Knowing Your Rights

I ended up talking to, and receiving references from, a couple of my former coworkers last night. I've known for a long time that lay offs are REALLY bad for company moral, and mine was no different. It was apparently dead quiet in the office yesterday. One of the fellows I talked to, a senior Engineer in his 60's, said that he had lost sleep Wednesday night over the fact they had laid me off, and how they went about doing it. I hate that it's hurting the people I care about at the office; we used to be like a close knit family, and this restructuring that's been happening over the last few months has all but destroyed that.

So at his urging, and at the recommendation of Daisy in yesterday's comments, I looked up and read over the labour laws in Alberta. The severance they gave me, 1 week, was all they were legally required to give me in lieu of notice. I know this doesn't sit well with the senior Eng., because it's customary in our profession to give at least 2 weeks pay, but that's all they were legally required to do.

One thing they are skirting however is that they're required to pay it to me within 3 days of my last day of work. currently they're paying me next week on the regularly scheduled pay day. I could fight them on this for the sake of principle, but to be quite honest I'm not going to. I don't actually gain any benefit having the pay delivered to me a couple days earlier, I don't require the money yet, and I'd like to save myself the headache (I've had one since Wednesday as it is). Knowing that, my respect for the company has dropped a little further though.

I had read through the Employment Standards Code a little while back, which is why I knew that the minimum severance was 1 week when I signed the papers at the office. I didn't know they were required to pay me within 3 days though. It's got me thinking I need to read the acts a little more carefully. For those of you living in Canada, you can find more information on employment legislation here:

British Columbia
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Ontario
Quebec
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
Prince Edward Island
Newfoundland and Labrador
Yukon
Northwest Territories
Nunavut

The modifications to the acts are announced in a Gazette printed twice a month through the Queen's Printer. Every province has it's own Gazette.

Anyway, I'm off to continue the job hunt. Have a good day everyone.

24 Hours

It's now been 24 hours since I found out I was losing my job. Based on preliminary reports it would appear that in fact the world has not come to an abrupt halt, and life is still going on as we speak.

Amazing.

There were obviously some tears as I packed up my office, and the fellow who has (had?) the office across from mine looked like he was choking them back as well. It hit everyone I talked to as a surprise. One of the admin ladies drove me home personally so that I wouldn't have to go home in a taxi (the firing manager had given me a taxi chit). I had a quick bath, got changed into more comfortable clothing, and caught the bus back to the university. After swinging by the Engineering Employment Centre to check if there were job postings (there are), I went to my lab. After that I went home, returned a mitre saw I had borrowed from a friend, and drove over to The Boy's for dinner. We ate BBQ chicken, chatted, had a couple drinks, looked at XKCD comics and SNL skits online, then went to sleep.

You know, if it wasn't for the whole getting laid off part, it was actually a pretty decent day. Well, except the stress related chin breakouts, but what can you do about that?

I need to thank each and everyone who commented yesterday for your show of support. I appreciated it very much, and it did help me deal with the turmoil.

For anyone facing a similar situation, Krystal of Give Me Back My Five Bucks and Moneyville has a post worth checking out for how to survive unemployment:

Anyway, today is my first day of true unemployment. I don't like to jump without seeing my next step, but in this instance I was kind of pushed. So far the landing looks... okay? As a result of some social networking I have a couple leads on places that are hiring right now, so I'll be meeting with people and looking into them shortly. I'm meeting one of my (former) coworkers for coffee today at lunch, so I'll ask about potential references for my job search. Other than that, here is my to do list for the next little bit:

• go to doctor, get prescriptions filled before medical coverage runs out (currently writing from the doctor's office lobby)
• Talk to former employer's HR department about how to take over my insurance coverage before it expires.
• Check into other insurance provider costs, see if I can get a better rate than my former employer's plan.
• Apply for EI.
• Make a (tightened) budget
• Switch mortgage from accelerated biweekly payments to monthly
• Cancel magazine subscriptions, see about lower cost of cell phone plan.
• Polish up my resume.
• Start applying for jobs.

That's my game plan for the next little bit. To those of you who have been in my position, would you add anything to the to do list?