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When I worked for a major electronics retailer years back, it was common practice for them to fire managers who had large bonuses earned, but not paid. There was a corporate rule that if you were not employed by the company at the time of distribution, you could not collect your bonus earned. At the time a store manager would make about $20K a year in salary and $20K to $30K in bonus in July. We use to just dread the last week of June, the end of the fiscal year.

I decided I didn't want to work for a company that does that and went out and got a straight commission sales job where I would get paid what I earned, not what someone decided to give me. Over time I moved up in the company and am now one of the owners.

My wife found herself laid off after the birth of our first child. She could have b & m'd, but instead she took the situation of being stuck at home with her newborn and turned it into a positive. She started an in-home day care and was soon grossing $700+ a week, which was considerably more than she had been making as a retail manager.

Stories like ours are legion. This is a great country where you control your destiny and make your future. Sometimes stuff happens, but you MUST keep your mind open to new possibilities. Maybe you need to get retrained, maybe you need to move, maybe you need to adjust your lifestyle. Start your own business. Change careers to something associated with what you did before, but maybe with a great risk, but a greater chance for reward.