Being Furloughed from the Hotel Industry with Blair
Furloughed from the Hotel Industry with Emily and Blair
On this episode of Financially Naked: Stories from The Financial Gym, our host is Emily Egan, PR Manager. She is joined by Financial Gym client, Blair, to talk about being furloughed from the hotel industry.
Podcast Notes
Blair has worked in the hotel industry with Marriott for six years. For the past three years she was located in Washington D.C., in their headquarters.
From the beginning, they knew they were going to be hit hard. They compared it (how the travel industry was affected) to 9/11 at first, but now it cannot be compared to anything the company has experienced before.
On April 4, 80% of the headquarters crew were laid off. They were told it was going to be a 60- to 90-day furlough and they are coming up on that 60-day mark. Blair imagines furlough will be extended.
Blair has been a client of Joy’s for a while. She was the first person Blair reached out to when she was furloughed. She wanted to be extra prepared and have a plan in place.
Prior to Joy, Blair was uncomfortable managing her money and this situation was even more uncomfortable. The first step was to see what Blair could cut so she could pay rent, because that wasn’t going away.
Joy encouraged Blair and instilled confidence in her to call her lenders. Blair was able to get a deferral on her car payment and an emergency room bill she was paying on.
She moved a credit card balance over to a 0%, 15-month credit card that took a little pressure off a trip she just returned from.
Blair froze all of her automatic transfers to her savings accounts, so they could evaluate what she has available.
When Blair first started at The Gym, one of her three-to-five year goals was moving. A silver lining to the furlough is that she and her boyfriend moved back to Jacksonville, Florida, where they are both from. The other goal is to buy a home there, but that may be a while.
Moving was a smart thing for them to do financially, as the cost of living in D.C. is high, in addition to Florida having warmer weather and more space to move around.
Moving from D.C. to Florida wasn’t difficult. Blair knows a lot of friends that are moving and getting out of the city. Florida is much less restrictive than D.C. Not many people are wearing masks and many people have been out and about.
Blair found The Gym from a girlfriend of hers. Blair’s boyfriend is a client of Joy’s as well. Money can be a big source of stress in a relationship and Blair wanted to take the emotion out of it to get on the same page in terms of their goals.
Once he saw Blair go through the Naked session and saw the lay of the land, he was on board. Joy recommended Splitwise to keep each other even on costs.
Blair and her boyfriend talk about money during their weekly business meeting.
Pre-quarantine, Blair took a visual design course, through General Assembly and it was all paid for by work, because it is a skill that is related to her job.
She did a two-day crash course on the Adobe Suite program because it is something she has always dabbled in. When all of this started, she was lucky enough to have the programs on her computer so she could continue to build on those skills.
During the quarantine, Blair has been helping people with their resumes, specifically design layout. She is excited to try to freelance when she is comfortable.
Blair has been keeping in touch with her team and friends that are in the field. It is valuable to have a 360 view of the industry.
Resources Mentioned
Splitwise: splitwise.com