Reading about the layoffs going on now brings me back, in not a good way, to when I was "downsized" from a job of over 20 years where I  planned to stay until I retired.  Although I received severance, my last day of work was Christmas Ever and my family's health insurance was terminated that day, which was before Obama care was enacted. When I read about people receiving 6 months of health coverage. I am jealous.  I paid about $10K, back in those days, for 2 months of COBRA coverage until I got a new job and was able to negotiate  payment of my COBRA for the 6 months until I became eligible for their coverage.  I tried to negotiate for a higher salary to cover the payments, but since it was a job with a pension (I KNOW how lucky I was to get that!), they didn't want to increase my base salary.  I was fortunate to be in a position to negotiate the COBRA payments.  It seems that today's "firees" are getting a better deal, at least in that regard.The one thing I will say is that they should not take being fired personally.  For years, I struggled, wondering what I did wrong to be fired.  A mini-reunion with some others who were terminated in the same culling helped me realize that it had more to do with the high cost of my salary and benefits than with anything else.  Everyone who was fired was on the higher compensated end and we realized that it was purely budgetary.  Lower paid. less productive people remained and that company has sunk downhill in reputation ever since.

Reading about the layoffs going on now brings me back, in not a good way, to when I was "downsized" from a job of over 20 years where I  planned to stay until I retired.  Although I received severance, my last day of work was Christmas Ever and my family's health insurance was terminated that day, which was before Obama care was enacted. When I read about people receiving 6 months of health coverage. I am jealous.  I paid about $10K, back in those days, for 2 months of COBRA coverage until I got a new job and was able to negotiate  payment of my COBRA for the 6 months until I became eligible for their coverage.  I tried to negotiate for a higher salary to cover the payments, but since it was a job with a pension (I KNOW how lucky I was to get that!), they didn't want to increase my base salary.  I was fortunate to be in a position to negotiate the COBRA payments.  It seems that today's "firees" are getting a better deal, at least in that regard.The one thing I will say is that they should not take being fired personally.  For years, I struggled, wondering what I did wrong to be fired.  A mini-reunion with some others who were terminated in the same culling helped me realize that it had more to do with the high cost of my salary and benefits than with anything else.  Everyone who was fired was on the higher compensated end and we realized that it was purely budgetary.  Lower paid. less productive people remained and that company has sunk downhill in reputation ever since.

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