Coupla questions:
1. How long would you stay in a brain numbing dead end job in a crap area that pays dirt, with people you mostly tolerate, and offers no advancement whatsoever but provides health insurance?
2. Has anyone ever dealt with being between jobs without insurance or paid for theirs out of pocket during fertility treatments?
3. Any advice for coping with #1 after 3 years?
Twelve Grapes 
6 comments
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October 11, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Biz
Unfortunately, I have never had the privilege of staying at any job for 3 years. Well, it’ll be 3 years in May, but my current job rocks. It doesn’t have insurance, though. I’ve never had a position that offered insurance either… I should really review my career horizons!
I have to pay all my IF related expenses out of pocket. Last year, I paid for the stat subsidized health insurance just *in case* my endo flaired up. I do know that having a lapse in coverage is kinda the kiss of death for endo and IF coverage, so check out your state (and any states you might, someday, maybe move to) laws regarding continuous coverage. Sometimes you’re better off going broke to paid for coverage out-of-pocket…
October 11, 2010 at 12:42 pm
lis
wow. yes, ive stayed somewhere fort health insurance but i was also ACTIVELY (read: every waking minute) searching for work elsewhere. i wish i could tell you how i coped with a shitty work environment, but i did it for ten years. i honestly am so happy now that i have a job a love and that i am treated like an adult at. good luck, hon.
xoxo
lis
October 11, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Sarah
Ugh, I had a shit job plus shit fertility insurance, so luckily that wasn’t one of the things that kept me there (needing a paycheck at the time was the biggest one).
We have paid over $5,000 so far in infertility testing, surgeries, u/s, etc and that was all out of pocket. Can’t even imagine trying to pay for an actual IVF or other treatment – it would clear our savings out in one fell swoop. The savings that we only have b/c my MIL died last year and left us her mutual funds.
I hope you can find a new job with great insurance and make the transition over without having to be uninsured in between! That would be the best option right?
The last year I was there, only way I knew how to cope with my crap job was to stop caring. I started pushing TONS of responsibility and work onto my assistant and stopped worrying if things didn’t get done. I tried to leave things at the office instead of bringing them home with me (literally and emotionally). I stopped answering after hours phone calls from my boss. If it didn’t get done…well, then I would do it later. It worked okay, not perfect, but since I was getting anxiety attacks and high blood pressure, it’s really the only thing I could do.
Hope you get some relief soon!
October 12, 2010 at 4:24 am
Mrs. Lemon
I too feel like I am working here for my great fertility coverage. For the time, I have decided it is worth it. I have put a timeline in place though. IF not pregnant, I will give this one more year, if pregnant, I will give this 9 more months and figure something different to go back to post ML. I needed to have a some sort of timing in place so I could deal. Either way, worse case scenario, new job in 18 months or so max.
October 14, 2010 at 9:07 am
Roccie
Oh my law. I hate my job. I cannot help you at all. I try to tell myself “you can do anything for a year” because I am always planning to be pregnant. Yeah, well, that didnt work out.
I try to see co workers as brothers and sisters. I can hate my sister one minute and forgive/forget a few minutes later. It doesnt help in the moment when I want to throttle them, but it does help as I am driving in – helps to suppress the dread.
All my ART has been out of pocket since our 2nd IVF. But you are gonna need coverage when you are all fat and pregnant.
October 18, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Adele
I’m catching up on posts so this answer is tardy tardy tardy. The health insurance thing is huge. As in, a huge pain in the butt. And, I am guessing, a huge case of golden handcuffs when you have coverage that extends to IF. You could do COBRA but I doubt there’s any infertility coverage with that. I think it’s worth waiting until you have something to jump into, but I know how hard that is to find, especially in this really crap economy.
How’s this? I hope an excellent job alternative, with good prospects and interesting people materializes soon. And I hope it brings with it some excellent insurance.