickly realized they could not afford their bills. Also, their apartment was making Amber sick (we're suspecting it was a meth lab or something along those lines before they moved in because it smells really awful). It had been making her sick from day one but she had been trying to ignore it and deal. However, with the pregnancy it made her more and more worried. Also, because she lost her job, they lost their medical insurance, and therefore any pregnancy coverage. In order to qualfiy for Medicaid, they can't afford for Amber to get another job. SO, they moved in with us. I will admit it wasn't my favorite solution but David and I both felt strongly that it was something we needed to do. We are charging them $350 a month, which helps them save money and helps us in our situation, but we are not offically charging them until they break the lease at their apartment, which may not be for several more weeks. Basically that money is not helping us anytime in the near future. It's a little more crowded but I've stayed busy enough that I don't really mind it yet. We looked into buying a house but with David's job situation, that was ruled out pretty fast.

So things are looking like they will look up early 2009 but for right now things REALLY suck. If anyone has any ideas of jobs I could do (telecommuting would be really nice because I could work over break if I needed) please let me know. I will post any updates that we come across as we are still looking very hard for anything and everything we can do.

This was a long and depressing post. Ugh. Sorry.