Another in a continuing series about how furloughed Valley residents are coping with the recession.
MILTON — If you meet Paulette Dubosky, one of the first things you’ll get from her are business cards.
On the cards — some are blue, some are white — are her name, phone number, e-mail address and list of skills she has.
Information security.
Electronic records management.
Data and media destruction.
Trade show and event planner.
Office 2007 Enterprise Edition.
“One of the things I ask myself is, ‘How do I do this to sell myself?’ ” said the 48-year-old divorced mother, who was laid off from her job at a Sunbury information management systems company last September.
She also has to remind herself that her situation isn’t as bad as the ones others are facing.
But that’s not to say things are good.
Her unemployment compensation, something she dislikes having to take, could expire soon. With passage of a benefits extension, she’s not sure when the checks will stop.
Even with the money, it’s less than half what she was making doing marketing for Harris Micrographics. But the amount is still about double minimum wage.
“To get what is in my unemployment, I’d need to make what I’d make from two minimum-wage jobs,” she said.
Thanks to friends and family, some of whom have acted on her behalf anonymously, she has managed to get by.
She owns her Jeep, which means one less payment. She leaves her sewing machine ready to mend clothing. She cuts her own hair. Friends loan her money for gasoline to pick up her youngest daughter, Lauren, 16, at school, and to go to job interviews.
There’s a chance her house may go into foreclosure, even with her mortgage payment being less than most people’s rent. The property, in a pretty middle-class neighborhood overlooking Milton Area High School’s football fields, could go to sheriff’s sale next month if she doesn’t get the back taxes paid.
That almost happened last year, she said.
She’s thought about relocating, but that wouldn’t be fair to Lauren, plus it would move her farther away from her other daughter and son-in-law, who are expecting Dubosky’s first grandchild in October.
“At my age, you’re 10 years to retirement,” she said. “I’m not going to retire. With the divorce, I don’t have any savings. I’m starting over, like getting out of high school again.”
That’s not to say she doesn’t keep a positive attitude.
In fact, that’s a big piece of advice she would give to anyone recently laid off.
“Take the moments to have the pity party. Get through it because it’s a big thing,” she said. “Then pick yourself up and look at yourself honestly. What are your strengths?”
That’s what she has been doing, she said.
From her time at Harris, she grew a passion for information management and learned more about the federal HIPAA privacy laws than most. Before Harris, she worked at a marketing firm. Before that, she was a manager at McDonald’s.
“I’ve been working since I was 12,” she said.
Dubosky looks at her experience and hopes that it will make her stand out among the hundreds out there looking for similar work.
“I want employers to know they’re not taking a chance on me,” she said.
-- E-mail comments to jdeinlein@dailyitem.com
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Paulette Dubosky of Milton, uses her sewing machine to do the odd clothing repair job to help earn a bit of income while she continues to try and find a job after being laid off from her previous job. Rob Inglis/The Daily Item
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Furloughed woman faces sheriff’s sale
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