I got laid off today. One of 9 people who got laid off (in a 30-employee company). Everyone else got a pay cut. Did it matter I was there for 8 years? Well, apparently it did, since 2 others who were there nearly as long were also laid off. Who stayed? The ones with the least time there – probably the lowest paid in each department. Know what pisses me off the most? I had 187 hours of vacation. I never took it. And I didn’t get anything for it. That’s over 4 weeks of time off I should have taken – and didn’t because we were, by management, fought taking any scheduled time off, and was trying to look like a good employee and not take any time off. I’m the fool on that one. Apparently, performance had nothing to do with it. Which – and the bitterness leaks out – what I did for the company and no one else could do or had no idea about, hopefully now they’ll stammer and fumble and fail. An empty hope, I know, but wutev.

I got laid off. Right now, all I care about is keeping the kids oblivious (other than the “why are you home so early?” and subsequent “why aren’t you going to work?”) and keeping the income coming in before I have to tell them why all their channels aren’t working.