Ruminations While Being Unemployed

As our final paycheck day approaches at a rather glacier-like pace, what has occurred in the past three weeks of mostly sitting around?

Is it a good idea to go to employers' place of business when you can fill out applications online at home? Most employers direct you to their computers to fill them out anyway. There are some positions that are not posted online though, and employees usually hear about them first or are posted in human resources offices.

Herein is the power and convenience of the internet - questions like: do I qualify for unemployment insurance, how much will I expect to receive?, is it taxable income?, how many weeks can I collect?, etc. These may be questions that you might forget to ask the human resources department when they issue your last paycheck. These things pop up in my mind at random times of the day.

After a call from a coworker asking about severance pay, I told him I don't remember seeing it in the personnel handbook which was last revised in 2009. So after his call, I dug out the Human Resources handbook from my filing cabinet and I was surprised that there was a section about severance pay, although it wasn't fully explained but rather just referred to an obscure line mentioning a policy and procedure number. So off to the portal I go (and I'm glad this is still accessible). The search function didn't reveal anything but with further exploration, I found the policy and procedure manual with the aforementioned obscure number. Basically what it says is that the company does indeed a policy for severance pay but it's up to them to decide whether to pay it or not. The policy doesn't even have a calculator which shows how many weeks of severance pay to be given based on how many years of service to the company.

Here's an idea: since it's been chaotic at our former workplace and if we really want to help our former PHLB co-workers, we can sign up with the registry College Hospital uses and tell them we are available to work at College Medical Center. Provided of course we are not in their do-not-return list.

My excuse used to be I didn't have time to go places because I was working a lot. Now that I have the time to go places, my excuse is that I don't have the money to do so.

Time to compile my duties and responsibilities as a Behavioral Health Worker by copying and pasting from my blog and adding it to my resume.

Also time to consolidate bank accounts to lower the monthly balance requirements so I can avoid monthly maintenance fees. That's because I'm losing direct deposit of paychecks which the bank requires in waiving the monthly maintenance fee. Better still if I move my account to a credit union since their balance requirements are much lower.

Should I sign up for the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare so I can have health insurance next year? I've blogged about this earlier this year: An Obamacare Loophole For Early Retirees?

And lastly, should I pay off my mortgage with whatever savings I have left to decrease my monthly overhead drastically? How many months will the leftovers last? I won't know till I receive my final paycheck. Unemployment is so darn inconvenient! Let's just call it forced retirement without money to spend.

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Random Thoughts About Unemployment

          If there's any advantage about the timing of being laid off at this time in my life, it is that my mother and father are already at peace and no longer require my help. To a certain extent, I was also able to assist my brother with his kidney transplant three months ago before all the talk about getting laid off came about. No, I didn't give him one of my kidneys but rather helped in another way. This time I only have to look out for myself financially.

         Working through the years provided me bi-weekly structure - things to do on the days I work and on my days off. Things like what workouts to do, chores to complete, when to shop for food, when to sleep when I'm working nights, when to sleep when I'm not working, etc. It was like a 2 week cycle of life. All of a sudden that structure is gone and I'm left wondering what to do next. That's quite pitiful because I've been out of work for just a couple of weeks. In the past few days, I seem to have settled into a different routine - wake up in the morning, putter around, do my workout, have brunch while watching a movie, take a short nap, wake up and finish the movie, take a mid-afternoon walk in the neighborhood, come back home and watch another movie while having dinner, and in the evening, flip the TV channels for shows I didn't get to watch when I was at work, or watch another movie before retiring to bed. Pathetic and boring, I know, but at least it's a routine. I mentioned on Facebook that I may have to learn how to play Candy Crush to pass the time. Oh, I almost forgot. I've also gone to the dentist three times for some repairs. and to the doctor for a checkup and some routine lab tests. Heck, I may even go and see my eye doctor too since his office called unexpectedly to let me know it was time for my biannual checkup. I might as well do all those things before my medical, dental, and vision insurance expires.

          It would be nice to go on vacation somewhere but I can't do that without any money or know where it's coming from next. I can't go on retail therapy either for the same financial constraints, hahaha! I hardly do that anyway even with a job. Oh boy, the budget is going to be uncomfortably tight in the next 3 years or so until I can draw from IRA's and 401K's. Just hoping there won't be any major catastrophes in the meantime.

          I am no longer portable. Before I bought my condo, I used to be able to move to a furnished apartment close to my job. My residences in the past went from Cerritos, to Bellflower, Torrance, Lawndale, back to Bellflower, and finally to Long Beach. I can't do that anymore because of my mortgage of course, but also I have so many belongings now that have accumulated in the last 22 years I've lived here. It's not the clothes but the appliances, furniture, electronic items, and most of all, the exercise equipment. Besides, it costs more to rent nowadays than what I pay monthly for my mortgage.

          Remember when kids and teens couldn't wait to be grownups and have grown up privileges? Well, I must be approaching my second childhood because I can't wait to become a grownup again but on a different level. This level is called Social Security/401K/IRA retirement age.

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Uncertainties at PHLB

          It's going to be a week since I last worked. Two days after that, the new owner of the hospital took over and  I got a call from a coworker telling me I should pick up whatever belongings I had at the hospital because I didn't have to report for work anymore, and that Pacific Hospital would be paying us the rest of our scheduled shifts. Well that was hard to believe, so I sent an email to one of the human resources representatives asking what the status was of the personnel not hired by the new company. I never got a response, so I patiently waited till the next day to call them up, knowing that it must be a very busy time for them as well while dealing with the transition. The information I received from the person I talked with was that we won't be getting paid for the unworked hours the rest of the month, but to feel free to use our accrued Paid Time Off (PTO) to cover it. So now we have two different messages and that is where the uncertainty starts. I sent another email to a different HR representative and the response I got was this:

" Unfortunately I have no info yet either, we have attorneys working on it. This is pretty much what we are saying...
"We do not yet have an answer as to what will happen between now and 10/29. You are still an active employee and we are working out how you will be paid, or if you may be asked to report to work in another area helping with the closing of PHLB. You will be contacted when we know more. Do not go to work at College Hospital as you do not work for them. In the meantime, please make sure we have your correct info in ADP self-service so that we can reach you when we have more info."
As to the layoff info, that will be in your packet on 10/29 when you get laid off."

          At least she responded. That was very disconcerting because now it freezes us in our tracks and makes us uncertain on how to proceed. When will our health insurance expire? Can we buy COBRA coverage? When can we apply for unemployment? When can we move our 401K savings to another investment company? Are we getting paid at all other than what is owed us in accrued PTO? How much are we exactly getting? I'm sure my other unhired coworkers have their own similar concerns. One is even considering getting a lawyer and using the WARN act letter given to us as evidence that we aren't supposed to be laid off until October 29. Does that mean we have to get paid for not doing anything? Basically we are not supposed to return to work because we are not employees of the new owner and we are personae non gratae at the jobsite. The problem was that the information about not reporting for duty was only by word of mouth with no official word from the powers that be (whoever that is). You had to individually call your former supervisors who were hired by the new owner to make sure that it was true. I wonder how many people actually showed up to work and were turned away. After all, that would have made them trespassers. In my case, I managed to empty my small locker and take the contents home along with a file sorter I bought 10 years ago and was using to make new patient admission chart packs. I had to foresight to stick some name labels on it 10 years ago to be able to prove that it belonged to me. At the time I picked up my belongings, the psych unit was somewhat in a state of chaos because patients were being moved from one unit to another and there were not enough staff to make an orderly transition. The day shift was still waiting for the night shift to relieve them half an hour after they were supposed to clock out. Needless to say, I didn't stay long to find out what else could go wrong because it ceased to be my concern since I don't work there anymore. I was only there to retrieve my personal belongings.

          What does the immediate future hold? The immediate future is about 3 more weeks and the answer is -  I don't know.

          It's unfortunate that they didn't rehire highly organized people who would have been able to ease the chaotic situation they find themselves in now. I'm not saying it wouldn't have been chaotic anyway but at least not as much. It may have been better if College Hospital rehired most employees then incrementally laid some off as the transition became more stable. Just sayin'...

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Questions and Concerns at College Medical Center (formerly Pacific Hospital of Long Beach)

The old Pacific Hospital had a similar sailboat logo. That ship has sailed.

          Oh boy, it looks like transitioning from Pacific Hospital of Long Beach to College Medical Center is going to take some major adjustments (I'm trying not to say that it's going to be a mess). The electronic medical records system has to be reprogrammed to the needs and procedures of College Hospital and even the paper forms may have to be replaced. Hopefully the learning curve won't be too great once the new system is in place. For those who have resisted in learning the former system or were not using them enough, they may have a more difficult time to learn the new one.

          Based on how many people they haven't rehired, one can assume (mistakenly or correctly) that either College Hospital is going to bring in their own staff, hire replacements, or reduce the number of floor staff from the numbers that Pacific Hospital used. That would mainly affect the Behavioral Health Workers who monitor the patients closely on the units and possibly the Licenced Vocational Nurses or Licensed Psychiatric Technicians who pass out the medications. The Registered Nurses shouldn't be affected since there is a legal requirement for them to be assigned only a certain number of patients (patient ratio).

Having not even been interviewed much less rehired, I will only have to be there for about 3 weeks to see all these changes. Already some of my soon to be former coworkers mentioned that I'm going to be missed because I was the only one assembling charts for new admissions. They never took the time to learn my streamlined system. But it's not rocket science and easy for them to pick up.

          When PHLB transitioned from strictly paper charts to the electronic medical record system, I had the foresight to retain the old paper charts in case of computer down times. Those papers were the only backup system the hospital had which were already preassembled, although separate sheets still existed in cabinets. I also have about 200 chart packs already made which goes with the EMR system, which would have tided over the unit I work in for about 6 weeks before the retained staff would have to make their own. Of course all of those old and new charts would be useless if College Hospital opts for their own forms. They will have to sort out which papers are needed and which are not so they can work together with the EMR without duplication.

          Communicating and taking care of psychiatric patients are ongoing learning processes because no two patients are alike and even a patient behaving a certain way during one hospital stay may not behave the same way next time. Paperwork remains more or less the same and this happens to be my specialty. I'm sure that the retained staff and the rest who will be newly hired will adjust to the new system sooner or later but they will have to take more initiative in doing so. I just take pride in thinking that I learn them sooner than most and find the most efficient way of applying them during the course of my work. Will they really miss me? Perhaps only for a couple of weeks, they they'll adjust and it will be business as usual. Thanks for thinking of me that way though. If only the staff recruiter knew...

p.s. My other posts regarding this matter:
Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 1

Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 2

Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 3

Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 4

Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 5

My Looming Unemployment

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My Looming Unemployment

Classic rock - 

Styx - Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)

          It looks more and more like I'm not keeping my job past October 29th. On Monday, October 7th, the sale of Pacific Hospital of Long Beach to College Health Enterprises will be finalized and I will be considered a straggler of Healthsmart Pacific, the former owner, because I never got the interview I was hoping for. Most employees have gotten their interviews and offered jobs by the new owner who will rename the hospital College Medical Center. A bunch of "oldtimers" like me were not even considered. As I brace myself emotionally and financially for unemployment, I wonder what it was in my application that excluded me for consideration. The only criteria that comes to mind or what it appears like anyway, based on myself and others who were not hired are these: over age 50, 10 years or more with the company, and earning such and such amount. Our applications seems to have been set aside without further consideration. One of those is illegal (age discrimination) but of course they won't tell you that they used it as a basis for exclusion.

          So where do I go from here? There will be the usual job search of course, but what strategies should I come up with so I can meet my living expenses if I become unemployed for the long term? My main concerns are my mortgage (I don't want to be homeless), health and dental insurance, homeowner's association dues, utilities like heating gas, electricity, and internet, food (of course), gasoline, and on an annual basis - car insurance, real estate taxes, and income taxes.

          Cash out of my vacation time which is about 400 hours, will help of course and that will sustain me for a few months. Applying for unemployment insurance after October 29th and hopefully receiving a few dollars a week for 26 weeks, will be another help, provided I don't get myself fired before then, otherwise I won't qualify for this compensation. Here is the link to for filing a claim: http://www.edd.ca.gov/unemployment/filing_a_claim.htm . I also have some savings. It is a matter of calculating how long I can make all of these last before I go broke. As all if not most of us know, I cannot touch my taxed deferred retirement plans without being penalized until I turn 59 and 1/2. That is still 3 and 1/2 years away. Then when I turn 62, I can start collecting minimum Social Security (provided it's not bankrupt then).

          In the meantime, is it a good idea to try contacting the recruiter to find out what it was in my application that excluded me for being considered, and perhaps also ask how I can improve it to make it more attractive to employers?

          Wracking my brain due to all of the above made for a restless sleep so I just got up early and wrote this. If only I had enough money, early retirement would be nice, but then again, if I get bored at home sometimes during my days off, what more if didn't have a job to go to anymore? Well, at least I got my free flu shot from work a few days ago.

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Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 5

from 

Pacific Hospital

to 

College Hospital

 and back to

 Pacific Hospital

The owner of Pacific Hospital has called off the sale of the facility to College Health Enterprises. What does this mean? Heck if I know. Already twice in the past month, a memo was sent to the doctors practicing in PHLB that the sale was delayed. In the meantime, checking the collegehospitals.com website, you would see that they have added the Pacific Hospital address as one of their 3 facilities with a link where you can download an application form, although the rest of it says the website is under construction. Strange that they did that while the sale was pending. To add to this confusion, College Hospital has started taking applications, conducting interviews, and even hiring people for what was supposed to be College Hospital of Long Beach or College Medical Center (this is the name they used on the website). This process was conducted by a College Hospital interviewer independent of Pacific Hospital's human resources department. There was even a Q & A meeting with the College Hospital and Molina Medical administrators last week.

This surprising turn of events happened on Thursday - September 26th. Prior to receiving the email from the owner of Pacific Hospital, I emailed human resources about my concern of not yet being interviewed despite being one of the first ones to file an application. It was later that evening that I learned that human resources was not involved in this process and that College Hospital had their own criteria. Not being called in for an interview yet by this time did not bode well for me and several others. Now that the sale has been called off, I wonder what will happen to the applications and especially those who have been rehired and already signed their acceptance to work for College Hospital. Were all those efforts for naught? They must have been elated, then deflated. In my case on the other hand, first I felt some embarrassment for not even making it to the interview process, then as time went on, I started feeling insulted. Why? Because some of the people who had their interviews and others who were rehired, I felt that even though they deserved to be in that position, I worked twice as hard as they have in the 10 years I have been with the company and haven't slacked off from the day I started. Unfortunately, hard work doesn't show well on application forms or résumés.  I may have to learn how to use better B.S. words to make my applications look more attractive.

Here is my speculation. The owner probably noticed in the past month that even though the behavioral health and medical units were no longer being managed by outside companies while the sale of the hospital was being worked on, they continued to thrive, and thus saved a lot of money being paid to those companies. If Pacific Hospital can become leaner like this, their earnings would be greater and that translates to more money for the current owner. But that's just my imagination running wild.

What will happen next is anybody's guess. The employees remain in limbo. I will have to treat this like a doctor advising a patient with an enlarged prostate: watchful waiting.

Update: 9/27/13 3:00 p.m. - We have just been notified that the WARN Notice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_Adjustment_and_Retraining_Notification_Act) that was issued to us more than a month ago is still in effect, which means we could still get laid off after October 29, 2013.

Scuttlebutt in the main campus is that the owner asked for more money from the buyers.

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Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 4

                COLLEGE HOSPITAL OF LONG BEACH

               The change in ownership of Pacific Hospital of Long Beach from Healthsmart Pacific to College Health Enterprises was delayed for a week but the employees were able to start reapplying for their jobs two weeks before that. It appears that the new official name is now College Hospital of Long Beach. With the change in ownership, the psychiatric unit which was being managed by the Memorial Counseling Associates has had a sudden drop in the number of inpatients because the doctors from that group have lost their admitting privileges. See, MCA has their own intake department and doctors group which funnel patients coming from Pacific Hospital's emergency department and other area hospitals towards the 3 psych units Pacific (in this case, College) Hospital has. College Health Enterprises have their own intake department called Access Services and their own admitting doctors. With the loss of MCA, the psych units have lost a lot of patients due to discharges and needs to reestablish a new patient base before the census goes up again. In hospital parlance, census is the number of patients who are being treated on the unit.

                 The consequence of having a low census is that the staff have to take turns getting cancelled from work due to staffing ratios. The hospital only needs a certain number of staff to cover a certain number of patients. Hospital workers know about this and I may be overexplaining myself for the sake of making it clear for non-healthcare workers. On the first official day of College Hospital running the show, it just so happened that it was my turn to get cancelled, which hasn't happened in approximately 2 years. Thus, I got a call from the nursing supervisor at about 5:30 p.m. on Monday notifying me so, because the census in the unit I work in, which has a capacity of 36, had dropped to 18. Ergo, not only are we in danger or being laid off, but while waiting for word if we are going to be rehired or not, we are already losing income because of the low census. Our first hope is that census rebuilding won't take too long by reassigning the psych patients who show up in the emergency department to the College Hospital doctors. The second hope of course is to be rehired.

                There should not be a similar problem with medical patients though, since there won't be a change in the admitting privileges of the doctors. The only change they are having is that Molina Healthcare will be managing the medical units. But I could be wrong since I'm not privy to that kind of information. Meanwhile last week, a representative from the labor union which College Hospital Cerritos employees belong to, contacted me via email after reading my blog, asking questions which I didn't know the answers to.

This wasn't meant to be a series of posts but it had become so as things have evolved. Here are the links to my previous posts regarding this matter: 

Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 1

Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 2

Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 3

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Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 3

         In my previous blog regarding this subject, I mentioned that I wish I had the facts (Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 2). Well we received some information on Thursday, August 29th about what was going to happen to the hospital and our jobs. It was finally confirmed that Pacific Hospital of Long Beach was sold to College Health Enterprises who owns College Hospital. They will be in partnership with Molina Healthcare who will be managing the medical units while College Health will be doing the same with the psych units. I believe Pacific Hospital had a similar arrangement with Molina a few years back. As far as our jobs are concerned, all employees will be terminated and the expected layoff date is October 29th. We will be asked to reapply with College Health Enterprises effective September 9th when they take over. As required by law, we were given a notice informing us of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which we had to sign. A memo from the current owner of Pacific Hospital mentioned that employees rehired by College/Molina will continue benefits and retain any accrued PTO (vacation time). At least the part about the PTO is a relief. In case of a layoff, there is no mention of severance pay.
          With all that information, more questions and concerns arise but basically similar to what I wrote in Part 2. There is no guarantee of being rehired but at least it gives as a couple of months of leeway to find another job. Believe me, I've already started looking but what I've seen so far as being offered in area hospitals are per diem (no benefits) positions. Questions include - will the shifts go back to 8 hours or continue with 12 hours; if rehired and basically starting from scratch, will the pay scale be lower; since Memorial Counseling Associates will no longer be managing the psych unit, will there be a change in doctors; will it be better to gamble and resign so I can cash in my PTO then reapply with the new company, or wait to be laid off? Being laid off, though not good, is better than resigning because at least you can collect unemployment insurance, which is not much, but better than nothing. If rehired by the new company though, at least medical and dental insurance benefits will continue even if there is a decrease in pay. What about our 401k retirement plan? Will it roll over to College Hospital's investment company, or will it be up to us to keep it in the same place or transfer it to our own investment company? In an ideal world, if some of us get laid off, it would have been nice to get some severance pay in addition to the PTO being cashed out. Or if rehired, it would be good if they just pay off the Pacific Hospital PTO and start from zero with whatever vacation benefits that College Health has. I can dream, can't I?

Disclosure: I worked at College Hospital Cerritos twice - once in 1981(when their area code was still 213) which was my first ever psychiatric hospital job, a few months after moving to the United States, and the second time in the mid-90's. I have also experienced a couple of lay offs. The first with Los Altos Hospital and the second with Lakewood Regional Medical Center, both which gave employees several weeks worth of severance pay. And finally, Barry Weiss, who is the owner of College Health Enterprises is the brother of my colonoscopy doctor - Steven Weiss.

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Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 2

          After writing about my questions and concerns a few months ago (Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital) following the FBI and IRS raid at my place of work, it has been quiet until recently. The employees have always known that the hospital was looking for a buyer as well as a new management company for the psychiatric units, and it may be possible that the buyer might manage those psych units as well.
          Unverified rumors have been abounding in recent days about Pacific Hospital already being sold and that an announcement will be made in early September. As to who the buyer is, rumor has it (pardon me Adele), it is College Hospital, who owns College Hospital in Cerritos and Costa Mesa. That company has done several tours of Pacific Hospital in recent months so they definitely showed an interest. Some employees have mentioned (again unverified) that when Pacific Hospital hands over the operation to College Hospital, the employees will be asked to sign some papers ending their (our) employment with Pacific and start anew with College, essentially from scratch. The speculation includes forfeiting our accrued vacation time or PTO and a possible decrease in hourly salary, plus elimination of shift differential for the night shift. With a little search on the internet regarding California Labor Law, unused vacation time will have to be paid by the employer upon termination of employment, so it's illegal to forfeit it. Doesn't a change of ownership constitute a termination? Getting paid my vacation time is a great concern for me because I have a lot of hours accrued which I had intended to use for emergencies. This is the section of the Labor Law which covers vacation time: http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_vacation.htm which specifically states:

Q.	What happens to my earned and accrued but unused vacation if I am discharged or quit my job?
	A.	Under California law, unless otherwise stipulated by a collective bargaining agreement, whenever the employment relationship ends, for any reason whatsoever, and the employee has not used all of his or her earned and accrued vacation, the employer must pay the employee at his or her final rate of pay for all of his or her earned and accrued and unused vacation days. Labor Code Section 227.3. Because paid vacation benefits are considered wages, such pay must be included in the employee's final paycheck.

          There are a couple of scenarios that have run through my mind. One is to wait for the announcement and just go with the flow and be rehired by the new company with the possible loss of vacation time (if their lawyers found some kind of loophole). The other is to resign as soon as possible so the accrued vacation time can be cashed out before the new company takes over, then after a few weeks, reapply for the same job for lower pay. Of course being rehired is not a sure thing, so that's another concern. Like I mentioned before, there are not too many jobs available in the psychiatric hospital business nowadays. If I quit and cash out my vacation time, I may be able to get by on it for 2 to 3 months, but also have to sign up for COBRA insurance so I continue to be covered by medical insurance, that is, until Obamacare takes over in 2014 (in case I get unemployed for the long term). For now, it's all up in the air because the employees have been kept in the dark and have been left with rumors and speculation. Meanwhile, time is running out. I wish I had the facts.
A couple of days after I posted this entry, the facts were revealed to the employees: Questions and Concerns at Pacific Hospital - Part 3

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