(Previous installment is here.)

It’s been quite the whirlwind since I first started writing about my unemployment journey. Last week, I thought that I would have nothing but time on my hands and be able to chronicle everything that happened to me in minute detail. My experience has been just the opposite – I’m busier than I’ve been in the past few months, and much busier than I’ve been in the past five-odd years.

I’ll say this for my soon-to-be former company (which is, I guess, my former company, as of midnight): They do not mess around. You get notified on a Monday, you have two weeks to get your affairs in order, and the next Friday, you’re out the door. I guess it’s the employment equivalent of ripping off a Band-Aid. In my case, I got ripped off in several ways — because of the Independence Day holiday, which falls on a Saturday this year, and thus will be observed tomorrow, I don’t even get to work or claim my last Friday. Seeing my final paycheck (for a whopping two days of work) on the payroll site was a bit of a downer.

I’ve been the good corporate trooper about the situation thus far, keeping up a brave face to my coworkers and friends, but little pockets of suckage are draining my pool of optimism. In researching the benefits cutoff, I’m basically now in a window of two-to-three weeks where I have no insurance, and no option even to continue my old coverage. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a problem, because after that window, I can get COBRA retroactive to my termination date. But the pharmaceutical benefits also go away tonight, and my 14-year-old daughter kind of neglected to tell me that one of her prescriptions was running out. She needs a refill authorization from her doctor, and getting that today became impossible because she neglected to text her mother this morning when she first noticed she was running low. So she’s just going to have to go without for a couple of weeks, because the prescription’s retail price is unapproachable, and would have been even when I was still employed. (For those who are concerned, hers is not a life threatening condition, but it will make her somewhat harder to live with for the next few weeks.)

I also found out last night that one of my former nemeses was subjected to the same workforce reduction that got me, but a few weeks earlier. Of course, that invites comparison between his situation (not showing up for work for weeks on end while running a side business) and mine (showing up for work pretty much every day, and some nights and weekends, with a distinct lack of side businesses). This is driving me nuts. I need to remember that “comparison invites disappointment,” that his situation wasn’t at all comparable to mine, and that, despite our greatness in this life, our graves will both be dug to the exact same specifications. [1]

The other drag is that I’ve spent some time looking at an entrepreneurial opportunity that would require some upfront investment and a lot of hard work, but that would, I think, be the best move for all of us. However, generating any spousal interest in this alternative is going to be a very tough row to hoe, if the lukewarm reception I’ve gotten from my wife continues. [2] I’m resentful that she’s not more supportive. I want to go in a direction that doesn’t give a large corporation the ability to suddenly, and without warning, pull the rug out from under my life for arbitrary reasons known only to the higher pay grades.

I have been remiss thus far in explaining why I believe my condition is due to Obama and his policies. In my case, I can directly attribute the fact that I no longer have one of my prior jobs to the growth of the federal civilian workforce. I started out five years ago as the manager of more than 40 contractors who provided temporary help to the US government, but as the civilian workforce grew, the call for augmented staff dissipated. When I left that assignment earlier this year, there were only five contractors left working for me, all of whom were on a short-term contract coming to its end. To make matters worse, many of the new federal employees were my former contractors. They simply took off their contractor badges on Friday, came back on Monday with a government badge, and sat at the same desks, doing the same jobs. This transaction was adjudicated by those who are in a position to make such decisions as more cost-effective. But an objective analysis of the numbers reveals that this “cost savings” is in fact a fallacy – as these formerly-temporary contractors are now permanent civilian workers until such time they choose to leave, or die, both of which are statistically more likely than their being downsized or terminated for cause.

I don’t blame my former employees for taking that route. It was, in many cases, their only option to keep a job. But the smug justification that “the taxpayers will save money in the long run” is simply risible. There is a ready alternative explanation: Government civilian employees are perceived to be a natural Democrat constituency, and new hires are immediate targets for recruitment into the government employees union. These facts, coupled with a palpable hostility toward for-profit enterprises, explain the explosive growth of the federal civilian workforce under the Obama administration.

[1] I’m not suicidal, nor entertaining such thoughts, so please do not be troubled. The line about the graves just applied too well for me to pass it up.  8^)

[2] To be sure I was being fair to my wife, I let her read this before posting it. Her fear is not being able to afford insurance during the lean times in a startup. I reassured her that the President was on the case and would make sure we were never without coverage. I don’t think she’s buying it.