It is after midnight, and I am awake. Later today, in about… thirteen hours or so, I have to put up with yet another mandatory telephone interview with the EDD. I am anxious, and angry, and deeply resenting the fact that I have to do this third telephone interview in the nine months since I have been on Unemployment Insurance Benefits.
I have not yet decided if I am going to verbally destroy whichever minion of the EDD is unfortunate enough to call me up and harass me via telephone in a few hours time. Every fiber of my being is urging me to just rip them a new one. However, the logical side of me warns that it is not advisable to say anything on a recorded phone call with a government worker that could be in any way considered a threat. In about half a days time, we get to find out which side of me wins out. I may have to resort to giving them one word answers, and trying extremely hard to not make that one word be something profane and obscene.
If I sleep, I will just end up having nightmares, and wake up even more stressed out than I am right now. I will dream that the EDD has decided to cut off my benefits, with no warning, leaving me scrambling to try and replace the small amount of money they occasionally would give me. I will have nightmares that the EDD has decided that I wasn’t eligible for benefits in the first place, and is demanding that I pay them back the money they sent me, all of it, right this second. Sleep is futile.
Instead, I am online, writing this blog, and surfing the net, trying to distract myself. Here is an article from my local newspaper, The Tribune. It has the cheerful, and hope giving title of: For many, recovery means lower expectations. As always, I recommend you read the article to get the full story. For this article, it is especially true.
This article points out that the Federal Government has been saying for months now that “the Recession is over”. This is being said as if it is a good thing. It seems to me that the members of the Federal Government who have been saying such nonsense are unaware that the reason that the Recession is over, and has been over for many months, is because we in a Depression.
This article tells story after story of people who worked hard, went to school, and got their degree, their masters, or learned their trade. These people all lost their jobs, many with no warning, and have been struggling to avoid homelessness ever since. Many of them have families with young children to care for. All of these people have had to lower their expectations, and take jobs that pay much, much, much less than a person who has earned a degree should have to take. These people are working hourly jobs, that offer no benefits, and pitifully low wages.
A man with a masters degree in business is now bagging groceries. A chiropractor has had to settle for a job in a museum, that only relates to his field of study in the vaguest possible way. A welder who was earning enough to have a large home for his family to live in loses his job, has to sell the home, and has to move the family into an apartment where the children share rooms, (and beds), and the parents sleep on the floor. His wife has gone from being a stay at home mom to working at a car wash, for a low hourly wage. A man with a degree in advertising ends up stocking shelves at a big chain retail store. It’s enough to make a person want to cry. There still aren’t enough jobs to go around. The jobs that exist are bad ones, that will not pay a person enough to live on. Forget getting health insurance, paid sick days, or a retirement plan. That seems to be a thing of the past.
This blog is from a man named Danny, who lives in Chicago, Illinois. He succinctly describes how impossible the Illinois Department of Employment Security has made it for people to file for Unemployment Insurance. Apparently, this particular governmental organization hates Mac computers, and has a phone system that is as frustrating as the one here, in California. To me, this is one more example of how the Federal Government is going out of it’s way to intentionally make it as difficult as possible for it’s citizens to get the help they need, from the money they paid into the system for years and years and years.
I still look at the jobs on Craigslist. People are becoming so desperate to find work that they are using the job list as a place to post their cries for help. They write down what they are qualified to do, and what skills they have, and hope someone out there will be able to hire them.
Here is the latest example of that. The job title is “Need a Nanny?”
“Looking for a quality person to take care of your child/ren? I have 4+ years of nanny experience, and am a mom of a 16 month old boy myself. I am a former teacher, experience teaching grades K-8. Since I am a mom, I understand completely what a huge decision it is as to whom you choose to entrust your child/ren to during the week while you work. I’ve been a stay-at-home-mom for the past 16 months and would continue to do things like take the kids to the beach, park, gymnastics (it’s open gym) and pool. I would be willing to come to your house, as long as you would be ok with me bringing my 16 month old son with me. I’d be available to take care of your child anytime M-F, whatever hours necessary. Price would factor age and how many kids, hours, etc. If you’re interested, please email me at (her email address was here) and once I find out a bit more about your situation, I can give you a price quote. I’d also be happy to email you my resume and references and meet in person.
A former teacher with four years of experience as a nanny cannot find work. There is another person posting that he is able to translate signs and flyers, (as well as anything else a company may need) from English to Spanish, if only someone would hire him.
The rest is filled with absolute crap.
* “Become a SURROGATE MOTHER and Earn up to $45,000″ This appears in the job list often. I believe they are serious, because they list details about the age and health of the woman they are willing to pay to do this.
* SALES REP OPENINGS
NOW HIRING
MARKETING SERVICE INC now has seats available for the best. For local and long distance company Come join the team, must have some sales experience and want to make money.
If this sounds like you,come show us what you’ve got
paid weekly, hours m-f
Submit resume and hours available
The pay for that job is listed as “hourly on a sliding scale”
Translation: They want someone to work as a telemarketer, and do cold calling, and who is gullible enough to believe that they can reach the impossibly high sales quota that is necessary to hit if they stand any hope of making more than minimum wage.
* Help a Couple Fulfill their DREAMS of Parenthood – Become an EGG DONOR” This seems to be a different company than the previous one that wanted egg donors.
*TUTORS NEEDED
This is the same tutoring place that keeps advertising, as if it was a good job. As near as I can tell, Grade Potential pays it’s workers based on how many students they are able to tutor. There doesn’t seem to be any guarantee of hours, or rate of pay, or even that there will be pay. This company has a booth at the local weekly Farmer’s Market. I have often wondered if the result of applying for this job is to end up sitting in the booth at Farmer’s Market, handing out flyers.
All those jobs were posted today. The Federal Government may have deluded itself into believing that things are getting better, but, all the evidence I can find says it is getting worse.
Knowing this, I cannot imagine what I am suppose to say to the EDD minion who calls me in several hours time, when he or she asks why I haven’t found a full time job yet. They should be calling to give me compliments, because I have been working what essentially amounts to a part time job for most of the time that I have been on Unemployment Insurance, something few people are lucky enough to have done. Instead, I have a feeling they are going to try and make me feel bad because I am not teaching. I think they are going to try and make me feel as if the freelance writing that I have been doing since January isn’t “real work”, and that I am lazy and stupid for not getting something they consider “better”. Better doesn’t exist. “Real jobs” have gone extinct.