Indeed even though I am a high salary earner, I end up with approximately 1200 CHF to live on for myself and my son per month. That is after rent, taxes, alimony, medical bills.

The rest goes into the pot for balancing the life for my other two children.

Indeed I will have to write to the judge at some point to announce my new found circumstances.

Fingers crossed I can pick up consultancy which honestly I do not mind and then there would not be a gap in cashflow.

OP - A few inputs, based on your posts.

Ref outplacement support, ask for a free kick-off call with the consultant to help you understand their services, whether you will find it helpful, how long for etc. I.e. Is this service and consultant any good for you?

You could also ask your employer for flexibility to take the outplacement consultant budget as cash, or put it towards reskilling, or even a retirement planning consultant. If it doesn't cost more than the outplacement, it could be even better for you.

Ref your annual vacation entitlement, you mentioned that carried forward leave is usually forfeit. That's unlawful under the Swiss code of obligations (some case law exceptions where untaken leave is older than 5 years). If you cannot fully use your vacation entitlement before your end date, your employer must pay this with your final salary. It is reasonable to politely remind them of this, and that your focus is jobhunting, rather than vacation.

Ref chomage, if you have dependent children, you can receive 80% of your insured salary, which is capped at CHF 148,200. If eligible, you will continue to receive family allowance during receipt of chomage.

When you leave your employment, if you are within 4 years of retirement age, chomage can be paid for longer than 2 years. I realise you are close to 60, and yet it could be an option to ask your employer if they can propose options to keep you on a bit longer, even if it's at a reduced activity rate, or salary (although your chomage is based on the higher of your annual insured salary, over the last 6, or 12 months).

I recommend that as soon as the termination decision and date has been communicated, even if verbally - that is the moment when you should register yourself. This also demonstrates that you are taking the job search seriously.

Have you also assessed the possibility of early retirement?

And, are you aware that your employers 2nd pillar pension now has a legal obligation to invite you to stay in the pension fund (aged 58+), until normal retirement age and you can continue to make pension contributions, and continue coverage for disability, death, widows and orphans pension etc?

Assuming you'll get a couple of months worth of salary with and can live another two years off the RAV, you might as well consider enjoying the likes of early retirement?

Finished signing the exit agreements with my current employer and being honest it was better than expected.

They will respect any unused holiday and pay if not taken, however we have an agreement that I try and take it in the last part of my employment as this is around the time I plan to move apartment, either way it is fair.

The outplacement is really good and does involve access to training courses too & last for three months when started.

Early retirement is not really possible, I think but will circle back around, this is mainly due to the conditions of the divorce. Honestly no issue to knock out another 5 years of working. I really needed to get to May 2022 as that is when the main asset is sold and then bar paying contribution for the children (no issue with that), then everything is settled for good.

Pension will contact me separately, so will see what that says when it turns up, it is a good scheme so will try and stay with that one.

I had a phone call to register but need to complete an online course and then submit documents online and then I will get an appointment, this is due to adapting for covid situation, will get that done today

Thanks HIAO that was some really good points you made.

Landers, man! you know how to cheer up a troubled spirit!

Yet, you are right, at 60, with unemployment benefits, and in case of good employment history, prior salary, good investments & savings, I would consider 'early or partial retirement'.

I have seen too much of the above-fore mentioned (people not able to enjoy their money) lately....

Magic, I have never met you, but reading about your extraordinary story (or rather, extraordinarily horrible story) and seeing how practical you are being about the situation and somehow managing to maintain what looks to me like a positive/can-do outlook is inspiring. You are doing as much as you can to provide for your kids, and are quite diplomatic when referring to your ex (as opposed to slagging her off on an anonymous forum, which would be seriously uncool).

I really do hope you manage to land on your feet, and eventually are able to construct a new life that is fulfilling and enjoyable. You certainly deserve it!

I think I know the answers to most of this but still I am a bit speculative. I have reached out to some get professional advice but that maybe a few days off. Still I think it is worth posting as others may benefit too.

My intention is not to be unemployed and of course my preference is to a be hired full time by a company. However at the same time I plan to pursue contract work through an agency, so to be clear that they would run the payroll. I would not be self employed or having my own company.

If I get a -two- year contract for example and then unable to get another job, that would still mean I am able to claim chomage? (I believe that I can)

How is chomage affected for example if I claim for two months, then get a job for two years and then become unemployed, does that affect length of time able to claim.

At the end of the day I have no intention to be unemployed at all, maybe a bit optimistic but I think focusing 110% of my effort there is what I should be doing. The covid thing is going to make it a bit harder indeed but not impossible.

Gratitude to EF as some of the comments have really helped me, appreciate that
Will come back and update with what I am told too.

Quick update for those following this thread, the nice lady from Office of Employment called me and told me it was too early to register but to start my job search. In addition she followed it up with an email to confirm so that is cool.

Started with a company called LHH (www.llh.com) for job placement, really good enjoying that immensely

Been invited for -two- interviews and not even posted or applied yet, just through word of mouth but early days.

How do I put this, my transition out of my current job I am finding beyond challenging. Cannot say anymore than that but in all things in life we learn and see if there are ways we can improve.

What’s your area of expertise, and or interest?

You never know who on EF knows someone, who might know someone!

Thank you all for your messages with suggestions and support, really nice

Thought I would give a bit of an update on the "employment" side of things or more accurately being on chômage.

Six months in and I have got into a rhythm which a key part is looking after myself, mentally and physically which has helped and the covid kilo's as I call them have almost disappeared

On average I get interviews for about 50% of the jobs I apply for, had 7 job offers of which 5 were for less than I am getting on chômage, 2 offers got withdrawn when HR went through my details and see that I am now 60
All offers were in a different canton but most had WFH option(s)

Have shared this with my unemployment advisor as I always ask if uncertain and she is super supportive and impressed with how many interviews I get and happy that I am a real effort!

Further help was in that I had a "Bilan de competence" which was to test my IT skills and also access what course(s) I might do to get me a job sooner.

I wanted to switch to Cyber Security but in the end agree they were right as I have 27+ years Oracle Data warehousing, Database skills and was assigned to do an AWS course on Big Data. (just finished that one) I have almost 4 years in that area but not full time also having done some Hadoop etc.

My perception as WFH made a lot of companies wake up to the fact they can reduce payroll costs by hiring people in other countries, unless there is some regulatory reason to stop that happening.

There are still jobs and now I have a Lab environment I can hone my skills some more and considering doing the AWS certification over the next few months.

Grateful that my last company did me a great compensation package which I used 90% to settle debts and small amount on health related stuff to get me checked out and some minor surgery etc.
Interestingly the curve ball was that I had lost 30% vision in my right eye which hopefully is now going to correct itself.

I did that because I felt huge amount of guilt seeing friends and family getting sick, cancer, stroke etc, nothing fundamentally wrong with me, just too much alcohol and cake

Did make a request to the court with regards to my change in circumstances, will post that on another thread as I learnt a couple of lessons there.

Incredible management behaviors are not new, some ten years ago I was associated with a team in a multinational. They were all sent off on a weekend team-building exercise and came back on the Monday full of enthusiasm only to be told their jobs had been outsourced.

Quick update on my situation.

Had a great interview at the end of November 2021 and actually felt I could really work with this team of 7 who whilst being part of a big Swiss Bank.

A week later I received a phone call that they would like to hire me and offered me a conditional contract. The condition was that I must pass background checks, that is for financial, criminal, checking out my CV, qualifications, work references etc.

Yesterday I heard I had passed the Background checks and agreed a start date of the 1st Feb 2022.

This is a contract role for 12 months with a further 12 months and possible hire after that.

Just waiting for the paper contract which will take between 7 to 10 days.

Could not be happier

That's great news. Congratulations and well done!

Excellent outcome, congratulations !

Very happy for you, congrats!

Congrats! I'm glad you managed to find a new role so quickly!

Congratulations!!

Super news, magic, and thanks for sharing it. Hope you can enjoy the next two weeks thoroughly, and have a great start on the 1st Feb.