www.JoblessandProud.co.uk

Two weeks ago David Jones lost his job. He is 57 separated, with 3 kids in college, an overdraft, a couple of maxed out credit cards and an income tax bill that needs to be settled. He worked as manager for a Furniture Factory in Monaghan until he was made redundant last week. He was with the company only 15 months so therefore didn’t qualify for redundancy or compensation for loss of office or anything like that. All he got was a week’s pay in lieu of notice.

That night, when he couldn’t sleep, David got up and started to write. Four days and four nights later, he had written a 15,000 word book. entitled “Oh no; I’ve Lost my job. What am I going to do? The book tells how he plans on making this transition an opportunity rather than a miserable experience! It gives practical advice on how to cope with the emotional stress that losing your job causes; as well as everything you need to know from claiming benefits, getting spending and debts under control, searching for another job, preparing a CV, avoiding depression and so on.

David asked an acquaintance for advice on how to go about getting his story distributed. This is where Mary Rose Lyons comes in. Mary Rose runs Brightsparks consulting an online marketing company. She asked herself if David can write a book in a week, then surely through social networking we can deliver a website in a week with ecommerce capabilities! And that’s what she went about doing using social networks Twitter and Irish Blogs Day 1 : Planning 11th Feb Within 2hrs of posting her request she had nabbed herself a graphic designer Davy Mac and award winning podcaster Alex Gibson. Web designer Rachel Earley came on board. Later that day Gordon Murray based in Cork lends his expertise in paypal related work. So now there’s a national team spanning Dublin to Cork.

Day 2: 12th Feb Registered .ie and .co.uk domains Set up paperwork, bank account, paypal etc. Design briefing complete - . Copy is in - copywriting takes place.

Day 3 13th Feb Design is being cut up Photo session taking place.

Day 4 14th Feb Everything Much about sorted This is where you come in help us get this good news story out.

Some exerts from the book:

I didn’t see it coming. The first inclination I got was Tuesday lunchtime. I got a phone call to say the owners of the company wanted to see me. I knew things weren’t great with the business. They hadn’t been for sometime; but I thought we had a plan to deal with that. “We’ve decided to close the company down. You’ve been doing a good job, but sales are declining. We’re letting everybody go. You’re entitled to a week’s notice. We have a cheque here for you. You can go home now; you needn’t come in tomorrow. We’ll give you a good reference.” That was it; that was my welcome to the world of unemployment.

No announcement in the newspapers or on the TV that my job was about to go. Not a gentle little nudge, no time to get used to the idea; no farewell party, no real chance to say good bye to friends and colleagues. Talk about a short sharp shock! I’m 57 by the way; if I was a policeman I’d be retired with a nice government pension. But I’m not a retired policeman and I don’t have a pension. I’ve never been unemployed before. This is a whole new experience for me. It’s not one that I would have wanted; but it is one that I am going to have to learn to live with. I decided to write this little book for a couple of reasons: • I really do hope it will help people like me who lose their jobs and don’t know what to do I also believe that it doesn’t really matter what happens in life; it is your reaction to it that really counts. This is my reaction to losing my job; if it helps others who finds themselves in my situation, it would have been worth it.

Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got! – Janis Joplin