Any DU'ers out there, 55+ looking for a job?

[magical thyme]

21. I was laid off a few months after 9/11 at age 48

I've been more out than in work since then. I'm 59 now. I've burned through all my savings except I own my home outright, so I still have that.

I went back to school for allied health care back in '08 and ended up with a big chunk of school loans. I also found a sucky part time job while in school with a finance company that had moved to Maine to get cheap US labor. I left that job after a year, since the clinical training part of the health care program was full-time plus and 2-3 hour commute.

Health care has been per diem, no benefits at all (not even per diem differential), at a lab chain that pays $3/hour less than other area hospital labs, and horrible management - it makes the sucky job seem heavenly since that only sucks during 5-6 months of tax season and then is actually kind of fun.

Anyway, I just got hired back at former sucky job, which will be full time for 6-8 weeks of training, and then 3 days/week. I will work per diem at the lab weekends only to flesh out the income. While I was away, they had major housecleaning, which included walking my evil manager out the door and since it involved QC issues, I'm hoping also included firing her crony who stole my IRA docs and trumped up false charges against me when she was trying to get me fired so she could shoehorn her newly divorced sister into my job.

Knowing what I know about the prior sucky job, I expect I'll be able to turn it into full time by next year's tax season. If not, at least it will give the lab a chance for the housecleaning *they* need to do. Right now they are protecting a semi-deadbeat porn addict, but he's become increasingly brazen. No longer hiding in blood bank, I saw him right out front in hematology staring at female genitals on his computer. It's just a matter of time before the impatient ER doc or an OR doc with emergency body fluid comes running to him and gets an eyeful. That complaint will go a long way to getting this lab chain in trouble. At least I hope it will.

No benefits at this point, but will have them with the part time job. Just not a living wage part time, although combined with the lab hopefully will be.

Oh, in my former life I worked in high tech marketing communications for nearly 20 years and made about 5x what I make now.