The Job Delimma

The Employment Quandry
As you might or might know I am desperately seeking employment.  After spending some time in the Hospital last year, I have spent the last eight months or so making my contacts every week.  As more and more time passed and the ever present need for a job increased, my standards of what qualifies as a good job, including pay, has decreased.

Couple in the fact that Colorado was among the 10 states that recently ended state extended unemployment benefits and it really has put me in a bind.  In response to this bind, I have lowered my standards further and am desperately seeking employment.  The reality though is that in Colorado there are not very many jobs and it is a very competitive market.

The hard truth I face though is that I have a mortgage, a car payment and a family to support so there is a very real financial number I must meet to ensure that we keep this standard of life.  I have eliminated everything I consider a luxury, such as cable t.v. and Netflix accounts.  I ensure that lights are never left on and we are not blowing money on things like Fast Food or anything else that is non-essential.  I then took and totaled the remaining bills and came up with a modest number that I need to make from either salary or hourly to survive.

And that number is very modest.  I am an IT Manager and my salaries have been very comfortable for our way living.  We are not rich by any stretch of the imagination but prior to the company I worked for being sold, we lived within our means.

Back in August 2010, the company I worked for was sold to a competitor.  The competitor kept all of us managers on board until we brought them up to speed then they decided to let the management staff go and back filled those positions with their own people.   This left a large group of us unemployed.  The economy was still reeling from the recession and then I ended up in the hospital.  Months passed with doctors visits, therapy, and residual care until I finally got the green light and a clean bill of health.

The dilemma I face as we fight for preservation deals with the job market and potential employers.  The interviews I have gone to focuses on the lapse between my last job and this potential job.  I have had prospects tell me straight out that they would not speak to me because of this gap.  And being an employer’s market where there are so many more candidates than jobs, I am sure they are not feeling the squeeze like I am.

At the conclusion of one interview, I was positive I was in.  It went fantastically.  He was all smiles and he even mentioned that he was looking forward to working with me.  Then he dropped the bomb.  “If it was up to me, I would hire you on the spot.  H.R. saw this lapse in your work history and it brought up a red flag and honestly they think we should pass on you.  I will try to talk to them to smooth it over but -”  But, don’t get your hopes up is how I understood it.

It is the single most aggravating situation for me as I really was in the hospital.  I really did go through months of therapy to get back into form.  Now I am ready to work- no, I NEED to work and something that I can not control is blocking my path.  I even brought the hospital discharge records in hopes it would make a difference, but as of today, it hasn’t.

The whole situation feels almost unconstitutional.  I have never experienced such blatant prejudice before and honestly it is shocking.  Meanwhile, the clock is slowly ticking down and I grow closer to ruin.  The law however is read that the unemployed are not a federally protected group, like homosexuals or people with disabilities so we are not eligible for protection from this sort of selective hiring.  The government has asked that employers not advertise this policy when placing want-ads, however I think it would really be nice if they did.  Time is crucial and I would rather not bother then try to sell ice to a penguin.

So where does that leave me?

You might be thinking there are programs out there to offer aid, and there are.  I just have a complete mental block with requesting aid when I am willing to work.  Hell, I WANT to work.  I have been doing it my whole life and I feel that this is part of why the system fails.  If employers are allowed to be prejudiced and we are pushed to welfare or any other government assisted program when we are capable and willing to work, then it is no wonder we spend so much money as a nation.  Aside from that, I am at a loss.  What would you do?

I don’t need help, I need a job.  If nothing changes I will eventually come to a point where I am forced to ask for help because self preservation will compromise my standards.  I have read some reports where they are considering regulating how people are hired, however I doubt it will be in time to help me.

Let me know your thoughts. - Re-post from http://theorysmith.com

Lost Heroes

I remember laying on the floor of my grandma's house, running my hands through the shag rug as I flipped the pages of LIFE magazine. LIFE magazine was really a neat magazine. It was larger than normal magazines with bright huge pictures. I remember staring at the picture from the ticker-tape parade for the Apollo 11 astronauts for what felt like hours. Here were men who defied the odds and landed on the moon. Men of solid character that we stood behind and as a country opened our arms and embraced.

My Grandma told me at the time that if I worked hard enough, I too could be a hero like them. It gave me a chance to dream and though I grew up far from being an Astronaut at least I had role-models and for a while, as I played in the yard, I relived the landing and I was an astronaut.

 Maybe it is childhood fantasy but it really put the notion that good always triumphs. Since then as I grew into an adult nothing ever gave me that same sort of hope. Nothing quite brought me back to that young man playing in the yard. I really grew to appreciate ordinary people who managed extraordinary feats.

But times change and as the years passed so to did the time of heroes. The world is smaller now with the advent of technology, and there still seems to be an appalling absence of heroes in the world. I would like to think there is still room for these extraordinary people in the world, but all the evidence points to the contrary. I suspect I am not alone in noticing this. I believe the success of all the comic books turned movies are a direct reflection of us fulfilling a need we might not even understand we have.

 It is pure speculation on my part but I think people want to be taken care of and there is a sense of security knowing these great people are running around solving the worlds problems. People who have the courage and integrity to follow their ideals and see them through. Men and women of great conviction that fight the good fight.

I am not saying there are not great people in the world. There are so many great minds, great speakers and talented people that we know of, it is impossible to not consider all of the other great people who are sitting and writing blogs, or curing diseases, or any number of other equally great things that will never get recognized. People who do little things daily that make the world a better place. These people are surely heroes in their own right but will remain largely anonymous.

Where are the people who could move a nation to tears with words? People who fought for equality and humanity. Men and women who stuck to their convictions and could see beyond today and dream of a future. We need the Martin Luther Kings, JFK's and Reagan's of the world. If you can not call these people heroes then surely you can acknowledge them for role-models. People we can point to as parents and say "you would be doing alright if you followed in his or her footsteps." I do try to be that person for my son, but I want him to follow the examples of people greater than me. When he is in the yard playing I want him to be more than a network engineer. I want him to be so great, perhaps he will be my hero.

In losing our role models we have lost the good part of ourselves. Our children are left to idolize people with questionable intentions. Do you really want them following the Lohan's on the world?

And what about athletes? We have become so forgiving of people with money I think we have come to expect the let down so it is no surprise when a "great" player is discovered to be on steroids. We are immune when we are told that some famous QB might have raped some waitress. We shrug and wonder what sort of year they will have? Knowing that with enough money thrown at the problem, it will go away. The Babe Ruth's and Johnny Unitas's are gone.

Our core values have been compromised. We used to celebrate things that were noble and now we seem bent on tearing these same ideals down. We eat up the personal lives of these people we call stars and drag things out of the past shadows, perhaps forgetting that they too are human and capable of mistakes. I think in this age of technology where we have so much information that it is irresponsible to report every shred of news that can possibly be squeezed out of a subject. Perhaps we should remember that maybe some of the best reporting is that which is not reported.

And Hollywood? Hollywood died when it needed to use scandal to drum up business because they ran out of ideas for movies Actors and Actresses should be ashamed at how they encourage the media and we should be ashamed for feeding them. Tell me, when they went to the Talent Agency for a part, was there an Agency to shoot the future "leaked" sex tape across the hall? When did it become sexy to show everything and leave nothing to the imagination. And talent? Again, when Hollywood had respect, the Stars were stars because they could sing, dance as well as act. They were not simply a pretty smile.

Obviously I am making blanketing statements when I know they don't include everyone. I know Hollywood still has its classy actors and deep meaningful scripts. My point is that none of these can overshadow the brand which Hollywood is marketing currently, so it is hard to identify someone of the current class of stars that I would consider worthy of role-model status. I am not expecting them to be saints but I wish I could point to someone who reminded me of Robert Montgomery or Martha Raye. Both had amazing lives, serving in the war and representing America by helping our troops as well as acting.

 As I father it is my deepest desire that my son becomes everything I will never be. I want for him to succeed in ways I never imagined and I sincerely hope he finds inspirational people who motivate and educate him. He will benefit from having the world at his fingertips and the vast amounts of knowledge at his disposal and it is my sincerest wish that he uses these tools with restraint. It is o.k. to not know everything and enjoy the journey of discovery. It is reasonable to not read what others have done before you but to find and forge your own path. And I hope in his journey that he can again find something lost and find his heroes. As I look around I suspect they will need them.

Can you name three people today you would tell your child is a hero?

 In conclusion, I imagine we must look at this in one of two ways. We either acknowledge that heroes exist and are distinguished by ability, courage, and conviction. Champions who move through life with grace and nobility and the fault lies in society for failing to truly rally behind these individuals and give them the credit they are due. Acknowledging them for more then 15 minutes of fame before they are overshadowed by the next big thing.

Or...

There is no room left in this age of convenience and information for the heroes of old and the years of great change are past. We are in a rut as a society and our morals have been compromised. We no longer expect great things from our role-models and in turn we have let our values slip. We have redefined what it means to be a hero and if they should be better than us, we will dig through their past until we can find a way to bring them down to our level, because at the end of the day, we really don't want heroes, we want fallible people who create distraction. These people will only ever be heroes in hindsight when we can look back and recognize them for contributions made after the lights of the media of died.

If this is then the case and heroes simply cannot exist because we are hell bent on destroying them then perhaps we need to look at our morals and what we are teaching or children.  

Find more interesting post at http://theorysmith.com

The Division Between the 1% and the Rest of Us.

The Recession Question

The rumor is the recession ended a couple years ago. No one told me. The claim is that the recession officially ended in June 2009. Apparently I missed a couple years of my life because I am one of the 99% that find life a constant struggle. Most Americans are still floundering with underwater mortgages, falling incomes and many, like me are still hunting for that ever elusive job.
But not everyone is floundering. The rich, America’s 1 percent had a fantastic year. Posting gains upward of 93% in the first year of the recovery. And the rest of us? Not so much. According to Emmanuel Saez and the World Top Income Database the bottom 90% lost $127. All told, the top 1% Average income for 2009 was $913,451. The other 99% tallied $41,696 and of that 99%, ninety percent (90%) had an Average income of $29,967. That was in 2009, the year the recession officially ended.

By June 2011 the median household income was just shy of 50k at $49,909(3) falling a total of 6.7% for the year. This is significant because during the recession years, household income only fell 3.2%. To sum that up, even though the recession has ended, household incomes are still falling and the only people making any money are the top 1%. And they are making a lot of it.
The other misconception that unemployment is better, however jobs are down. . Overall, unemployment fell from 9.1 in August of 2011 to 8.2 here in April and yet we are still bleeding jobs. We added just 120,000 jobs in March. On average we need to 150,000 jobs to stay at a medium level . I imagine that the deficit is a direct reflection of people getting bumped off of unemployment and basically just living in limbo. Welcome to my world.

The point in all of this is I really don’t see things getting better. We are told we are turning the corner and yet all I hear from people are stories of hardship and loss. My neighbors were both just laid off last week. Both of them. In the same week. What are the odds?

This is just another tale among many however. The empty houses in my neighborhood tell another tale. I live in one of the bigger cities in Colorado and yet in my neighborhood there are a slew of empty houses. In Colorado, there was one foreclosure in November for every 575 households in the state — making it 11th in the nation in foreclosures. Colorado boasts a population of 5.1 million. 68% of those people own houses (National Average is 66.6%) making the number of foreclosed houses in November 6031. Over six thousand people lost their homes right before the holidays.

The sad truth

The sad truth is that unless something drastic changes, I will never be in the 1%. I will live my life without ever having the sense of security that the upper class enjoys. My life will be a fight and I will go down swinging telling myself that I might not have money, but I have character. Moxie. Embracing the adage, “that which don’t kill me only makes me stronger.”

My issue with this is that people will tell you that if you are persistent you will make it. That everyone has an opportunity to succeed. I ask you now, does anyone truly believe this? Is there not a reason we consider this the Top 1%? If you break it down, that is 1 out of every 100 people make it. One person gets that lucky break. One person opens the door when opportunity knocks. It is staggering to think of all the things that have to go right to climb the ladder into that very elite club.
What separates the Gates and Buffets from the honor role student or the average Joe? In their respective fields do they not work unequivocally? Are the Gates and Buffets geniuses or simply lucky?

The entire message is confused. As society we idolize the rich and infamous, watching their dance through life while dreaming about what we do if we were so celebrated. We make them heroes when in fact, the true heroes are the small people. The country might serve the rich but it is the average person who make the world go round. The trash men, the janitors, and every person who holds and loves their job. Every person who does the jobs that I couldn’t and every person who is sitting there working desperately to keep the pieces of their fractured lives together as they slowly lose everything. These are the people who need to be rewarded.

We need to do the ethical thing and get these people back to work. Appreciate them and reward them financially. Nothing says thank you like a little extra money. Find a way to relieve the worries of losing their homes. Every home lost is another dream broke. Maybe for a while, we need to stop paying the 1% percent and start finding a way to reclaim the other ninety-nine. We need to ease the burden and remember that just because we claim that rope is slack, for many of us, we only feel the noose getting tighter.

Main Site

Sources:

Foreclosure rates in Colorado drop – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_19558978#ixzz1tUaTSomN
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2010.pdf
http://g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/topincomes/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/us/recession-officially-over-us-incomes-kept-falling.html?_r=1