I have drafted a comprehensive list of 20 things to do when you are on the verge of being laid off. Do check out the link if interested. I will be glad if you get benefitted by the list.

http://onecentatatime.com/20-things-to-do-before-you-lose-your-job/

Result? mom working a 6-figure salary takes home about the same amount as the nanny. Why not do daycare? because then you also factor in drop off/ pick up times, which for a full time tech worker these days becomes prohibitive. As the kids grow into the preK age, the equation starts to change, but this is what working moms are having to figure out when they go back to work. Yes, there are variations, but it’s still a sobering set of numbers to look at. Enhance these numbers and you get a recession-proof family.

They’re both parents and they’re both adults. No reason they can’t both raise the children AND seek paid employment.

You add a simple profile then employers looking for “talent” can find you.

http://layofftalent.com/

Ie. – electrical and computer engineers may want to make sure they can be found on IEEE.org, etc.

Make sure also that if you are working with a recruiter that the recruiter has a lot of experience in YOUR field. Sure, it helps to work with more than one. However, companies won’t pay recruiter fees in a market like this UNLESS they have really hard positions to fill.

Also, post on Craigslist.com. That is free for companies to search, and make sure you look there. Although it isn’t free in every market any longer for companies to post, the costs range from only $25 to $100 or so (last I checked) so is still cheap for them.

Here are two search engines that search only job postings:
Simplyhired.com and Indeed.com. Make sure you have these in your favorites (neither will pull up Craigslist.com postings though, so you have to go to the site itself).

Just my two cents – I didn’t have time to read all the comments, so I apologize if these things have already been mentioned.

Being a good employee and a good parent aren’t mutually exclusive propositions. Having a life (or wanting one) isn’t a crime. And keeping a job at all costs has a high cost of its own, no matter how crappy the economy.

The best thing to do before you are laid off is to start a flexible side business–and to me, the best one is infopreneuring, because you leverage your own, unique knowledge to make money. This way, if you are laid off, you’ll already have one foot in the entrepreneurial door, and perhaps you can even tell your employer goodbye before they tell you.

Being free can be pretty cheap. Choosing to be underemployed, unemployed, or intermittently self-employed can really cut down on expenses and increase quality of life.

The corporate career track takes a lot of resources.

The reality, especially in this economy is that when anybody other than those government workers talks of work/life balance, it invariably means “I leave the office at 6:30 to have dinner with my family and then work from home for a couple of ours after the kids go to bed.” All fine if you can handle the sleep deprivation (some can), but hard if you actually need the sleep.

The reality is that not everybody can work for government, and all private enterprise is aggressive about the amount of time one is expected to put in. I am aware of someone at a private company only making $40,000 CDN a year gross who was bi***ed out in the annual evaluation for only working 8 hours a day, as the company had recently instituted a policy that everybody who was salaried was to put in 45 hours a week (and these are entry-level white-collar positions). The vast majority of jobs out there are like that, and if a young family with one one earner insists on that person being home by 6:00 sharp and thinks it doesn’t jeopardize the person’s job that way, then that family is stuck in cloud-cuckoo-land.

On the bright side, you end up realizing that the frugal life is the way to go and that the person who needs the least money is the most free. If I hadn’t realized after a while that a six-figure career is a Faustian bargain that is simply not sustainable in the long run, I would never have been able to save half my net income on a regular basis.

My problem with this isn’t the “drop the kids off at school part” but the “be home by 6:00 for dinner” part. It’s a hard economy, your husband is working extra hard at work, you can work extra-hard at home. Think of the single moms who have to do both — it can be done. Like one of the commenters said, it’s like the Christmas Gifts post: it’s an idea of how you can help. Your husband doesn’t have to start a blog, either.

What bothers me is the hint in that comment that Dad should work late hours and Mom should shut her mouth about it. I don’t think that’s necessarily what was meant by it, but it could be read that way.

If the job is forcing him to work late hours, I don’t care how the economy is, the healthiest thing for your children is to look for a new job that respects his work/life balance. If he’s working late hours without pressure from the job, that’s something worth “complaining” about (I’d prefer a friendly discussion).

Your children aren’t going to be young forever — you’ll never get that time with them back, and more importantly, they are never going to get back that time with their dad. They’ll remember how much he was there when they’re older.

The Government calculates unemployment differently now than it did years ago. This has the effect of making the employment discrepancy seem larger than it is. The Government no longer counts people who don’t have a job but aren’t actively seeking one as unemployed as it used to. To compare apples to apples we need to use the unemployment measure called U-6 which counts all unemployed. It is currently 12.5%. See http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/12/prepare-for-depression-level.html for more.

Ultimately: with this advice YMMV. You need to have an idea of what an employer is looking for in your field. If you’re applying for a job stocking shelves you’re boss probably wants to know that you will show up and on time. If you are applying for an office assistant job they want to know you will present a professional appearance. If you are applying for a call center job your boss wants someone who communicates effectively and sounds friendly. The criteria will be different for lawyers, gas station attendants, engineers, bus drivers, nurses, and so forth.

Just like the 34 ideas for Xmas gifts these lists are pick and choose-food for thought. Ultimately there is no question that it’s a good idea to think about layoffs before they hit you, to keep your skills current, to know the way the wind blows and to be ready for change so you’re not blindsided.

Dang it – if that’s the case, why didn’t I think of moving to Boston?

When life becomes a giant exercise in constantly trying not to let someone else turn you into economic cannon fodder, you know what it is to be a wage slave.

Hope you all enjoy your hamster wheels, scurrying yourselves into breakdowns and being pitted against each other in a steel cage match of Corporate Boggle.

Suckers!

(a) fired for betraying the loyalty you owe to your current employer as an implied term of your contract.

(b) If employed in the public sector, you could be fired because you violate a statute, such as the Official Secrets Act (which exists in various guises in nearly every country) or a regulation about publishing while in public service. In the UK, an employee of the National Health Service was fired a couple of years ago for their blog. If memory serves correctly, the same happened to a UK professional fire fighter.

(c) You might be off-base about your industry without knowing it.

(d) You might be seen as indiscreet and generally, a loose cannon.

(e) You rule yourself out for being hired by firms you may have been critical about in your blog, even though your criticism may have been misconceived.

Stupid advice, really. I would go as far as saying that in many professions, you should think long and hard before even having a *personal* blog in which you can be identified.

I think we do have serious times, but still, here’s some interesting food for thought … http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/09/looking-for-a-r.html

Oh, and I love this: “Don’t get laid off in the first place.” Yeah, that’s such excellent advice, when the unemployment rate is as high as it’s been in a quarter-century.

With clueless arrogant morons like the OP at the helm of companies, I can see why the economy is in the toilet.