Getting certain phone calls are never easy. The one I got Tuesday (March 31st) wasn't easy. It wasn't easy for my boss to make and it wasn't easy for me to hear. Mark and I have been talking lots about the Coronavirus and COVID-19. It's effecting most of the world. Less than two dozen countries and overseas territories have no confirmed cases. Not only that, but we talk about businesses being effected and people losing their jobs.
He even said that my hours could get cut or worse, get laid off. I assured him that neither of that was happening for a couple of reasons. Even though demos (what I do in Costco for another company) have been suspended until further notice, we have had all this extra work thanks to Costco. Recently we were told we are going to have the opportunity to work full eight hour days. This is good for me because doing demos doesn't give me a lot of hours and doesn't leave me with a lot on my paycheques. I always worry about whether I can pay can rent thus being able to afford other necessities is hard.
I've heard get another job. I've heard get a second job. Don't bother saying that to me. It's not helpful. It's not just me that is in the same situation these days. I might as well just say that the company I work for is laying off all the staff that demos in Costco all over the world. It's not just my boss, supervisors, my co-workers, and myself. It's my boss's boss that is getting laid off as well. I get why they are doing it. But at the same time, I don't know why they are doing it now. I don't know when we will be operational and doing demos again.
When I found out that we were getting laid off, I felt the anxiety. I am not the only one who probably feels this way. Just thinking about it while writing this post and it gets to me. I told Mark, that I just can't do this anymore based on what I said above. Plus it leaves me with nothing to save. If you have never been in this situation, even when the world has been going through something like this in the past, consider yourself lucky. Consider yourself fortunate to not have to through a layoff and not know when you will go back to work. I made a post on Facebook (now deleted) that was talking about maybe I should stop working to collect that $2000 from the Government of Canada. I also said that they should be helping people are who are working and still struggling. Someone commented saying I should be thankful that I was still working. Welp, look at me now.
I don't wish this on anyone. It's one thing to be thankful. Don't get me wrong, I certainly am thankful for these extra 30 days that I got to work. The problem is it can be hard at times to be thankful if you are thinking about the possibility of being laid off. There are people out there like that like that. I wasn't one of those people. I didn't think it was would happen to me. I was going along just working doing what we usually do.
Again, when Mark brought up possibility of reduced hours and even lay off, I wasn't even thinking about that in regards to myself. After I was told I was being laid off, I told him I was in denial after we talked about the chance of me being laid off. Those reasons I gave Mark was me trying to assure him that it wasn't going happen to me.
Those reasons don't matter now. You can get laid off at the blink of an eye. It just adds to the stress and the uncertainty. I told Mark that I can't do this no more. Yes, I am good at what I do, but I just just can't. So I have to find another direction in life and find something else. The why has already been answered throughout what you've read. It's necessary for me to not have worry about things that are necessities and even pay off debt.
I don't know what the future holds after the last day which is April 5th. We were told that Costco might hire some of us temporarily. It would be nice to get a job with Costco, but it needs to be more than temporarily. As you can see, I need more than something temporary. Here is to the future and the unknown that comes along with it.
Stay safe and see you on the inside (a little humor during this time).
