What to Do If You Are Laid Off From Work

What to Do If You Are Laid Off From WorkWhat to Do If You Are Laid Off From WorkWhat should you do when you receive a lay-offbedrngnisice? Whats the best way of surviving a layoff? How should you handle being unemployed? If youve lost your job, youre not alone. There are always companies that are cutting jobs or restructuring operations. Its a normal part of conducting business in todays economy. Even when unemployment is low, organizations continue to streamline their workforcethere are industriesthatare losing jobs, andindustries with wage stagnation that are in decline. How can you tell if its going to happen to your job? Before the official notification, rumors ofdownsizingoften run rampant through an office,so that employees might be somewhat prepared for a lay-off announcement. In other cases, the news is a surprise- youre shocked, unpleasantly astonished, and not at all sure whattodo next now that youre unemployed. How to Handle a Lay-Off How should you handle it if youre the recipient of a lay-off notice or if youlose your job without prior notice? First and forefruchtwein, you should check with your company on the benefits youmightbe entitled to when you leave. Its important to be informed about youremployee rights,so you are clear on where you stand when you lose your job. Then, its important tofile for unemployment insuranceand to make sure you have all the bases covered so that you can start a job search. You may, however, be able to turn a layoff into a new career. Heres how to handle unemployment, start a job search, and more advice on what to do when you lose your job. Check Your Benefits If you do have an inkling that theres going to be bad news,be prepared to ask whatbenefits terminated employeesare eligible for. If youve already been laid off and havent been informed aboutthebenefits, call thehumanresources department at your formercompanyor your manager to request information on the status of your benefits Ask aboutseverance pay, acc rued vacation,overtime and sick pay, pension benefits, and eligibility forunemployment insurance. If you lose your job through no fault of your own, and you meettheeligibility requirements, you should be entitled to receive unemployment compensation.Severance packagesmightbe negotiable. You have nothing to lose by asking for more than whats offered.Request information onthecontinuance of health and life insurance benefits.Ifyour employerhasmorethan20 employees,theyaremandated by law to offer health insurance coverage throughCOBRA to terminated employees for at least 18 months. However, it is worth asking if youwouldbe covered for a certain period of time at no cost to you. Health insurance is also available through the governments health insurance marketplaces. Heres information onCOBRA vs. Marketplace (Obamacare) Insurance.Check on options forhandling your 401(k)orcompany pension plan.Ask about outplacement resources- some companies provide job search assistance.Request areference letter for your files. Take Care of the Basics An important task for those unemployed, and for all job seekers, is toplan your job search. Before you can implement the plan, however, you need to take care of the basics. The most critical issue, in most cases, is income. Contact yourstate unemployment officeas soon as you can to determine if you are eligible for unemployment benefits. If you cant make ends meet- and many of us cant- on an unemployment check,considerfreelancing,taking atemporary position, orlining up some gigsto supplement your income. Get Help Dont be proud. Your temporarily reduced circumstancesmightentitle you to food stamps or other government benefits. Remember,you paid for those benefits out of every paycheck youveearned. Your states social services department can inform you what assistance you qualify for. If you are a member of a church, ask if there is any help available. Community organizations often have resources to help the unemployed with food ba skets, donations, and babysitting. Community resources are also availableto help with the mechanics of your job search. Many state employment services and public libraries have internet access as well as access to software and printers tohelpyouproducearesume. They mayalsohave counselors who can provideassistance with writingaresume and cover letter andfindingajob. Heres how toutilize your local librarywhen youre job searching. Assess Your Goals Refocus your energy and use this unexpected windfall of time as an opportunity toreassess your career goalsand to get on trackandfind a new position. Many job seekers have turned aterminationinto a positive experience. A forced departure from a job has often opened a path to a new, more satisfying, and better-paying career that wouldnt have been considered under other circumstances. Start Your Job Search Review these ten steps to find a new job, including where to look for jobs, the top job sites, how to use your connections, how to ace the interview, and how to follow up. How Long it Will Take to Get Hired How long will it take to line up a new position? There isnt an easy answer. If youve got in-demand skills, itmighthappen very quickly. If not, itmight take longer to find a new position. If its taking more time than you thought,dontbediscouraged. There arestrategies you can use to turn your job search aroundeven when nothing seems to be working. Finding the right job can take time, but it will happen. Do yourbest to keep it positivewhile youre looking for the next step on your career path.

11 Quotes About Life From Famous Leaders - The Muse

11 Quotes About Life From Famous Leaders - The Muse11 Quotes About Life From Famous LeadersMost successful people have at least one guiding principle phrases or ideas by which they live and work. These keep you focused. They help you make decisions. They inspire you- or ground you. To help you develop or add to your own guiding principles, weve rounded up some from the most influential leaders around. via Stanford Newsvia Fast Companyvia Business Insidervia AIP Centervia Forbesvia The Wall Street Journalvia Entrepreneurvia Inc.via Fortunevia The Washington Postvia The Muse

Kites May Be Wind Power Solution

Kites May Be Wind Power Solution Kites May Be Wind Power Solution Kites May Be Wind Power SolutionThe wind is up there, right now, blowing continuously and free to all. But harnessing it to make electricity continues to be a costly affair. The typical two megawatt wind turbine has a price tag in the millions. And trying to tap higher, stronger winds with a turbine sends the cost up exponentially.But the cost goes down, and efficiency goes up, when you throw out the tower and replace it with a kite and a bicycle wheel.Id been a kite surfer and a wind surfer, and was brought up sailing and stuff like this, so I knew that quasi-2D structures could take an awful lot of wing loading, says Rod Read, airborne wind energy developer, resident of the windy Isle of Lewis in Scotland, and founder of Windswept and Interesting.Read noticed that most airborne wind solutions out there relied on rigid wing structures. With or without a tower, Anything rigid is going to have that cubic mass scaling pr oblem, he says.Kites, on the other hand, stay cheap at any scale. Read designed a ring-like series of kites that get pulled upand are stabilizedwith a smaller pilot chute. Thanks to the tension of the lines between kite and bike wheel on the ground, the force is efficiently transmitted from on high. Connecting multiple kites with networked lines limits their movement and smooths out their flying.An engineer has used kite science to develop an affordable and scalable wind power system. Image Windswept and InterestingAs theyre smaller wings, they dont have the massive, thick, heavy material requirements of a larger wing. The wing loading on each individual kite is kept to a minimum, but you could have the same wing area. The lines can easily take huge collected loads, says Read. You get a whole heap of lift and thrust from networked kites.While a typical kite at the beach can stay up even while dancing at the edges of the wind, Read naturally wanted his to stay where the wind was stro ngest. He used two hula hoop-like bands between the kites and the wheel to keep the kites moving across the wind with the lines separatedso that he could transmit torsional power. Figuring out why required some investigation.I thought, You can transfer that energy, says Read. Its not done anywhere in mechanics because its not rigid. But if you want a soft structure to transfer torsion, what you have to do is find a way ofkeeping those lines expanded. It turns out that the diameter of the circular wings, the line tension, and their distance between each other is crucial for determining how much torsion the system can hold as well as how much can be taken out.A rotary ground station generator prototype. Image Windswept and InterestingTo store that energy, Read currently uses the battery on his electric bike. I put the bike upside down in the field, tie on the kite to the crank. The kite spins around, charges up the bike. I pack the kite away and thats it, Ive ridden 100 e-bike miles o n the kite. Ive used the bike to boil kettles and charge my phone and charge an inverter.But kites have the potential to power a lot more than one bike, as the networking doesnt end with multiple kites on a single line. Read says they can be tied together in hexagonal arrays over large areas to produce massive amounts of power. And the bonus is you have aggregate stability on your lifters, he says. If a gust were to come through it really reduces the amount of movement one kite will take, itsoftens the impact.And if one kite does get damaged you wont need a crane or a BASE jumper to fix it. A sewing machine will do the trick.Read says his kites are The most scaleable of the airborne wind energy concepts. Could they someday supply all the worlds electricity needs? On the airborne wind energy forums that Read frequents, some think so, imagining globe-spanning networks of kites, funneling power to the earth. If Im off skiing or something I always think Aw, man I could just sling a line between these two mountains and fill this void with kites, says Read. I do get the odd fantasy like that.In the meantime, Read hopes that individual systems will help provide cheap, clean power to those in need. Thats why he keeps his plans open source, even though hes working on what he calls a househusbands budget. Bike technology is super simple and super cheap and available worldwide, so people can replicate that, he says. Thats put a big positive smile on my face, thinking I might go somewhere some day and landsee someone doing this.Michael Abrams is an independent writer. If Im off skiing or something I always think Aw, man I could just sling a line between these two mountains and fill this void with kites.Rod Read, founder, Windswept and Interesting