This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michelle Keller, a 59-year-old in Georgia who was laid off from her voice engineer job in 2025. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I lost my job after 20 years at the same company. I wouldn’t have left if not for being laid off in April 2025.
I wasn’t that sad that it was over. My father, who has Alzheimer’s, had been living with my family for the past few years, so we saw the job change as a chance for me to slow down and focus on his caregiving.
However, I was still applying to jobs. I tried changing my résumé and removing things to make myself look younger, but I still wasn’t getting interviews.
I had my first — and only — job offer as a billing clerk in March, after applying to dozens. It wasn’t through any websites or job-search services; it was through the good ol’ friends network.
I got the job through a friend
I thought I’d get something within the first month or two after being laid off. Then, when month three came and went, I decided to let my social networks know I was looking for a job.
A few months ago, in February, a friend on my tennis team told me that the small commercial insurance agency she worked at was hiring, so I talked to the HR person.
Despite my friend telling me there was an opening, it didn’t boost my confidence. I still went into the interview nervous, but I got the job.
The salary was a little less than half what I was previously making, but I didn’t care because at that point, it had been almost a year of not making any money.
I was interested in anything — I just wanted to be useful again and to get out of the house. The toll of being at home and taking care of my father was hard. It’s one thing when you’re raising your children — you know the value, and you see the learning — but with the thankless job of caring for a parent, it wears on you.
Once I got the new job, I needed a caregiver to help with my dad
It’s a hybrid role, so I’m only gone two days a week — Tuesdays and Thursdays. I work from home the rest of the week.
I spent a couple of weeks researching assisted living, so I could get my dad out of the house. With him at home, I can’t ever be away for the night. However, those options were too expensive.
My sister posted on Facebook looking for someone to take care of our father, and I did about four or five phone interviews.
Before I started my new role, I did a dry run, so my father would get to know her before I was totally gone. She came in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays for just a few hours while I tried out my commute to work or ran some errands.
We think about the cost of the care, but it’s hard to put a price on my mental health
My son’s and husband’s schedules allow them to go home before 5 p.m., so it’s usually not more than a seven-hour day. That’s a godsend.
The arrangement has been working out. I don’t want to give it up, but we have to be careful about keeping that balance between how much care costs versus how much I’m getting paid.
We’re going to work on tweaking it; nothing’s final or permanent. If this isn’t working out, then we’ll try something else.
It’s hard to put a price on my mental health and my ability to get out of the house two days a week. I get to drive 45 minutes to the office, and the drive is like something out of a Hallmark movie. It’s in the downtown area, where you can hear the church bells ring, and sometimes you hear a train. It’s pretty magical.
My husband, who was previously working part-time, is working full time again, making the same amount as I do. Together, the two of us are making almost as much as I was making before. That’s probably the biggest Band-Aid.
And I’ll be 59½ in the fall, so I’ll be able to start taking out my 401(k) money without penalty — not that I would want to have to pay my mortgage with it, but it’s there.
I would equate finding a job to the dating market
Your best bets are the people you know in your circle. If you’re young and just finishing school, get to know your parents’ circle because those are the people who have the jobs.
It’s kind of like dating; some people use websites, while others go out to bars or networking functions to meet people.
In every facet of your life, you meet people for a reason — whether it’s a chess club, a tennis match, a dinner, or a church function.
The more you talk about being unemployed and the more you let people know, the better off your mental stability is. Your friends and family want to support you, but they don’t want to ask you every week or every month, and people do sometimes forget.
It’s hard after six months or so to continually say, “I still don’t have a job,” but you have to keep repeating it.
