Hard to be an adult!

I have worked for fourteen years as a cashier at Walmart.I was recently fired.  I will spare you the details, but it was for two totally different mistakes I may or may not have made (they refused to show me the video)  that in the past I never would have been fired over.  Last I heard 18 associates including 2 great managers were fired in February.  I don't deny the mistakes I made, but it is interesting every person that got the ax was a long time full time associate that got benefits.  This blow has hit me hard because I'm a bit of an A type person.  I work hard, rarely ever stood around, trained many cashiers, helped out with lots of projects above and beyond my job, worked money center and customer service to help out even though those  positions have a higher pay grade.  Customers  and even some people I work with were always telling me I was the best cashier Walmart had.  I tried not to let this go to my head, but I had confidence and felt proud.  I have always said my job was so easy a monkey could do it, but darn it I tried to be the best damn monkey I could be.  Anyway I'm feeling very lost at the moment.  My family has been wonderful helping me morally and financially.  We will be ok.  I was amazed and humbled by the overwhelming support I received from the people I work with and the regular customers.  I guess that is the silver lining.  I have been very unhappy at Walmart the past 5 years, but didn't look for a different job because I provided insurance for my family.  Because of this lots of people are telling me this is a blessing in disguise.  Eventually I may see it that way, but at the moment I see a 51 year old over weight woman with a high school diploma, who just got fired. I really don't want to go back to retail, working crummy hours, and every holiday for lousy pay and no security.  It's what I'm qualified for.  I don't know what to do.  It's just one of those times in life that it just sucks to be an adult.

That's a hard thing to deal with.
I encourage you to look into Californias expanded Medicade.
It might allow you to take a job that doesn't come with benefits, but has better pay.
It certainly helped my family through some tough times.
Be sure to consider all the things you do outside of paid work when you look at your qualifications.
I have no doubt you have mastered a lot of skills, given the way you approached your cashiers job.
Pride in a job well-done, whatever the job might be, sharpens ones skills.

Best wishes to you and yours as you face this challenge.

They could have at least laid you off or given you the chance to quit, so that it would be easier for you to apply for the next job. I guess they view the layoff in Feb to mid March as them giving you a chance to quit, find another job, but they could have been more explicit.

so sorry Jen!

Can you apply for unemployment?
...or if you feel their action was unfair, maybe report it to someone?

The timing is awful and somewhat suspicious I think.

Thank you everyone.  I have applied for unemployment, it hasn't come through yet, but I hope soon.  If I do nothing else next week I will apply for some kind of medical, hopefully at no or very little cost.  I remember when Obama Care sounded good.  Insurance for all yes!  Instead of making insurance available to  everyone it made it worse in many ways.  It was great my kids could keep my insurance until they were 25.  Before OC if you worked part time at Walmart, if memory serves after 3 months you could get insurance for yourself (had to work full time to get it for your family)  After OC you must average 32 hours a week for 6 months to get insurance.  My daughter has worked there 3+ years, she works 32 hours a week, but some time in that 6 month time she will get an 18 hour week, or something like that.  She never cared because she had my insurance.  Docking your income if you don't have insurance, I have always thought that was wrong.  Sorry didn't mean to get on the soap box, I just think it was a good idea poorly executed.  
Besides money and insurance is trying to decide what to do with my life.  I love to garden, read, go to the movies, paint, my dogs, cats, and chickens, learn new things,  crafts, up cycle, refinish or reinvent old stuff.  If I was retiring I'd be good to go, but making decent money with some benefits, and some kind of security in corporate america with these things. not going to happen, at least not in my town.
I'm at a real crossroad in my life.  Do I just try for retail, what I know and am qualified for, or start over with something new.  its tough.  I'm luckier then many though.  I have a loving and supportive family.  Finances were tough before, now we will really have to tighten our belt, but we wont loose our house, or starve.  
Thank you everyone for your kindness and support.  I have said before this is the only site I post on.  For some reason Permies seems to attract people I would really like to know.  I do hope Mr. Wheaton does achieve world domination some day, what a wonderful world it would be.

My brother in law was fired from Walmart about three years ago.  He was a department manager there and had been there for like 12 years at this store and and at the previous Walmart for another 4 or 5 years.  He and a number of other department managers and other people that had been there for quite a few years were all fired in a span of about six months.

In this case I think they were getting rid of people had raised to high on the pay scale and benefits to be replaced with lower wage and lower benefit employees.  Seems to be something that Walmart does with people that have been there for too long and making too much money.

When I first moved to this area I put in about 350 job apps in the first week here and Walmart was one of those job apps.  I was hired on pretty quick and ended up working for 4 days, on the second day I was offered a job at radio shack and on the third day I was offered a job at the pea plant starting at twice the wage that Walmart was paying so I gave a notice and went to the pea plant.  I have to say, that "I" personally found Walmart to be an awful place to work.  

There are loads of jobs out there and many of them pay a whole heck of a lot better than Wallyworld.  Sorry to hear you got fired and good luck on whatever your next path in life ends up being...

Don't undersell your skillset.

You have a ton of customer service/sales experience, along with training experience.

You also have a good work ethic and have shown that you are a person who will stick around.

Lots of companies need these things.

It seems to me that you could be more valuable to many other companies that operate with higher margins and are better able to appreciate quality workers.

I have no idea if there are specific sectors it would be worth concentrating on, or possibly getting some relatively quick/affordable niche training/certification to target. Lots of sniffing around is advisable before spending money on any such thing, though.

I know it is difficult, but while you need a job, think also of career.  I did a major change just before I turned 40 and never looked back.

Thank you John and everyone for your support.  I did get unemployment.  I am trying to think out of the box for myself and find something beyond retail.  I'm just not sure what that is, but if I have to start over, I would rather not end up in the same position in a few years.  I'ts scary and hard to start over at my age, not to mention with covid I will have even more competition for every job out there.  The bills are being paid, I'm not in danger of loosing my home, and so far everyone in my family is healthy, I have nothing to complain about.

I don't know how things work in your area, but do they have any re-training available through your unemployment insurance? Have you any skills that could lead to self-employment? Would you qualify for any testing which would help you document your underlying strengths? As you've identified, you're in a tough age group for finding work, and there's going to be a lot of competition out there. Don't sell yourself short - you've got a proven track record, the ability to train others, you sound organized, literate, and self-starting. In BC we've got some special programs for getting women into the trades, so also look around at what sort of light manufacturing/assembling is being done in your area. For example, where my sister used to work, they preferred to hire women to assemble electronics modules because their smaller hands did a better job of it. These were custom for specific jobs, so not the sort of thing that could get sent overseas.

In the meantime, hope for the best and prepare for the worst! Work on new skills, like in the PEP program even if they don't lead to jobs, as you never know what might come your way. Hang in there!

Come to Wheaton Labs!  This is a great time to be here!  Summer time (sorta almost anyways), great way to see many ways to start a different type of life!

I finally gave in and got a job as a cashier at a local grocery store.  Today was my first day.  I keep trying to tell myself to be positive. In this economy I'm lucky to get a job at all.  In keeping with the theme of this post it sucks to do what I feel is the right thing.  1.90 less an hour.  They start everyone out part time, and of course I'm at the bottom of the totem pole, so my hours totally suck. At the end of my first day that went well, all I wanted to do was cry.  There is a little war going on inside me.  One side is reminding me unemployment won't last for ever, I can do this job with my eyes closed, they only require 100 hours worked per month to get what they say is great insurance, and if your a good worker it sounds like there is a lot of opportunity for raises.  The other side, maybe the childish side is, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  I don't want to work until 11pm and every holiday so I can take crap off the public for less money. I don't want to wear cloth over my face all day and risk getting my hole family sick. No, just no.
I was lucky. I got to stay home and raise my kids for 13 years before I had to go back to work.  After working 14 years I had a little over a year off.  I couldn't have picked a better year to be unemployed. I actually made more money on unemployment most of the time I have been off then I did when I worked.  I didn't have to expose my family to corona, and we all staid safe at home.  It's spoiled me I guess, because man I hate to jump back into the rat race.
I thought about going to school. I think one of my biggest obstacles is I'm happy to be home in my garden, with my chickens, always more projects then time, It makes me happy.  I can't make those things make not only money now, but provide for my future. With the years I staid home with my kids I have a joke of a retirement, and if Social Security is even there when I get old enough there is a large gap in my years worked. I worry about our future. So back to retail I go.  I'm sure it will be fine.  I just need to adopt my sons favorite saying and suck it up.

So sorry to hear of your troubles Jen. Amazing how a global catastrophe effects us all on such an individual level. 8 billion individual experiences to one pandemic. I truly feel for you.

Without hijacking your thread, I just want to say that I've also fallen on hard times since March 2020. And each time I feel like I'm getting some momentum, something out of my control comes in and trips me up in a major way. Constantly. It's forced me down a path of self discovery and introspection. It's forced me to surrender control. It's forced me to confront a lot of uncomfortable things about myself and my life. Here's the thing. Only once I surrendered all of these things, did I start making some progress on things that have been holding me back for 15 years.

In my personal experience, finding meaning in the hardships of life leads me to the most contentment. And maybe one day, enlightenment. That's just my two cents.

But I've gotta agree with you, being an adult is hard.

Jen Fulkerson wrote:
Thank you John and everyone for your support.  I did get unemployment.  I am trying to think out of the box for myself and find something beyond retail.  I'm just not sure what that is, but if I have to start over, I would rather not end up in the same position in a few years.  I'ts scary and hard to start over at my age, not to mention with covid I will have even more competition for every job out there.  The bills are being paid, I'm not in danger of loosing my home, and so far everyone in my family is healthy, I have nothing to complain about.

You may already know this, but there is share-care health insurance that works great, according to my friends who are on it.  There are a few organizations to choose from so shop them to suit your needs and beliefs.  One is called Liberty Healthshare, located at  https://provider.libertyhealthshare.org You can see what your portion would be.  They work like a co-op.  I like this idea because I avoid doctors unless extremely injured or sick.  

I know all about lay-offs and they never occur when we are ready to go.  All of the companies are working the covid system these days.  They get big checks if they follow certain criteria so nobody is really "safe" when working for anyone but themselves.  You have a lot of things going for you so don't give up.  In the future, you could start a health savings account so you always have the cash you need (pre-tax) to cover things that come up here and there, like tooth issues.

Best of luck!  We are all here!  

Thank you .  
Mike I'm very sorry the last year has been so difficult. I hope your right. Those of us going through such difficult times end up a little wiser, a bit stronger than before.  I hope things get better for you very soon. Good luck
Renelle thank you. I did end up getting covered california.  I made sure there was a doctor in my area, but I found out the nearest hospital and urgent care the insurance accepts is 60 miles away.  I better not have a heart attack or get in a life threatening accident. I will be in trouble. I didn't even think about that.  Oh well if all goes well I should get decent insurance in 3 months.
Thanks

I thought I would give a little update.  After working at the grocery store for 3 months I gave myself permission to look for another job.  It didn't take long before I was getting full time hours.  I would often work until midnight, my hours were all over the place. I was miserable.  I felt like a quieter, (especially since I was just about to get health insurance) but decided to look for a different job.  
I actually found one right away.  It was a dilemma because it was part time. I was told this company didn't have full time cashiers, so no insurance. I took the job thinking I would give myself a year, and find a full time job.  I work for a Co-op.  They close at 7 on weekdays and 6 on weekends.  They close for all the major holidays, and I get an amazing discount.  
In December 2021 they gave me full-time.  So it's still retail, but it's better than I had.  I work with very nice people, and the co-op is right up my alley because we sell veggies, and flowers, and chicks.
I'm not at the point where I say being fired was a blessing in disguise, but I'm doing fine.  My hope for the future is maybe in a few years a can go back to part time.  I enjoyed having lots of time in my garden, but still making money, and getting a discount on feed and garden supplies.  Right now I'm trying to make the most of it, and enjoy working for a company that treats there employees like they care.

Good to see things are looking up for you, Jen! It's not always easy to find a place that aligns with one's values, and I'd argue that it's almost as likely that it finds you. :)

Here's to your success! Onward and upward.

Your story has been good to read, thank you.