Well, this sucks. DH was laid off today.

For over 2 years, DH has worked for a very small start-up that does audio software stuff. They came out with one product and have been working on some cloud/app options. In the early summer, the CEO and President told him they wanted him to focus on IP, and gave him the goal of filing 10 patents by the end of the year. The reward was to be a good bonus (which was 50% of his salary). Cool. DH has worked REALLY hard since, and actually got 12 done before Thanksgiving. 

Then today, FedEx dropped off a letter for him. In it was a check with the memo "Last Pay." They also sent him an email saying his position had been eliminated and would be giving him 2 weeks' severance. He was PISSED. He wound up calling them and they argued about the bonus. They said they'd thought it would be around 1/10th of what it should have been. Apparently they'll let him know tomorrow what they come up with as a final decision on it. Anything's better than nothing, and I'm grateful for that. 

But the situation still completely sucks. The last few years our financial situation hasn't been that great and our savings is nill. We know we're going to have to pay a lot in taxes next year. And DH does something VERY specific and has a VP title (he doesn't care about titles, but it may scare off potential employers). As a recruiter myself, I know how hard it could be for him to find something else, let alone quickly. 

So I'm scared. Really scared. Had to break it to DD16 this afternoon, and she's worried that we might have to move. I'm just worried that... Well, at this point I'm worried about just about everything. 

Just had to vent...

ADDING... Thanks, everyone, for your kind words and advice. To give some more details to hopefully clear up some things, it wasn't just DH who was laid off. There were two others as well. We've talked about it, and he's confident his being laid off had nothing to do with them not wanting to pay the bonus. He said if he felt it was something nefarious, he wouldn't hesitate to contact an attorney. He really thinks it was a money issue. It's a really small (10-ish employee) company, funded by angel investors, and they haven't been doing all that well. I think DH is kicking himself now for not getting the new bonus details in writing, but there's not much we can do about that now. I'm glad they're going to give him SOMETHING, and just have my fingers crossed that his networking yields him something quickly.