The Great Depression - Being Unemployed
Well, I guess I should write about this. It seems to be all that is on my mind. I am home all the time to conserve money. I have nothing to do other than the myriad household tasks that need doing but are dull now. I'm always around. I can't go places if it involves money and gas is so outrageously expensive it costs to go to the store for groceries. I'm stuck without income (trust me, what UI pays is no income; at least, not enough to manage my outgo...
Being employed is a lot more to me than just having a way to pay bills and live happily in that regard. I am not happy not working anyway. I love to work. I love the work I do. I just cannot get any with the economy the way it is.
It's funny, I remember very well when there were far more openings than candidates and one needed to woo candidates with all kinds of incentives and freebies and things to get them. This was just prior to the market crash in October 2000. We would interview people who had three other prospects lined up and they would tell us how Nabisco was giving a ton of foodstuffs to prospective candidates and Joe Company was giving out this or that and what were we offering? At that time, I worked with a leading computer memory manufacturer and giving out the memory sticks at a high, high value simply was not practical. In any way! But nonetheless, I remember that so well. Now it is the cutthroat world of many, many overqualified candidates as well as normal candidates all vying for the same choice positions. We are all out there, desparate to be working and needing something close but that pays well or offers the benefits needed. Or a thousand other criteria that each person has for their ideal position.
I will admit to some needs: pay commensurate with my abilities (clearly I would love to be grossly overpaid, but I am happy to be in the normal range); good health/dental/vision benefits and a 401(k) plan. A company that is not too far from home. A company that treats its employees fairly - nothing extravagant - but is just equal and just and not consistently downgrading the various employee incentives (benefits notwithstanding - I've done benefits administration long enough to know just how much the companies are paying for this). I mean whittling away vacation/sick time, lowering morale, decreasing pay, that kind of thing. I've been there. And while it is bad enough to take those hits, it is another thing entirely when all the time you are the one announcing those tidbits that push good people to leave.
Other than that, I want to be in Human Resources, and doing the generalist work that I am good at and meant to do. I will be very, very happy to do my work and work hard for that company. Whoever they are and whatever they manufacture. I have a long history of being in manufacturing companies and I love that. It is interesting to learn about the product(s) and the making of it/them.
All I know is how I feel when I am not working. I feel like I am missing part of my identity. Some of that is the American culture. When you meet someone what is the next question after, "I'm So-And-So, what is your name?" You know that one - "What do you do for a living?" - that is what defines us, what makes us stand out. When you get home from whatever event you were at, you tell your spouse/family/friends how you met So-And-So who is an accountant or a marine biologist or a marketing specialist.
Right now, I'm just Aislínge Kellogg. That should be enough, and most of the time, when all the aspects of my life are full and I am working and healthy and happy, that is fine. But now it is not enough, because it is there in the front of my mind that I am not Aislínge Kellogg, Human Resources Generalist and I'm just Aislínge Kellogg, EMT or Aislínge Kellogg, Renaissance Faire Wench. Now I'm also Aislínge Kellogg, Unemployed Loser, which is how I am feeling.
I don't know what will happen down the road or how this will play out. I want to be positive and envision myself in that next great job... The longer this period drags on, the more lost I feel. The more difficult it is to see that vision.
Being employed is a lot more to me than just having a way to pay bills and live happily in that regard. I am not happy not working anyway. I love to work. I love the work I do. I just cannot get any with the economy the way it is.
It's funny, I remember very well when there were far more openings than candidates and one needed to woo candidates with all kinds of incentives and freebies and things to get them. This was just prior to the market crash in October 2000. We would interview people who had three other prospects lined up and they would tell us how Nabisco was giving a ton of foodstuffs to prospective candidates and Joe Company was giving out this or that and what were we offering? At that time, I worked with a leading computer memory manufacturer and giving out the memory sticks at a high, high value simply was not practical. In any way! But nonetheless, I remember that so well. Now it is the cutthroat world of many, many overqualified candidates as well as normal candidates all vying for the same choice positions. We are all out there, desparate to be working and needing something close but that pays well or offers the benefits needed. Or a thousand other criteria that each person has for their ideal position.
I will admit to some needs: pay commensurate with my abilities (clearly I would love to be grossly overpaid, but I am happy to be in the normal range); good health/dental/vision benefits and a 401(k) plan. A company that is not too far from home. A company that treats its employees fairly - nothing extravagant - but is just equal and just and not consistently downgrading the various employee incentives (benefits notwithstanding - I've done benefits administration long enough to know just how much the companies are paying for this). I mean whittling away vacation/sick time, lowering morale, decreasing pay, that kind of thing. I've been there. And while it is bad enough to take those hits, it is another thing entirely when all the time you are the one announcing those tidbits that push good people to leave.
Other than that, I want to be in Human Resources, and doing the generalist work that I am good at and meant to do. I will be very, very happy to do my work and work hard for that company. Whoever they are and whatever they manufacture. I have a long history of being in manufacturing companies and I love that. It is interesting to learn about the product(s) and the making of it/them.
All I know is how I feel when I am not working. I feel like I am missing part of my identity. Some of that is the American culture. When you meet someone what is the next question after, "I'm So-And-So, what is your name?" You know that one - "What do you do for a living?" - that is what defines us, what makes us stand out. When you get home from whatever event you were at, you tell your spouse/family/friends how you met So-And-So who is an accountant or a marine biologist or a marketing specialist.
Right now, I'm just Aislínge Kellogg. That should be enough, and most of the time, when all the aspects of my life are full and I am working and healthy and happy, that is fine. But now it is not enough, because it is there in the front of my mind that I am not Aislínge Kellogg, Human Resources Generalist and I'm just Aislínge Kellogg, EMT or Aislínge Kellogg, Renaissance Faire Wench. Now I'm also Aislínge Kellogg, Unemployed Loser, which is how I am feeling.
I don't know what will happen down the road or how this will play out. I want to be positive and envision myself in that next great job... The longer this period drags on, the more lost I feel. The more difficult it is to see that vision.
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