This diary is a follow up to my July 2013 diary, FMLA: Infants are Cuter than your Ailing Parent and is also inspired by Vet63's excellent diary Please Die Before You turn 50.
Brief summary of previous diary, my 83 year old Mama died on June 2, 2013. I was her sole caretaker and ended up losing my job as a workers' comp. paralegal to a 20 year old inexperienced pregnant coworker. The "transitioning out" was directly related to my missing so much time from work to care for my then ailing parent.
Much has happened since my July 2013 diary. What follows underscores Vet63's observations and the insightful comments left in his diary. In a nutshell, it IS Logan's Run out there in unemployment land if you have the misfortune of being over 50. I am 52. More below the macaroni squiggley.
In early July I was still working for the firm that was "transitioning" me out. My boss told me in May that I had been at this a long time and it was time for me to "hang up my cleats" and when I was ready to return from my doctor's suggested leave of absence, I was to train the 20 year old and start looking for another job. During my leave of absence, my Mama died. My 1st phone call following her death was not to my brothers but to my boss as I was supposed to return to work the following day and obviously that wasn't going to happen.
I did return in mid-June, taking 3 days off subsequently to bury my Mama. After her funeral, my boss gave me 2 weeks with no pressure before having his hired friend contact me to tell me it was time to start actively looking for other employment. So the month of July was spent in training the young inexperienced pregnant coworker and beginning to look for a new job.
The looking for other employment lead me to a church fellowship hall in the tony West End to attend a "Career Builders" group. Career Builders is a networking organization which provides useful tips to the unemployed regarding freshening up their resumes, learning new skills, and otherwise helping the unemployed become employed. My first impression upon walking into the meeting was "Oh, this is Logan's Run". As I surveyed the 25+ attendees, it was clear that NO ONE in attendance was under the age of 50. I was surrounded by well-groomed, older professionals with their lap tops and business cards. I felt a shudder of fear. On appearance alone, not one of these people were sluggards or slouches. My fear grew stronger as we all engaged in our "elevator speeches" about WHO we were professionally and what we as individuals could offer a potential employer. To a person, I was surrounded by intelligent, articulate professionals whose only strike against them was their over-50 age.
I learned a lot from this group about bullet pointing my resume, avoiding cliches, acknowledging the new reality of computer read resumes, our brave new world of short attention spans, using the right paper for said resume, and the necessity of knowing Excel. What was unacknowledged in the 3 meetings I attended was the elephant in the room: You are older and rightly or wrongly that is WHY you're unemployed. No talk of our Logan's Run status. Nope. We were there to be schooled on networking and "how to beat the odds". A "Hunger Games", if you will, for baby boomers.
By early August I found a potential employer on my own. Following 2 interviews and 2 tests - one to test my natural skills and the other to test my personality - not Myers Briggs -I was formally offered the position on September 4 with a start date of October 4. I was thrilled as I had known this attorney for years and very much admired her professional reputation and organizational skills. Hooray!!! No Logan's Run for me!!!! Trouble is that is not how this new employment turned out.
Turns out the job I was offered was not the job I received. I accepted the job at 15K less than I had been making with the understanding that there would be only occasional non-paid overtime and full health insurance benefits to start November 7. Now, I'm a hard worker and wasn't expecting "sunshine, happiness and unicorns", but when I say I was on the receiving end of "bait and switch", well, that's exactly what happened. What followed in terms of my experience has broader societal implications that shed light on the health insurance aspect of employment in the current economy.
By October 23, I had worked 10-15 hours of unpaid OT every week just to keep my head above water. I wasn't alone. Every weekend I was joined by my coworkers, 2 of whom were pregnant. On October 23, it occurred to me that I had not yet been given paperwork to fill out for health insurance so I approached the office manager regarding same. He handed me a print-out with my monthly health insurance quote based SOLELY on my age, remarking, "Wow, THAT's expensive!" He was right about that. The quote for my age group was $900+ per month. Because he was kind of flip in handing me the quote, I started having suspicions that this $900+ a month was perhaps something I was supposed to pay and was NOT paid by the company as I had been lead to believe in my 2 interviews. I asked my 2 pregnant coworkers what the deal was with THEIR health insurance. (One of these young ladies, is my bosse's sister-in-law). To my horror, they both told me matter of factly that they didn't HAVE health insurance because they could not afford it. WTF???!? One of them offered helpfully that the company would pay 20% of the monthly premium. That still left me in $700+ per month land. I felt sick. I knew immediately that I could not afford to keep this job, a job I never would've accepted had it been made clear that I would have to pay for my own health insurance.
On November 4, I quit giving 2 wks. notice. My boss and her husband, the office manager, asked me why I was quitting. They were floored by the news. I point blank told them the health insurance situation was a deal-breaker. They then asked if I'd stay if they paid it. I hesitated because at this point it was a matter of personal integrity and boundaries. My thought process was "How can I accept your belated offer to do what I thought was part of the deal in the 1st place when you don't even offer health insurance to your pregnant sister-in-law?" In that hesitation, they knew my answer was "no deal".
Now here's what's interesting to you my fellow Daily Kossers regarding the personalities involved in the above health care debacle. My boss, her husband - Tea Partiers. Didn't know that for sure until Nov. 5 when husband came to the office with his Cucinelli sticker on his lapel. Much more shocking to me personally was the anti-government rhetoric spouted by my 2 pregnant coworkers - neither of whom have health insurance! The cognitive dissonance it BURNS! I still can't begin to wrap my head around it. On a personal day in, day out, I like these people as people but for the life of me I do not comprehend their politics. I understand the motivation of greedy "job creators" but the 2 young staffers? WTF? You're getting screwed and you still spout anti-government crap? For this employer even infants don't deserve health insurance.
To wrap this up, I am now officially unemployed at age 52. I am single. I have a mortgage payment. I have 2 dogs and a 2006 Mustang sitting in my driveway that I'm still paying off. I am living off the $ my Mama left me from my Daddy's pension. This $ MAY last me 6 months and that's a big maybe. I haven't cashed in my 401K but may end up having to do so.
Here's my current quandry - and I'd like my fellow Kossacks to weigh in. My former boss has offered to COBRA me in to their health insurance policy for a 1 year period. The understanding is, of course, that I pay the monthly premium. The acceptance of my application was not made known to me until late last week. In fact, I had received notices from BCBS that I was uninsured as recently as early last week. Then, lo and behold I got my new health insurance card in today's mail. My monthly premium is $635.97. On it's face, I cannot afford that. I have until December 1 to let my former employer know if I'm in or out. I just don't see how I can do it. I can and plan to let the Mustang go in the Spring when it will sell well. I may short sell the house - don't want to but may have to - what I cannot do is quickly bleed out what little $ I have to live on until I HOPEFULLY find a new job. I haven't checked out ACA yet because being unemployed I don't know that I can afford ACA health insurance even if it's cheaper than $636 a month. Thoughts? Suggestions?
Today would have been my Mama's 84th birthday. I'm still grieving. Yes, it gets better with time but grief can fog your brain, making it a very bad time to make life-altering decisions. I don't have a choice in that matter. The job loss is an ancillary loss to her loss. Thus I am here to ask you all sincerely - what should I do regarding health insurance? Wishing ALL of you a good Thanksgiving surrounded by friends and family and good food. Here's to a better 2014 for us all! Thank you. Dixiedemocrat.