Short Version: A few weeks ago, work cut my pay by a few dollars an hour, and also cut my hours in half. Went from not-rich-but-okay to barely-gonna-make-ends-meet. I still (barely) have a job, but as you can imagine, this is kind of stressful. And then just the day before yesterday they cut my hours even further. 8(

In-Detail Version:
I work in the Medical Records department of a hospital. In October, we go from traditional paper records to paperless/electronic. There's been a lot of confusion and uncertainty about it, because this changes the fundamental nature of the job (including going from being open 9-5 weekdays to being open 24/7, for one thing). Everyone's been running around like headless chickens since we started this project early last year.

More importantly, there's so far no way to tell if the new system is going to create new jobs or eliminate old jobs or what, so my boss has to be very, very careful who she hires and how to arrange hours and such.

ENTER THE ECONOMIC CRISIS:

Due to the new health care laws ("Obamacare" or whatever people are calling it), things changed for hospitals. I don't know the details, but I know that patients are now responsible for much less of the cost of hospital visits and stuff. Which means that the hospital is responsible for a lot MORE of the cost.

That's great if you're a patient, but the thing is that hospitals don't have any money, either! 8(

So we're on a shoestring budget. There are four actual employees in this department when there used to be more like fifteen. The gaps are filled in with volunteers who are out of high school for the summer and temps who always seem to quit after we've dumped a week's worth of time on training them. You can't run an office like this, but what can you do? There's just no money.

And even after all the cutting back, they're still in the red. And this is when it comes back to me: since I'm the only one in the department who isn't technically "full-time status," they cut my hours. Whenever the budget isn't where it should be, they just hack another day off of my work week. It's like printing money.

Of course, they've been working me full-time HOURS since January 2010, they just couldn't give me the status/benefits/security of being full-time STATUS. Which is lame by itself.

There isn't anything more I can do. I have six years of clerical experience, and I even have a BA. I've been applying for work all this time, an average of two jobs per day since 2009. I've had a few interviews, and some places even get back to me. But even though I'm really good at following up, none of these "opportunities" seem to be panning out.

I moved back in with my parents in December and already pay minimal rent. It was supposed to be a temporary thing, I was supposed to be saving up and moving out. I don't make enough to save anymore, so moving is right out until a miracle happens.

I applied for partial unemployment, but I do not have high hopes. And even if I get unemployment, that's another stress I don't want to deal with. Have you ever been on unemployment? They really put the screws to you and test your mettle! Can't I just have a job, please? ;_;

This has been a terrible couple of years. This job thing is just the most recent crisis. I'm stressed out and exhausted from having everything yanked out from under me one at a time, and from things just not working out despite how I'm doing everything I ought to be doing. Just because I'm doing better than some of my friends and I'm not on the street (yet) doesn't mean I'm doing alright. I'm about at the end of my rope.

So yeah. If I seem especially crabby these days, this is probably why. Sorry.

I'll never ask for charity, but if you'd like to help by buying my music from my bandcamp site, or commissioning me (I have a lot more time for drawing now!), I will love you forever.

In the meantime, I'm going to keep on keepin' on, applying for jobs right and left. What else is there?