Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hello All,

Sorry I haven't been around much I have been trying to work and continue to transition like so many here. I have had to "slow" my transition due to the economy & I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but laser & electrolysis appointments have become a rarity.

I never thought it could happen in healthcare I thought I was, rather hopefully, immune. However, that has not been the case in anyway.

I have been working for a healthcare registry, a temp agency while I interview for full time work as it comes available. Most weeks I average approx. 32 to 36 hours, sometimes only 8 to 16 hours. I have a mortgage @ 790.00 and blood sucking cobra health insurance @ $435.00 a month. So, laser & electrolysis takes a backseat on the transitional bus...all the way @ the back. I'm barely maintaining my therapy costs & thank God I no longer have a car/truck payment.

So, my question is: How have all of you been coping?  ???

I know that just being trans & being "outed" or some other issue that makes it very difficult for many of us to maintain gainful employment is always a factor.

But tell me, us, your story how are you "doing it"; staying employed, making ends meet. :-\

Thank you in advance for your responses :-*

Well Last year was tough for me as the last 6 months averaged only 20-24 hours a week, sometimes only 16.  There went all the savings.  I droped therapy and kept dong electro (But I'm post op).

Found a new job last december and have been enjoying steady income and steady future at least for the next year or too.  But I'm lucky, very lucky to have found my current job with the project I'm working on. I'm in engineering and engineering is flat, except for a few places here and there.  I also live small.  IE I live on a sailboat, one because I love the water and boats and because it is the least expensive way to live in CA.

I also did not have medical insurance for a few years and $435 is alot to pay.  Me I played the odds that I was healthy and from a healthy family background, so I did not carry it or need it for some time.  But I have it again thru the new job but still don't used it.

To me transitioning was more important then medical insurance so I chose to keep the forward movement, but I might be crazy too ;-).

I go day by day.  I work 40 hrs per week.  And out of my paycheck I only get half.  My ex takes the other half.  Ah the price of divorce.

Laser and electro are on hold.  Rent, car payment, food if I am lucky.  But I am going to begin to look for something else, more in the I.T. field.  And college helps takes my mind off of things.  I am still full time and still on HRT.

As Beni said "Transitioning was more important".

Janet

I'm currently job hunting.  I had to forgo my Cobra coverage (with the exception of vision insurance...at least that's cheap) because it was well over $400 a month...that's almost as much as my rent/gas/cable! 

Fingers crossed that I get a job in a few days or I'll be back at the temp agency that I got my last job from...those people weren't very nice sometimes...

I know im going to have to slow my wardrobe building in the next few months, i need to save up for a new appartment, my roomie will likely not be able to live with me anymore, which sucks.  I have to be able to afford the rent food and bills, and add int he fact i have to buy a digital piano to learn on for my major, for piano is a requirement, I also have therapy hormones, and now i have to get more lessons outside of school for my violin which is my primary instrument.

I have my own list of costs as well, with the new apartment ill likely have to get food assistance.  Otherwise ill starve to be completely honest.  I still take on a positive outlook on things though, because I am transitioning as opposed to what was going on before, so its something, it may take time, but i have at least 5 more years of college before i hit the real work force in my major, so I have time.  I'm willing to take the hits and take my time.

I moved back in with my mother recently and have been looking for a job since November. But I have enough for hormones and am dipping to go into savings for electrolysis because I certainly need it. But I don't have any non transition related expenses and being unemployed means I get more in food benefits each month that I would ever eat on my own.

I live in Michigan where the economy has always been bad and the unemployment rate is currently and almost always the highest in the country. I am looking for work, but stopped checking listings ever day. Even when the economy picks up in the rest of the country, it's still going to be depressed in this state.

i've just been keeping up with what i have...not doing anything more to help me pass until i get money saved up. recently opened a savings acount and i ain't touching it unless it's an emergancy...been trying to stay sane without what i need.

I've transitioned to fulltime and just given up HRT except for the little bit I can afford , etc.

I'm waiting until I can literally be living off half my income to start pushing things further.










Reference removed- Janet Lynn

Being self-employed I am responsible for my own health care, so I have a dedicated savings account that I have built up over time for just that purpose, and am doing what a lot of people without insurance are doing- watching my health and praying I don't get sick. Before I began my transition I set aside a large chunk of my healthcare savings for the cost of transitioning and declared that money to be sacrosanct. Basically I'm just doing what kody2011 said and not touching it for anything else unless it becomes a dire emergency. I think it's sad so many have to suffer because of the unbridled greed of a few- but that's off topic and a subject for another place and time.

Thank you all :-*

Ya I wish I could drop the cobra, but being a diabetic, plus my anti-depressant meds (which I have been court ordered now to take >:( ) and the HRT- gotta have the cobra, sux big time cus' I would luv to use that $435 for laser & electrolysis more often.

Alas, I'm able to afford either once every other month so that's not too bad, right? :P

For those of you struggling on the food front; if you can afford the once a year payment of approx. $50 bucks get a costco or sam's club membership and buy the ramen noodles in bulk, trust me it works ;)

Take care my brothers & sister's I will be praying for us all :-*

im picking up extra paramedic shifts in the not so fun to work areas.im transporting alot of homeless people now...
im just happy i dont have to join them on the streets.

No impact other than listening to people at the pharmacy complain about their copays. 

Quote from: Mister on May 06, 2009, 05:44:08 PM
No impact other than listening to people at the pharmacy complain about their copays.

O_O

That's my life, pretty much.

You work in pharmacy biz?

Quote from: Annwyn on May 06, 2009, 06:22:32 PM
O_O

That's my life, pretty much.

You work in pharmacy biz?

No, I meant when I go to pick up medication, hormones, etc.  Lots of whining these days.

Quote from: Mister on May 06, 2009, 06:26:24 PM
No, I meant when I go to pick up medication, hormones, etc.  Lots of whining these days.

Imagine working there>.<

I actually just quit my job.  They'd been screwing up my checks for a few weeks, getting mad at me due to trans issues, and also wanted me to make my hair a natural color.  The hair thing was the last straw.
Now I'm changing it to go job hunting.  Because I WANT to and not because I HAVE to.
And, I'll be putting all those job hunting skills I read about and junk to good use.

Thus far the game plan is to start on one side of town, hitting up every pharmacy, leaving a resume and a card with the pharmacist in charge and a card with the front store manager(to bug the pharmacist about) and if I can't speak to the pharmacist at the time, find out when I can, notate it, and return.

The hair.  Christ, I worked my entire life to break out of that prison and be able to EXPRESS myself.  And then they had the nerve to tell me to change it.

Bastards.

Quote from: Annwyn on May 06, 2009, 06:37:50 PM
Imagine working there>.<

Once upon a time, I did.  Once I graduated, I got a job in my field.  While I feel for the people who work in my pharmacy (most of whom are fantastic), I don't know why they opt to work somewhere with such volatile customers. 

That's right, the customers really can make your day crappy.  I guess that's part of why I'm intending to apply at a few bookstores as well.

Good luck.  :)

Quote from: Annwyn on May 06, 2009, 06:47:59 PM
That's right, the customers really can make your day crappy.  I guess that's part of why I'm intending to apply at a few bookstores as well.

They aren't any better.  I waited on some of the snarkiest, most pretentious and helpless people you'd ever meet in a bookstore.  And they are NEVER wrong.  I thought working at a bookstore would be fantastic and in some ways it was, but the customers definitely weren't a part of that (with the exception of two professors who came in several times a week).  I don't think there's any retail/service place that is made better by the customers.  :-\

Quote from: Jaimey on May 06, 2009, 06:57:34 PM
They aren't any better.  I waited on some of the snarkiest, most pretentious and helpless people you'd ever meet in a bookstore.  And they are NEVER wrong.  I thought working at a bookstore would be fantastic and in some ways it was, but the customers definitely weren't a part of that (with the exception of two professors who came in several times a week).  I don't think there's any retail/service place that is made better by the customers.  :-\

If you directly deal with customers, it sucks, no if ands nor buts, even over the phone its just marginally less crappy.  In person they have a person they can screw around with and piss off.  Its a nightmare in the food service industry, I mean its just down right horrid.....bleh.

Its kind of nice I'm going into a teaching degree, because the people I deal with there will often be wrong, and I'm allowed to correct them.  Can't be mean about it, but that doesn't bother me, I'm not mean by nature, but still, I don't have to deal with that customer is always right crap.

although I did read this one comic where a character put a funny sign up in his store
"The customer isn't always right, in fact the customer is often a complete idiot.  If you are complaining about this sign, You are this person."

Ah, the "Customer is Always Right."

A few years back pushy types would raise this issue. I would than point out that, "JC Penney was noted for saying that. The last I checked the company was in bankruptcy proceedings."

Quote from: Rachel on May 06, 2009, 07:05:49 PM
even over the phone its just marginally less crappy.

I don't know...I think I like in person customer service better.  I was on phones this time last year for flexible spending accounts...I got some of the most hateful phone calls.  The best was a guy who told me he was going to call his congressman about the mistake that was made on his claim (it was a really simple mistake to fix, by the way).  It was all I could do not to say, "sir, you do know this program is voluntary, don't you?"  The weirdest part was that he didn't want to speak to a supervisor...weird.

:D  You know, I complain about customer service, but then again, I don't hate it.  The good customers can make it worthwhile.  I had a customer give me $20 for helping him find books during Christmas.  We weren't supposed to take tips, but he insisted and frankly, I'd have to work for three hours to earn the same amount, so I took it.  I was also given $10 for wrapping a gift once.  I probably got 4 or 5 tips in two years working there.  I'm starting to think that tips should be encouraged...but then they'd just want to lower the hourly wages...

Retail anywhere you're going to have to deal with sucky customers. I work at a pet shop and I didn't think that could be anywhere near as bad as ->-bleeped-<- like fast food, but some people are. There are the people who will come in to get advise about why their 12" bala shark is dying in an aquarium that it can literally not turn around in, and then they'll yell at you for telling them it's the tank size. There are the people who will insist on buying 5 geckos to put into a plastic box with no heat or humidity control and then come back to bitch that their animals died. There are people who will buy 2 aggressive hamsters against advising and complain that we won't treat them for free when they bring back the weakling with its face ripped off.

Don't get me wrong, there are good customers, but the bad ones are everywhere, it doesn't matter if you work in a pharmacy, a bookstore or a pet shop. It really makes me appreciate the ones that go out of their way to be human. And I have more respect for the people that wait on me now that I've been on their side of things.

And I do agree with Jaimey about customer service being easier in person than on the phone. People are so impatient on the phone, and they seem to think they're always talking to someone in charge who can get them what they want. It's hard to explain that it doesn't work that way.

If not for my 5-6 years with Wal-Mart, I wouldn't appreciate my factory job so much. Though I'm thinking now it could get in the way of my well-being. . .(I live in southern Texas.)

The economic crunch effects me little for now, thanks to being young (28 on the 19th :) ), living alone, having no children, having no ex-spouse, not moving out of the care of family until knowing with all certainty I would never need to move back. . .and being early into all of this. I did some quick "napkin math" on electrolysis for my face given references and my speculative income in the future. Suffice it to say, my previous plans of getting a "real" house (I currently live in a mobile home) after paying off this one are waylaid.

I waited on some of the snarkiest, most pretentious and helpless people you'd ever meet in a bookstore.

HEY!  I hang out in bookstores and I'm NOT any of those things.  Oh, wait, yes I am.

But the publishing industry is following the recording industry if not down the drain, at least into a very different mode of doing business.  In the last two years SF lost it's two Tower Record stores, and its Virgin Megastore, and both SF as well as Berkeley (where the snarkiest, most pretentious and helpless people you'd ever meet all seem to want to go to college) have lost long time, and much beloved bookstores.

As for the hair, it's your decision.  Business have some sort of public image to uphold, and I tend to support them in their right to do business as they see fit.  You can have odd hair color, the Black&Decker facial accessories, tats everywhere and still be in our union, and you can do rock shows and movies, but your not going to get a call to work conventions or the big downtown hotels, as our agreement with them stipulates a basic dress code.  People know that, and make their choices accordingly.

Quote from: MasterAsh on May 07, 2009, 03:05:37 AM
If not for my 5-6 years with Wal-Mart, I wouldn't appreciate my factory job so much. Though I'm thinking now it could get in the way of my well-being. . .(I live in southern Texas.)

I could never do factory work, too much risk to everything I hold important to me.  I'm a musician and my hands are everything to me, if i ever got them hurt I would not be able to play my violin.....which not only would kill me inside, but would ruin my career choice after college.