Down But Not Out

‘Potential employers look at
 you like you’re a bum’

I was working for a small custom publisher in Greensboro, North
 Carolina.  In late 2008 they lost half their publishing business in 
the span of 1 1/2 weeks which resulted in a large layoff of otherwise 
qualified people. The work did not disappear, it simply went to other
 companies. I looked for an entire year for the same or similar job
 with one phone interview out of over 100 custom written cover letters, 
resumes, and follow-up networking.

That potential employer decided on
 their own that I would not be happy with the position which led me to
 wonder how anyone can possibly know what will make another person
 happy without knowing them

Everyone that is out of work struggles with bills and budget issues,
 but the hardest thing for me was going to a shopping mall with a 
friend and seeing things that might be nice to purchase but knowing 
that I could not purchase them because I had to watch all my pennies. 
It was kind of depressing. Since becoming re-employed, going to the
 mall is a nice activity and even though I do not purchase much, it’s 
nice to know that the possibility exists that I could purchase
 something if I wanted to.

The longer one remains unemployed the more potential employers look at
 you like you’re a bum. I think legislation should be enacted to
prevent the active discrimination against the unemployed that exists
in companies all over the country. The attitude of, “well, if they 
got laid off they must not have been the best employees…” is not
 true.  Perhaps the company someone worked for was like mine, it simply
lost half their business and there was no work for the recently
unemployed people from that particular business, but the people who
were laid off were well-qualified, eager to work, and were not 
slackers.

I fell off the unemployment roll even though it was largely advertised
 that people could go to school to retrain and retain their
 unemployment benefits. It seems counterproductive to me for the
 government to consider that if you’re in school retraining that you’re
technically employed. I would think it would be in the government
interest to give people a hand up and not a hand out so that they end
up employed again and contributing to the system via their payroll
taxes, etc. Of course the fact that I left the state where I had been 
living and moved back to the one where my extended family resides may
 have been less than helpful. It’s hard to put up and adequate appeal
 with the state where your benefits were coming from when you can’t go
to the unemployment office to make present your case.

I retrained for healthcare (nursing) and there is a LOT 
of competition for jobs out there. I live in a county where the
 unemployment rate is around 18 percent.  Health care jobs are one bright area 
in an otherwise dismal economy around here. I feel lucky to have
found a new job as a freshly licensed nurse. I’m very grateful that
my employer is willing to extend the offer to work and gave me this
 opportunity.

I did give up after a year of
 looking in my old career field.  When I was only able to get one phone 
interview after a year of looking, and was basically told, “we don’t 
think you would be happy here …” I decided that career path was over 
for me and went in for retraining for a year. So far it is one of the
 best decisions I have ever made.

 I researched the 
employment situation where I am living and decided to retrain in
 something it appeared people would want. After I received my nursing
 license it took me 3 months to find a full-time job. My tips to other 
people are to take a long, hard look at what you’ve been doing and if
 it is in a declining career path, study what careers are up and coming
 and do what you can to retrain into them. It does take some money,
but if you know where to look there are grants and financing available 
to you.

I’m not sure there is a way in the current economic situation to make 
it easier. The only thing I can suggest is that our politicians need 
to take a long hard look at what caused this issue in the first place.
 Regulation may not be the best thing if there is too much of it, but
there needs to be common sense regulation. We cannot return to this
Old West style of economic activity. The great depression happened
 for a reason, and I think when those politicians who lived through the
 depression retired and we started moving further and further away, the 
institutional knowledge of what happened and why the regulations were 
there in the first place, was gone. That’s when we went through this 
massive deregulation cycle, and I think that is what ultimately led to
this problem. Bring back common sense regulation and hopefully we can
 avoid this severe of a decline in the future.

Chris C., via email