Saving Someone's Job

This story caught my eye, about an employee who volunteered to be laid off so someone else's job would be saved.

I was in a similar position 10 years ago. I worked for an insurance company TPA (Third Party Administrator, but we didn't put cover sheets on the TPA reports!). We were unsure if our contract would be renewed. If it was, we were told that one person would need to be laid off. And I volunteered to be that person. I was dithering about staying home with the then-4-year Ernest, my elderly mother needed more assistance, and my husband and I agreed it would be the best thing for our family. Unfortunately I couldn't save someone else's job -- the contract was not renewed and everyone was laid off.

Now I work as an aide at an elementary school. I get laid off every year. I am on a strange cusp, always the last aide to be laid off, and the first to be rehired. I feel a similar dilemma coming on this year. I won't have a child at the school next year, I don't really need the job, and I'm a little burnt out. There is a wonderful young woman, hired after me, who has a teaching credential, but she is working as an aide. She was a long-term sub last year...I think if the school had an opening, they would hire her. However, just like last year they are now pink-slipping all the nontentured teachers, so there is slim hope of her getting a teaching position. And she's pregnant! And...

I tell you right now, if my quitting would save her aide job I would do it in an instant.