Being Unemployed

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Reading the post below by @gudheart reminded me of my unemployed days. I got into a new industry and company after a long stint in the retail industry. Even though I was a newbie, I was accepted as a supervisor because of my qualifications and credentials. Things went well. I manage to get the trust and acceptance of my peers and I was actually promoted to a senior supervisor a year after being hired. Then it happened... People started noticing less and less business coming in. We were still given regular and full schedules but work was almost non-existent. This was fine at first because we were still receiving our salaries and full benefits and we weren't doing anything at all at work. This went on for a good three years and then the day came. It was a holiday but people were asked to come to work for a meeting. I had my initial thoughts about it because I noticed that it was only people from our department that were in the office for the meeting. Plus, we had the HR Manager presiding the meeting. The meeting in itself was brief. The company for the past couple of years was unable to renew its license hence it cannot operate fully. They were closing down our department ONLY - the Operations Department. The other departments will continue on but will be tasked in handling the business of sister companies. The separation pay was substantial but being let go like that left a bitter impression. Like what I wrote in my comment in @gudheart 's discussion, with the volatile nature of work, no job is safe. Hopefully, companies and corporations look at providing security of tenure to its workers. Have you ever had the misfortune of being laid off?