This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michelle Keller, a 58-year-old in Georgia who was laid off from her voice engineer job in April. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I had my dream job as a voice engineer for 15 years. My work-life balance was good, and the job was mostly remote, which allowed me to take in my father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, four years ago.
I would’ve stayed in the job forever. My plan was to work for about 10 more years to pay down our mortgage. Then, at 68, it’d be easy to live off of Social Security and savings.
I was laid off on a Wednesday at the end of April in a massive corporate layoff, and I haven’t found a new job yet.
My layoff was a complete shock
I worked for this company for 20 years, and we went through a number of acquisitions. There were plenty of layoffs, but I’d never been affected by one. I definitely had a false sense of security.
I went to Walmart the day I got laid off to get a laptop. The panic for me to get another job and get us back into our harmonious daily cadence set in quickly.
I’ve applied to a few dozen jobs. I’m a very confident person, but my self-confidence is very low due to the job search.
I placed the lump sum I received in severance in the savings account I share with my husband. On the days I would’ve normally been paid, I transferred my typical paycheck amount to our checking account so I could continue to pay our bills as usual. My husband works part-time, and my father gets Social Security checks.
I don’t want to lose our dream property
My husband’s and my savings will dry up sometime within a month. I have to start working because I can’t lose the dream property we bought three years ago.
We had always wanted to own a piece of land with family members on the property. Our property is very wooded and has a large barn and a small guest house, where a couple who are our family friends live. We have 10 hens, one rooster, a dog, and a cat. My son, daughter, husband, father, and I live in the main home.
Five days after I got laid off, our 26-year-old daughter called to say she was miserable in Kentucky due to the challenges of launching a business and would be moving home. Our son, 28, has always lived with us.
I joke with my husband about how we’re never going to be empty nesters. My dream is to have the whole family living on our property. That’s my legacy; when I’m gone, they’ll have it.
Before we sell this house, we’d probably see what else we could sell, such as vehicles. We haven’t charged our kids rent, but we’ll be asking them to contribute. I might have to take out 401(k) retirement money early with government penalties, which is sickening.
Taking care of things
Since being laid off, there have only been a couple of days early on when I really didn’t want to get out of bed.
I make the bed every morning. Once you’ve done your first job, you’re ready to get more accomplished. I let the chickens out and feed them, and wait for the beautiful eggs that they lay for us.
I’ve always had responsibilities, whether it was caring for the kids or my dad.
My caregiving responsibilities for my father aren’t challenging overall. I just make sure that he takes his medications, drinks plenty of liquids, is provided with meals and snacks, and I drive him to some appointments. My husband and son have played a huge role in my father’s well-being since he’s lived with us.
He has experienced several dementia-related setbacks since April, which now require more time and attention. It only adds to the chaos of it all.
I can’t stand not working
I’m working harder than I’ve worked in years, trying to network and apply for jobs.
I’ve gotten auto-replies saying that they’ve received my application. Occasionally, I get a response saying the position has been filled. Before this, I hadn’t had to do a job interview in decades. Back in the day, you met people in person for it. I recently had an interview over video call.
I’m applying to different positions in telecommunications. As a voice engineer, I created call routing menus that customers would call and worked with internal teams on telecom issues. Uploading recordings like, “Please hold for the next available representative” was commonplace for me.
I’ve had to expand my search
The challenge now is taking my specific role and utilizing the base of my knowledge for another role. I’m trying to stay away from the engineering aspect because I want to use my skills that separate me from engineers. I may end up as a customer service agent, since I know all the tools.
I’ve expanded my job search from fully remote to hybrid. I’m not entertaining part-time jobs, but once panic sets in, who knows? I’d like to get a salary that’s closer to what I was used to, so I can go back to my “normal.”
I don’t know why it’s taking so long, but I’m trying to be patient. I believe my soft skills will certainly find me a position.
How is your job search going? Reach out to this reporter to share your story at mhoff@businessinsider.com.
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