Today we are talking about our experience with unemployment and handling it as a couple. In 2011 we were both given pink slips, I ultimately got my job back, but my husband was laid off and we had to move quickly and find a new job.
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Things Discussed:
- My husband’s layoff notice in 2011
- My layoff notice in 2010
- Buying our house on the internet
Items Mentioned:
Producer & Guest: Drew Erickson
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Hilary Erickson 0:00
Today on the pulling curls podcast we are talking about unemployment. Now I think that’s probably something that a lot of you have experienced recently. And so we just thought it would be interesting to share our own experience. Today we’re going to talk about what it was like having my husband get laid off what it was like having me get laid off, and we’re going to talk about kind of what we learned and one of the most important things if it ends up happening to you, let’s untangle it. Welcome to the pulling girls podcast where we untangle everything from pregnancy parenting home routines, even some family travel because heavens knows, our lives are tangled. I’m your host, Hilary Erickson. Hi Drew.
Drew Erickson 0:36
Hi.
Hilary Erickson 0:37
so today we’re going to talk a little bit about our unemployment story. And you know, we had solid jobs you were a teacher, right?
Drew Erickson 0:44
We did. We both had jobs that we thought were always going to be in demand and that were pretty stable. We thought we had very little to worry about when we graduated from college and both got these jobs in California. I thought we were set.
Hilary Erickson 0:54
Yeah, and I was a nurse seems like pretty stable, but uh, in 2008 I got laid off. Or, I actually got a notice. I didn’t actually end up getting laid off. But in the Union, I was the lowest ranking member of the Union. And so I would have lost my job. Some people left voluntarily with a stipend, so right, well,
Drew Erickson 1:13
and then I got a reduction in force. Notice a Rif notice or a pink slip three times before we finally left.
Hilary Erickson 1:20
Yeah, so both of- I- both Drew and I had union jobs. So it’s a little bit different. He had to be notified by March 15 each year if they weren’t going to possibly need his services the next year. So in 2011, Drew’s principal took him aside the day before he went to Ireland for 10 days. I don’t know how long you’re in Ireland.
Drew Erickson 1:38
10 days.
Hilary Erickson 1:39
Real sweet of that guy. I mean, it was nice of them, but really send the teacher to Ireland. Anyway, I’m moving on. And he was told that he was going to get a pink slip, but they were sure it would be rescinded, just like all the other ones had and it wouldn’t be a big deal. Right? Right. So Drew goes to Ireland. I’m left at my house. My parents came to help me with the kids and I tried not to freak out. But towards the end of your trip to Ireland, I started to think we were probably going to end up moving.
Drew Erickson 2:05
And I didn’t really feel that way until about maybe a month after I after I came back. And then I started to feel like things were not going to improve. The state was going to continue to do weird things with their budget and what have you, and the district is going to be forced to let me and one other teacher go.
Hilary Erickson 2:22
So I have to say that before I had the feeling like we were probably going to end up moving it was really overwhelming to think about moving but as we got closer to it, and I felt like that suddenly moving seemed like it was doable, which I think is really interesting. And if you’re a person of faith or churchy, I just think that was God like giving me the positivity that I could make it happen. Right, right. This episode of The pulling curls podcast is sponsored by family routines, how to automate your housewife life. ever wish life was more like you pictured it would be before you had kids? being able to spend less time with the mundane tasks and more time Teaching kids the fun and valuable life skills you know they need. Family routines teaches families to simplify daily tasks into routines that help them feel more peace and joy. Save 15% with a coupon code untangled, you can find it at pullingcurls.com in the menu under courses or in this episode’s show notes.
Drew Erickson 3:20
So we started looking for jobs. What do you think about looking for jobs drew? That was it. I think it’s usually painful no matter what kind of job you’re looking for. But it just seemed I was trying to work full time and make things worthwhile for the students that I had at the time. And also at the same time be looking for gainful employment someplace else, to where I was emotionally getting ready to cut ties with where I had been for the last 10 years and open myself to the possibility of working with someplace someplace and some one else for who knows how long
Hilary Erickson 3:53
Yeah, it almost seemed like you were getting a divorce but still in love with that other way. Right? We are getting divorced. That was a metaphor. Everyone’s like Although we are in Coronavirus right now, frankly, so I would have to say that as the spouse It is really hard because drew and I have kind of different styles of attacking things. And I am. Let’s do everything right now all the time. And drew is more of a laid back, like trying to approach things rationally. And that was difficult. Yes. Also, I had more time than he did. Because I was home most of the time. I worked a couple days a week at the hospital, but I was off the other five. So I actually helped a bit with the job hunt. I was the one that found the job where we ended up moving to
Drew Erickson 4:34
Yep. And I feel like ironically on a state board, other than the state that we ended up going to,
Hilary Erickson 4:38
I feel like the thing to remember when your spouse is looking for a job is that you’re attacking that together versus It’s his fault. And that is really hard. It can be really hard. It was hard for me to feel like not to not be mad at him a lot.
Drew Erickson 4:53
Well, and it was hard for me because I knew you were mad but what was I going to be able to do about it? What had I done that got laid off in that job. I hadn’t really done anything. They got me laid off in that job. So that was the difficulty there.
Hilary Erickson 5:06
Yeah, I would just be mad that you weren’t filling out applications or looking hard enough, I guess was mostly what my anger was at that point. Yeah. And I think if you have a spouse that’s unemployed, it that is a valid thing that you just need to be like, I am upset about this, but I need to move on. And I need to try and remain positive with them. So Drew ended up getting a job here in Arizona. Yep. And he really liked the high school when he interviewed at it. Yes, he called me and was like, this is the one and I was like, No, it’s not because the pay was really bad. And he wasn’t even full time. Yeah. But the people that
Drew Erickson 5:40
I interviewed with were very positive. The people that I wanted the assistant principals in particular, he and I had a very close bond. And for a while, it was really good.
Hilary Erickson 5:48
Yeah, well, so rewind, I then. So our plan was for drew to find a job. And then for me to find a nursing job after he found his job. And so he decided we were going to move to Phoenix. And then I had to look for a job. And I have to say that I had a rough time trying to find a job to even get an interview, which is interesting because I was I’d been a labor nurse for 10 years, but it was really hard. And then I would look at Drew, who was super excited about this job that he was moving to, and I wasn’t finding anything. And I, we weren’t having luck finding a house, and I just felt really lost and sad. And I felt like God had taken care of Drew, but he had left me out in the cold. And that’s just kind of how I felt at that time. And I just wanted to say that in case other people have felt that same thing, but I did an interview at the hospital that I ended up taking a job at and it was wonderful. I felt very much at home that people were great. And I remember sitting back in the car and tears welling up because I felt like I had finally found my home and I still love that job. That’s where I still work. It has been extremely flexible through all of the things we’ve done and been through. So it worked out really well for me actually. And even though I felt like I had been left out.
Drew Erickson 6:56
Right, not to mention that that we did eventually find a house I should say you found a house, I looked at a lot of houses. We had one realtor that just took us to a bunch of houses and kind of geared us towards going to a particular area. And we didn’t really want to go to that area. And then you somehow I don’t remember exactly how you got in contact with the people that got us in the house that we’re in. But we ended up basically buying it online. Who does that?
Hilary Erickson 7:19
Yeah. So we were about 30 days from when our so we sold her house in California. We didn’t get an awesome price for it. We got a fine price for it. I was hoping that God would bless us with an amazing sales price on our current house. He didn’t it was fine. It wasn’t great, wouldn’t you say? And we had three sales fall through. Yeah, so things that weren’t that easy. I have to say that I cried probably three or four times every day during that time period. So drew got his layoff notice in March and we moved in late June.
Drew Erickson 7:50
So right before the beginning of July, we drove out of Santa Clara on the 27th of June 2011.
Hilary Erickson 7:57
Yeah, so it really wasn’t that much time. You got to think that was just over three months. But to me, it was just like an eternity of ripping off the band aid of leaving this area that I really liked. Yeah, but the good news is we got a bigger house here in Arizona, which had been one of my least favorite things about living in California. We lived in an 1100 square foot house and we double that when we moved to Arizona, which we made our house is great.
Drew Erickson 8:20
Yeah. And we paid half as much money for what we did for the twice as much house. So that was that was kind of the big benefit there.
Hilary Erickson 8:27
Yeah. So back to purchasing a house. I ended up firing our first realtor. It just wasn’t working out. He wasn’t he was just like telling us to look on MLS that he couldn’t really help us anymore. And I was wondering how he was earning a commission because we weren’t out of we he wasn’t taking us anywhere and he wasn’t showing us listings. So I fired him and I think I was looking at another house that had previously sold and I had called the realtors of that house and that is how I hooked up with a realtors that found us this house and they are local to the area that we wanted to be in And they found us a few. She went and toured one with a friend that I had that lived here. And she gave her honest feedback. And then we just put an offer in on the one that they thought would be the best for us. That is literally how we bought this house. It was on the internet. We saw the pictures, she sent us a little video. Sure, we’ll buy it.
Drew Erickson 9:17
You did end up flying out and taking the walkthrough and look at the house. But by that time, I think we were in contract.
Hilary Erickson 9:23
No, I flew out probably five days later, after we put the offer in and was here for the inspections and looked at the house and then we moved like 10 days after that. Yeah, so everyone at my work was just thought I was insane. I have to say they were like, what are you going to do? If that doesn’t work out? We did have a little bit more leeway with the house that we were selling in California. We had written into the contract that we could stay there. So we probably could have stayed another two weeks in California. But we literally had no plan of where we were going to live right though. I mean, I wouldn’t recommend buying your house on the internet. I like this house and any house in Arizona would have been an upgrade most likely from our California house. So that was And it was in the area that we wanted and in the schools that we wanted. So that’s mostly what we love the most about it. It has a good amount of space and bedrooms and stuff.
Drew Erickson 10:07
In the end, our neighborhood has been fantastic. That’s been one of the biggest blessings I think of living here is just we have great neighbors. We’ve had great neighbors in our not just in our whole neighborhood, but in our cul de sac, in particular, who’ve been very mindful of us have great relationships with them. But I mean, our daughter who’s just now 11 years old, has great relationships, not just with the kids that she’s at the bus stop with, but with the neighbors in general. She’s genuinely looks forward to hanging out with our neighbors and getting to know them.
Hilary Erickson 10:37
Yeah. So I have to say that we just wanted that one particular area to live in based off of schools and Drew’s job, and we definitely found it now. We had such a hard time getting a mortgage though, because drew didn’t have a paycheck, I didn’t have a paycheck and they wouldn’t take our previous paychecks. And so it was really rough to get a mortgage, but we found somebody who did and our realtor hooked us up. So if you’re in a bind, you really need to find the professionals that can really help you. That’s something that I learned in that situation because I think we just had all these mortgage people who really didn’t care about people. And once we found the one that was like, No, we can push this through we, you know, it’s gonna take a little bit more work on my end, but she was able to push it through. But I did feel like every step in the road was like, painful. But in retrospect, it look like it all fell into place, but at the time it should have Yeah, and I don’t want you to think that everything ended up bliss and ever been wonderful, because drew ended up actually leaving that job.
Drew Erickson 11:31
That was after four years.
Hilary Erickson 11:32
Yeah, four years after we moved here. And that will be that will be a podcast for another day. But Drew, what do you think is the biggest thing you learned out of unemployment.
Drew Erickson 11:39
out of unemployment? I would say that one of the things that I learned the most is that you have to have a little bit of faith and perseverance to move on because there will be something that comes along, even if it seems bleak and dismal.
Hilary Erickson 11:53
Yeah, and I had a friend at the time who said God will push you to the edge you just don’t know where your edge is, and I think that that is really good. Drew. And I don’t think that we could have done this if we weren’t people of faith because we had to have faith that something was gonna show up. But it did turn out good in the end. And we’re very happy with where we live, except that it’s starting to get way too hot here in Arizona.
Drew Erickson 12:13
Yes. And I will say we still have very close connections with our friends back in our former area. And when we get a chance to see them, it’s always a really beneficial and happy experience. So we still have ties there. We still go see those people but it has been good for us to be here as well.
Hilary Erickson 12:30
There are times we don’t have a battery on us. We don’t know how hot it is. There are things of Arizona that are not great, but the mortgage rate is fantastic. Well, the mortgage rate would have been the same anywhere or mortgage payment.
Drew Erickson 12:41
Our mortgage payment is awesome, right.
Hilary Erickson 12:43
So if you guys are in the middle of a rough time, I would recommend fighting it together. I think that’s super important. having faith and also staying positive and trying to envision what you want because I I used to write in my journal what I wanted in a house. I wanted it on a cul de sac I wanted a playground, I wanted five bedrooms. And I had all these things. And pretty much all of them got ticked off with the house that we got. But it did take patience in order to get the house. And it did take a giant leap of faith of buying it on the internet, but it worked out and everybody’s story is gonna be a little bit different. Hopefully your story is not buying the house on the internet, because in retrospect, that seems insane.
Drew Erickson 13:21
And you’re not going to find the perfect house or the perfect place off the first go around. You’re gonna have some interesting experiences.
Hilary Erickson 13:29
I hope we do next time.
Drew Erickson 13:30
Well, hopefully, we’ve learned something around this.
Hilary Erickson 13:32
I love the show House Hunters. But every time I look for a house, I want to die instead of keep looking because it’s hard, you know, and House Hunters, I don’t care what their price range is whereas when I’m buying a house, that’s all I care about is what my price ranges so And anyway, anything else to say drew?
Drew Erickson 13:47
No, I think that’s I think that just about covers it. Have faith and realize that you’re doing it together. You’re not just doing it yourself. And that’s something that I’ve tried to learn a little bit better, the longer that we’ve gotten through our lives as a married Couple. So-
Hilary Erickson 14:00
Yeah. Anyway, thanks for joining us on this week’s podcast. Big thanks to our sponsor family routines. I will say that in the middle of this, there were times that I was crying all the time that one of the most important things was trying to keep a routine for our kids because we did have a kid who was heading into junior high, he was heading into sixth grade, and they all still needed a routine, even though I just wanted to lay on my bed and cry all day. And honestly, having the routine with them made it a lot easier to live the rest of my life. So check it out. It’ll be in the show notes. Big thanks to drew for coming on. We love having Mr. pulling curls here in the studio. They can’t see you smile, Drew. I know. That’s when you say thanks for having me, Hilary. Thanks for having me. I’m so glad to be here. Well, you’re welcome Mr. pulling curls, we appreciate you being here. If you like today’s episode, we’d love it if you would share, subscribe and review. We really appreciate it. We drop an episode every Monday and until then, I hope you have a tangle free day!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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