From the comments at AoSHQ, in this post: Obama Just Plain Makes up "150,000 Jobs" He's "Saved or Created" So Far; No One in Press Seems Curious of Provenance of This Fictional Figure
Commenter David in PHX for now: O < W
Yeah, no kiddin'. I wish he'd gotten around to saving my job. However, as of last Wednesday, I and 4 others (from an 8-person department) have been terminated. Not to mention the scores of others, from other departments and buildings, that were still being "escorted" to the parking lot as I was leaving and after I was long gone. 28 years, will get less than half of what I would have gotten for retirement if I'd stuck it out for 5 more years, well too young for Social Security. Have done nothing for a week but desperately look for some -- any -- job to tide me over for a bit, and ... nothing. The first place I looked was Kelly Services, searched all 4 major metro areas around where I'm at (Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint, Lansing): Put every category in the search that might have something I could/would qualify for, came up with ...
Zero. Not just nothing interesting. Not just nothing decently-compensated. Not just nothing poorly-compensated.
Just. Nothing. And that's what I've gotten from every inquiry after that, as well.
7 comments:
Ugh. Sorry. Sound familiar?
I've kept an eye on your blog in case there were updates.
I have a meeting next Friday (8th) with some "outplacement" service The General has hired, supposedly to help us find new employment. Met with my fellow bounced compadres today for lunch - one of them had already had his first mtg. with the service and was not particularly impressed. Although nobody's going to be able to get blood from a turnip - This state is in an awful mess. The worst thing right at this moment is I'm going to have to move *again* after moving twice two years ago. I've had a series of troubles, starting in 2005 and getting progressively worse; I keep saying "It's got to get better!" (I am - used to be - a bit of a Pollyanna) ... but it just. keeps. gettin'. worse.
Yes, I got the definite sense your life was a cascading fustercluck for the last few years.
Unemployment scares me spitless. I was the last generation that could get a corporate gig without a degree, and it was a near-run thing then -- I'm an art school dropout, yay! I'd never get back in. If I had to, it would be back to menial jobs for me. And an awful lot of those are physical, which gets harder every year.
I don't mean to feed the downer. I've just always been mindful that my current bliss -- all bliss -- is a very precarious thing.
Anyway, keep us posted how it's going. If I were a prayin' weasel...
Same here -- I'm a Liberal Arts dropout, with no engineering background (not even all that great at math), but managed to stick it out as long as I did with a combination of tenacity and curiousity. I've always been curious about "how stuff works," whatever that stuff might be. I *did* get to use my favorite line in the "exit interview": When asked about education, "Two years of Liberal Arts, no degree -- but, unfortunately, no one cares if you can spell and know who a bunch of dead painters and writers are." Unless, of course, you are re-writing the meeting notes and correspondence of various higher-level engineers and bosses who are barely literate in anything other than mathematics ....
Re: Bliss -- You're absolutely correct, but sometimes we need the opposite to appreciate it. I have a feeling that the USA is about to get the opposite: Will she wake up and fight to get back all the good she had? I wonder.
Heh. Turning Engineer into English; I've done my share of it. I think their native tongue is some dialect of Autism.
Anyhoo, feel free to hit the email if you need to vent. I listen real good.
Aw, gee, 'felix...
I am sorry. I've been so tunnel-visioned I haven't been by in a while, and ... gosh.
I was out of work for 8 months once, and I won't for a second try to blow sunshine up your butt. You have my heartfelt sympathies and prayers though.
Sadly, a lot of the hiring that isn't being done isn't because there's not any work that needs doing... it's because the bosses are too afraid to hire folks for the work that needs doing because they *might* potentially have to fire someone.
How's that for screwed up? In some places the work is there, and there's not enough people to do the job, so they'll work the remaining people to death, because they don't want to upset the people that want the work... because they *might* have to lay 'em off in the meantime.
I live in your area - a stone's throw away - I'll keep my eyes peeled. e:mail me with what I should peel 'em for (my eyes).
Gee, Felix, what they said. I'm sorry to hear it.
Happened to me in '95. Roughly same circumstances re education, etc., college, no degree. The workplace had changed by then and it was tuff.
I've got my fingers crossed for ya.
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