Got myself a situation, any advice would be really helpful ERA. Posting here as well because someone with similar experience may offer some advice, or anyone in general.
Company has started to furlough a bunch of workers without a choice. Tomorrow, however, I expect to be given a choice since I have a friend higher up who let me know some of us will be getting this choice. Here are my choices:
1) Stay and work, but I'd go from salary to hourly. I would be paid $30/hr, so after two weeks (biweekly paid, 40hrs x2) that'd be $2400 BEFORE taxes. My normal salary is 2850 before taxes, so its a $400 pay cut. After taxes and withholdings (in Cali), I'd expect my take home to be around $1700. My workload is expected to become significantly more stressful to cover for the people that were furloughed, and I'd be unsure how the work etc would be played out since we'd have to do telehealth and my line of work (behavior therapy) does not make that an easy transition.
2) Choose to be furloughed, up to May 1st. Apply for unemployment, expect to get the cali 450 + hopefully the 600 fed help. So after 2 weeks, that'd be 2100, not far off from the hourly pay cut they're gonna offer. The cons are I'm not sure how quickly that 600 will be doled out . Also, my health insurance probable goes COBRA, right? Currently 130 gets withheld for health ($100) + dental + vision insurance. COBRA might be pricy? Pro's is some relaxation from the stressful past 2 weeks of trying to set everything up for it to come crashing down today for everyone in the company. I'm lucky to still live at home so rent etc is not a concern, and I'm really grateful for that. Have savings as well.
Really struggling to choose one. Any advice would be really helpful, appreciate it.