March 12
The day after losing her job, Gayl—who speaks with a clear, clipped voice and cuts a professional, put-together figure—contacts a headhunter who focuses on insurance. He says finding her a job will take a while. “I don’t have a while,” responds Gayl, who knows her severance package (seven weeks’ pay plus four weeks’ vacation) won’t last forever. After a couple of weeks, she gets her first interview, a “great interview,” she believes. Ten days later, after not hearing a word, she calls the headhunter. She didn’t get the job.