Meet Alex*, a talented tenor with the beginnings of a strong résumé to match. After graduating from one of the country’s top music conservatories, he almost immediately landed a job in an opera company’s chorus. The steady work allowed Alex a dependable, livable income and a base—if he so desired—to pursue freelance opportunities in his off-time. True, he wasn’t living it up like Kublai Khan, but he could afford both the boxed macaroni and cheese and the milk.
Then the 2007 recession hit and companies started dropping like flies. The company that employed Alex was not immune to extreme financial losses. “I had no idea what Chapter 11 meant when I was in school,” Alex says somewhat ruefully. “But now I could probably teach a seminar on it.” When the news came that the company would be permanently boarding up its doors—after a period of negotiations and board meetings that amounted to what Alex describes as “the most stressful few weeks I’ve ever experienced”—Alex and his colleagues were suddenly left jobless. Alex had wanted to “lay low” for a few years after graduating, focusing on the demands of his prime job and adding to that workload gradually.
“Looking back, I should have figured all of my stuff out before I graduated,” says Alex from his parents’ home, where he has been living for the last 18 months. “Then I could have found one or two other gigs that would have helped me out if one fell through. You hear all the time about companies struggling, cutting back—it’s not news. But in school we were never really told what to do when we didn’t get work—it was just assumed that we would always have it.”
Alex admits to making several other mistakes during his employed years, mistakes he’s sorting out now with the benefit of not having to pay rent but the herculean task of building his CV in an increasingly competitive market. And while it’s never fun to talk about the possibility of unemployment, the more you sort out your game plan in advance, the better off you’ll be should the unfortunate sword of Damocles ever fall on your head.
Know before You Go
Whether your job is solid as a rock or hanging on by a thread, you should be putting as much of your paycheck as you can toward savings. Many counselors advocate having anywhere between three to eight months’ worth of living expenses squirreled away—but even if you eke out just enough for one or two months, that’s better than nothing. If you’re eating out almost nightly and your savings account is collecting cobwebs, force yourself to cook at home five days a week to siphon some more cash into your emergency fund. Set up your checking account to automatically make a weekly transfer into savings. Start with $35 a week (or $5 a day) and increase it during fatter times.
If, like Alex, you’re just starting out with an income that allows you to just scrape by, look for other ways to cut down on your bills. Pay the minimum on your credit card balance for a period of time if it gives you an extra $20 or $50 each month that can go toward savings. “Paying down debt is generally a good idea—until you’ve lost your job,” writes MSN finance expert Liz Pulliam Weston. “Then cash becomes king.” Keep your shelves pared down after you’ve read that New York Times bestseller by periodically selling your used books to www.Powells.com (they’ll pay for the shipping and deposit a nice chunk of change directly into your PayPal account).
Finally, keep abreast of market trends. Companies and performance groups that shut down generally don’t close out of nowhere, and even nonprofit corporations are required by law to make their financial statements available to the public. You can find this information on websites like www.GuideStar.org and www.FoundationCenter.org, or you can request a company’s Form 990 information from the IRS by directing a request (including the name of the organization and the tax year) to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue; Attn: Freedom of Information Reading Room; 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW; Washington, DC 20224.
More casually, you can subscribe to a news aggregation website’s RSS feed, like that of www.ArtsJournal.com which will bring you breaking news including those of companies on the financial outs. Remember that as a singer, you’re an artist but also a businessperson and, as such, you should be aware of who’s hiring and who’s firing (at the very least). That goes double for singers who are supplementing their income with another job, be it temping, bartending, teaching, or more.
Keep Your Cool
Whether you’re being let go from a performing organization or a day job, try to maintain composure during the dreaded pink-slip meeting. “I think [bursting into tears is] completely normal and natural,” employment consultant Martha Finney recently told Time magazine, though at the same time Finney cautions against fighting the layoff: “They’re not suddenly going to press the rewind button and totally unlay you off. . . . It’s going to leave a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.”
“In this business, you work with someone five or six times over in totally different settings,” adds Alex, “and the person who laid you off may be the person who hires you somewhere down the line.” Alex admits to getting “a little emotional” but “kept it together to be professional.” It worked to his advantage as Alex has already run into several of his former colleagues and employers on the audition circuit. “Even if you didn’t witness firsthand someone’s breakdown, you hear about it. Rejection is so natural in this business that if you can deal with it, that only helps your reputation.”
Of course, losing your income is an emotional blow, and allowing those feelings to get released is better than keeping them pent up. Let yourself calm down: break into that bottle of wine or dig into a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and, for the first 24 hours, tell only the essential people in your life about your change in situation. Talking to your significant other, children, spouse, parents, or close friends will give you practice to say the words without choking up (especially if it’s your first time being unemployed). When you can keep it together, then inform people like your voice teacher, coach, therapist, and agent so you can form a game plan. Let your friends and colleagues know that you’re looking for work, even if it’s just through a quick Facebook status update or a tweet, to get the ball rolling on networking.
Finally, file for unemployment as soon as possible. Even if you get work before it comes through, that money is for situations such as this (just remember to have taxes withheld by the government so that you don’t owe more than you expect next April). Unemployment insurance is something that is taken out of your paycheck each week and is waiting for you to use should the time ever come.
Weigh Your Options
“The minute I realized I wouldn’t have a paycheck anymore, I immediately knew I would have to move,” says Alex, who was living alone in a studio apartment. At first, he considered finding a roommate, but even then the idea of paying rent seemed too insurmountable and, fortunately, his parents “have always made it clear that my room is still there.” Yes, he admits to swallowing some pride, but when rent is your biggest expense, it’s a boon to your wallet if you can cut that—however temporarily. If moving home is not an option, find a means of splitting rent with a roommate or working out with your spouse or partner a means of paying in proportion to your means. If your lease is up for renewal, see if you can negotiate with your landlord—but be forewarned that if you no longer earn the minimum salary to live in your building per your lease that you can be legally kicked out.
Get down to brass tacks with your other expenses by making a list of where your money goes each month—everything from Time Warner Cable and AT&T bills to your daily Starbucks and occasional iTunes purchase. Be honest and don’t be afraid of how long the list gets: now is not the time to fudge the truth to seem virtuous.
“One phrase I am hearing a lot is ‘I can last x months without changing my lifestyle,’” executive coach Michael Melcher told the New York Times in 2009. “Why are people thinking this way? If you are not earning income, your lifestyle should change.” Weston advocates making your spending lists in order of importance, thereby making it easy to knock off the bottom items and also keeping an “If Things Get Really Bad” list that ensures you have money to cover mortgage or rent, utilities, and a means of transportation.
Should things come to this point, it’s time to call credit card companies and your student loan management for refinancing options (many companies, wanting to keep their customers paying off debt, now offer a month “off” from paying even the minimum). In certain cases, such as that with Time Warner Cable, you can even skip a month of payment with only a minor late fee that is tacked onto your next bill. Skipping too many payments will damage your credit, but it at least buys you a little bit of time if you’re scrambling.
In your contingency plan, make sure you have your bases covered when it comes to your profession. Alex was too old to stay on his parents’ insurance, but with their help he found a sliding-scale clinic for regular checkups and the occasional ENT issue. “It’s not fancy, but it does the job,” he says. In addition to unemployment insurance, see if you qualify for food stamps to maintain the essentials in your pantry. See if your voice teacher or coach will barter for a lesson or session. If not, ask for a referral.
Finally, seek out whatever employment options you can that will still allow you to audition and perform as needed. For the last year, Alex has been temping for a nonprofit. While it doesn’t offer him any benefits (health insurance, paid time off, etc.), he is able to take time as needed for rehearsals and the odd out-of-town trip for auditions. The situation has changed drastically—temping, rather than singing, is now his primary source of income—but Alex does feel freer now to “sing anywhere and everywhere,” whether it’s at his parents’ church as a choir sub or the odd boutique production.
“I had to learn it the hard way,” he says, “but I now know not to put all of my eggs in one basket.”
*Name has been changed at the singer’s request.
