A trickle of income

Week four my first check from Unemployment - the one I had been waiting to get for some time - was finally deposited. It came in on Monday, Aug. 24. My second check came in on what appears to be the normal day, Tuesday, Aug. 25.

That was also the week that my COBRA finally kicked in and I was able to refill my prescriptions, which was a huge relief.

But, on the downside, there still doesn't seem to be much job-wise out there in my areas of expertise. And I'm really not looking to end up in a desperation job right now. I'd rather wait and find something suitable rather than going back to being a computer technician or something equally un-fun.

When you get laid off, a lot of people try to be helpful by giving you advice and sending you every job opening they come across - whether it's suitable or not.

I'm open to hearing new things, but I also have a pretty solid plan of my own as to what I will do when something right comes my way. But I try to remember that my friends are just trying to be helpful when the redundant advice starts to weigh me down.

Some of the job openings they've sent me have been useful too. And I don't want to discourage it per se, but let's just say I'd rather snort salt than apply for a job covering the coal and oil industries for a paper in Houston. No offense.

Oddly enough, beyond the daily grind of hunting around the Web for suitable job openings, the biggest morale boost is usually just spending time with friends. Having an upcoming lunch or dinner date with a relative or buddy gives me something to look forward to, other than the hope I'll find a good job soon.

So, at the end of week five, I'm looking forward to seeing my father, aunt and uncle, among other relatives, who are all descending on Northern New Mexico for Bean Day, a festival in the town they grew up in, Wagon Mound.

It should be some much-needed fun.

Fun with snakes

One of the things about being laid off on the last day of a month is that whether they planned it that way or not, your former employer is off the hook for its part of your health insurance for the following month.

Our HR person to her credit has been trying to push forward my COBRA coverage as best she can. But be that as it may, and even though I filled out the paperwork the day I got it and sent it right back with a check, I'm still not covered.

Fortunately I'm not sick right now, but my prescriptions need refilling.

So I went to Smith's last night after calling them in, hoping that after a week and a half or so that the coverage had kicked in.

The result: CLAIM DENIED.

The debate becomes whether to pay what will probably be somewhere around $300 for out of pocket drug costs, or to just try to go without until the coverage kicks in.

The thought of having to fight with Blue Cross Blue Shield to get my money back, especially when I'm still trying to get a payment out of unemployment, is not one I'm particularly keen on.

So for better or worse, the best option at this point seems to be to just let myself run out of some of my meds, unfortuantely including the asthma ones, in a couple days and keep my fingers crossed for the COBRA to start working soon.

My pharmacist said he'd call them for me to harass them, and he's a good guy, so I'm hoping that with his help something will work out before I get to the serious wheezing.

And so the saga continues...

More delays

Well I called unemployment back after 48 hours, and now they tell me there's a computer glitch that isn't letting my claim go through. So now it goes to another supervisor, some tech support people, and maybe there will be some news by the end of the week.

With all the uncertainty out there, it would be nice if this financial stuff were more seamless. But I suppose it's just moving at the general pace of government.

Just remember kids, an object at rest cannot be stopped.

In the meantime I'm still sifting through job leads - sadly none in New Mexico so far - and trying to figure out what my next career might be: PR, technical writing, science teaching or maybe something that just hasn't crossed my mind yet.

It's hard to leave the news biz after 14 years, but realistically, it would be a lot harder to go back, find another gig and then get laid off again.

A realistic estimate

Part of my own problem with getting laid off is the uncertainty associated with it. I tend to like my life to be scheduled so I can get a handle on things like finances, free time and whatever else might come my way.

When I first got the news I had no idea how long, realistically, I could expect to be unemployed.

But my former employer has helped me out a bit in that department, by assigning an independent HR guy to review resumes and talk about job prospects with all us folks that were hit in this round.

I met with him for the first time yesterday and asked that question. The answer? Give or take a little time, and there's no guarantee, but generally it takes about three months to find a new gig if you work at it.

That helps in a way, because it lets me estimate how long my savings will last along with the unemployment.

He also looked over my resume and gave me some helpful information - which will probably change my resume and clip site a little as I start analyzing it. That site, by the way, is www.nmwriter.com.

The other thing I'd like to get a handle on is how much my unemployment payments will actually be. But since I have yet to see one, that hasn't happened.

The waiting is the hardest part

My first week of being unemployed was spent looking around on Web sites like journalismjobs.com and usajobs.gov and tossing my resume around with reckless abandon.

What those and other sites showed me is that there's not a whole hell of a lot out there right now for unemployed journalists - especially ones that are passionate about science.

But I'm pretty much ready for a career change after two layoffs in the past two years anyway. So at this point I'm looking for science writing at a national lab or university or technical writing.

That said, it's still pretty barren out there.

I also decided that I would walk a half hour each day, try to find something creative to occupy my time and try to not get sucked into the malaise of the whole thing.

I've been partially successful, but it's still a bit of an up and down road - and not something that's easy to get used to after pretty much consistently having a job since I was 17.

I also spent time trying to get the unemployment office everything it needed. But it turned out in week 2 that they needed more paperwork - although I had to spend another hour on hold on the phone to find that out.

What they needed, they told me, was a scan of my drivers license and social security card.

I have a social security number, but no card. And they told me my passport was no good for that purpose.

So I rushed off to the social security office in Albuquerque, which I found through the federal Web site at www.ssa.gov.

That led me to my local office in Albuquerque at 4300 Cutler NE.

It takes up to two weeks to get an actual card in the mail - although I got mine in about a week. But in the meantime the office can give you a printout saying that you are who you say you are for the powers that be.

You'll also need to fill out the form here to get your card, if you don't have one: www.ssa.gov/ssnumber/

The social security office generally has long wait times before they see you. But I found out that at about 3 p.m. they expedite all the folks waiting to hand in their paperwork for a replacement card. That was extremely helpful, since I got there at about 2:30 that day.

Once that was done, I had to find a fax machine to get all that stuff to the unemployment office. Who uses faxes anymore anyway?

Fortunately I found one at one of those mailbox places, and sent it off.

That was followed by no confirmation on whether the office received it.

So, by Friday, that meant another long wait to get through on the phone to the office. When I finally got through, they referred me to another number of an actual auditor.

I left a message. No response.

I tried again later in the day and she picked up. She told me they received my fax and things should go through fine.

Today is Monday, August 17, and after filing another weekly claim on Sunday, I noted that it was denied again. So I called in again.

She told me there was another problem - I think the original problem I had in saying no to that question on my first claim. But she talked to somebody there at a nearby desk who told her it was cleared up. And she told me that the fax I sent should make my claim go through in 24-48 hours.

And so I wait.

Where am I again?

Returning home after my surprise layoff I did what most people do in that situation - drank too much.

I didn't really feel like talking to anybody that night, so Saturday morning I work up hungover and confused, but also ready to start dealing with the problem.

The HR manager at The New Mexican had given me some paperwork with a list of things I should do. And she strongly emphasized signing up for unemployment right away, all of which was very helpful.

Being an Internet and computer nerd, I opted for the digital route rather than the telephone or office one. So I went to the New Mexico unemployment Web site at uiclaims.state.nm.us/uiclaim/html/UICHome.html and clicked on the Apply for UI Benefits - New Users link.

This brings you to a form that takes about a half hour to an hour to fill out, and has a few extremely vague options that you are pretty much left on your own to figure out.

The two main ones that threw me for a loop were 1. what unemployed type I was and 2. should I have the government take taxes out of my unemployment.

So, that said, if you were laid off - and there's no category for laid off - what you want is the "Lack of Work - No Recall" option.

The second problem, which I recently learned I did correctly, is that you should have the government take the tax out - because if you're still unemployed come tax time, you'll probably get a nasty bill if you don't.

With that filled out, then you get to file a weekly claim.

With my surprise layoff, and not really understanding my first claim, I answered the question "Did you meet your work search requirements for this week?" honestly, saying no. In retrospect I would have met those requirements on Saturday morning before filing my first weekly claim that Sunday.

Because if you don't meet that obligation, they cut off your unemployment until you call them - which takes at least an hour of waiting on hold if you can get through at all. In New Mexico, by the way, that number is 841-4000.

When I did get through, after the wait, they told me I would be issued a warning and the problem would be taken care of.

More on that in upcoming posts.

But generally, after finishing that part of the process, then I went into filling out COBRA paperwork. And I'm especially thankful that the Obama Administration is subsidizing COBRA right now, so my payments are about the same as I was paying when I was at work.

I finished half of that - the dental part - at home that weekend. The bigger health care coverage part would come in the mail about a week later - and I was also told that my coverage might not kick in until September, although claims I had to pay out of pocket for August would eventually be repaid.

That's a bit scary, considering I'm trying to hold on to as much money as I can while I wait for unemployment to kick in and as I try to get a realistic estimate of how long this will last.

That's still an issue that I'm uncertain of as I launch this blog.

The shock factor

I was laid off on July 31, 2009 - a Friday afternoon at 3 p.m., shortly after coming back from a story brainstorming session with a contact at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

The layoff went something like this:

Everyone in the newsroom had heard rumors of possible furloughs, cutbacks or layoffs in the works, but those rumors also suggested reporters wouldn't be hit. Newsrooms are, however, festering rumor mills and sometimes it's good to take them with a grain of salt.

That Friday morning, the rumors became a little more clear after a memo went out to the staff, saying the equivalent of 12 positions had been cut through consolidation, switching some jobs to part time, closing some positions and layoffs.

The past tense wording of the memo seemed to indicate that the threat had passed, and whatever cuts were to be made had been made. But that turned out to be misleading.

Still, I was surprised when the managing editor came up to me at 3 p.m. and said he wanted to meet with me in the conference room.

In that meeting I was told that Friday was my last day of work, that I should clean out my desk and I was handed a few checks.

I was also told that I wasn't getting booted out of the door or anything, and that the layoff wasn't due to any performance problems, it was just that I was the last reporter hired.

I understand all that, and I had a good time working with the folks up there and don't bear anybody there any particular ill will.

But when, in my general state of shock, I wandered back to my desk to send a final e-mail out to my sources telling them it was nice working with them, I found that even before the powers that be had talked to me, my e-mail had been shut down.

That slap in the face aside however, I suppose the layoff wasn't a big surprise. All newspapers are shrinking and cutting costs, and financially, well, the ad revenue just isn't there anymore.

So I cleared my desk out in about an hour, said a quick goodbye to my friends and tried to not get choked up before driving back home to Albuquerque, where I've lived for the past 16 years.

And that's where this particular story will begin.