I recently received an email from a close friend of mine, an email that caused me grave concern for his dilemma. He had lost another job, which obviously has caused him great distress. He wanted to write down his thoughts on paper as some form of therapy in his time of angst I suspect. I am sure he really wanted to go outside into his front yard and scream as loud as he could “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this crap anymore!” However, he is not that type of person. Instead, he sent me his ‘story’ which I find compelling enough to publish here as a testament to all that is wrong with America in these very difficult times.
I have known James for several years and find him to be an intelligent, hard-working, reliable individual dedicated to his family, job, and this country–the type of person who cares about others and would most likely be there in their time of need. Now I find him to be a person in need of a job and in need of some justice in these hard times. Maybe his story will help others–and if there is such a thing as a miracle, perhaps a job will materialize from it. Any company could not go wrong in hiring him as he would be an asset to any job, a positive acquisition for any business.
Here is his story in his own words. I have only done some slight editing:
After a life in the car business, I found myself unemployed in November of 2009. In late 2006, I did see some hard times coming as a result of the stated income loans going out to people who had no business purchasing a car let alone a house. Someone somewhere, undoubtedly in our cesspool of a Congress, decided it was a God-given right to own a home. Loans were issued indiscriminately to vast numbers of unqualified people.
Sure enough, when hard times in business began to surface, the financial meltdown began.
Then after that fiasco, there was a move in the country to make a change. Believe me a change was warranted. The fiscally scholastic polices of George W. and the democratically controlled House and Senate only made a bad situation worse. Then came that whole “hopey-changey” thing which I will not take the time to go into except to offer one thought. Since when has a luxury (health care) become a God-given right for all?
I had prepared myself for the expected hard times. I moved my 401K out of stocks in July of 2007. I quit golfing every weekend. I cut down on eating out. I started denying my family anything other than the basic essentials. I began socking away money so I could hold on to everything I had worked so hard to earn. I paid off the credit cards, got my kids college money put aside, and paid off the cars; I thought I had out-smarted everybody and everything.
Then it began. The company I worked for was sold in November of 2009; the new company decided not to retain me for reasons that I could only speculate about.
I filed for unemployment and started looking for a new career because the car business had indeed fallen on bad times.
The people at the unemployment office were nice enough. They had a special group just for military veterans. They helped with my resume. (Let me tell you, if you ask five different people about how your resume should be written, you will get five different answers.) They informed me about all the web sites for job searching and they also had job postings that were exclusively provided in the “research lab.”
I did get a few hits from my resume which resulted in job interviews. During the interview process, I was able to answer all the technical questions they could throw at me. Then the packaged questions started. Questions like “Tell me about your worst quality.” “Tell me about your best quality.” “Tell me about the most difficult situation you have ever been in and tell me how you resolved it,” and so on. I enrolled in the workshops offered at the unemployment office: how to find a job, how to prepare for an interview (so you could answer those packaged questions), how to enter the room, when to sit down, and when to shake hands. All to no avail.
I kept looking. I kept answering postings. Then the statistics started rolling in. For every internet job posting there were seven hundred to one thousand responses. I spoke with two business-owner friends. They would tell me about how they would place an ad for an entry-level position, get five hundred hits in one hour, and hire one of the first five applicants. The hits just kept coming into their inbox. The trouble they had keeping their inbox clear was staggering. I was having many problems being over-qualified, under-credentialed, or I didn’t meet a company’s idea of diversity as a middle-aged Caucasian.
Now while all this was going on, the political climate had taken a big swing to the far left. Again, I am not going to go into all of that except to say, “lower taxes, cut the burdens on business, and reform the tort laws.” If just those simple things were done, business owners could invest in their businesses, innovate, and begin hiring again. That is the best way to “redistribute wealth” I can think of.
Finally, after more than eight months of fruitless searching, a friend of a friend referred me to a job. That just goes to show: keep your network active. The interview went well. No packaged questions. Just about an hour to get to know each other, answer a few technical questions, and a tour. I was hired with one condition. I had to go through an employment agency because the company had a hiring freeze in force at the time.
The job consisted of a lot of heavy lifting of fifty-pound machines. This was something I was not accustomed to. I had spent twenty-five years in management. I took the job because after over eight months of searching, it was the first job I could get that paid more than unemployment.
The job went well at first until, after the first month, I incurred a wrist injury. The doctor said I had carpal tunnel syndrome and told me not work for a week. I took the week off and thought about how I could prevent it from happening again. I changed the way I was handling the pieces by using two hands instead of one; that seemed to resolve the problem.
After my return to the job, things went well. I was complimented on a job well done. I was told that this would lead to bigger and better things. I was even told about a position that I would be doing so the person who was then doing the job could take a well-deserved vacation without having to take a laptop with them and working during the time off. Things were going well. I thought I had made it through the tough times and things would start getting better.
However, things took a turn for the worse. I sustained a very painful back injury due, I am certain, to the heavy lifting, which I was not prepared for. I tried to make the best of it, but the pain was too much to take. I again went to the doctor, which started the worker’s compensation process. I was given modified duty for two days. After two days the modified duty was stopped.
I emailed the company asking if they had any work within my restrictions. I also called the temp agency to see if they had any work. I kept going to the doctor. After two weeks, I was still unable to work. My boss asked if I would be able to come back to work after the third week because they were going to get many of those machines in and that would need me to do the heavy lifting. I told him about my next doctor visit. He said to let him know after the visit.
It had been three weeks since the injury. I was having doubts about being able to do anymore heavy lifting out of fear of injuring myself yet a third time. I decided to write an email and explain that I would not be doing anymore heavy lifting. I also made a suggestion about someone they could get to do it as I had a neighbor that was an unemployed tile layer and accustomed to such work. I also suggested what I could do for them until the hiring freeze was over. I had the best interest of the company at heart.
In less than ten minutes back came the reply. I was told to turn in my key badge. My manager said he was sorry things did not work out and he wished my family and I well. I can’t really say I was fired because I was never really hired. Needless to say, I was distraught as to the speed in which he replied. I guess all the compliments and suggestions of moving up in the company were all for naught.
So now it’s back to the job search. I will also continue my doctor visits.
In closing, I have to say I have never seen anything like what is going on in the country right now. These are hard times. I realize I am not alone in my plight. This country is in an extended “Great Recession” and it hurts. It is especially hurtful to those of us who have worked all our lives and now, nearing retirement age, find ourselves unemployed–perhaps even unemployable, which is a cause of even greater concern. Now in my fifties, I do not have a lot of time to bounce back from my economic situation as it is now.
I can blame many people for the shape I am in. Some of them are politicians, some are not. It will be interesting to see what happens when the new Congress takes over after the first of the year. Hopefully things will get better because right now “It is an employer’s market and there is no shame.”
(Postscript: That’s James’ story, one similar to millions of other Americans in their time of economic distress. I am happy to report that James is now working in a full-time job and doing well although he relates that he is not earning the salary he once did. I suspect companies can offer lower pay with all the people out of work desperate for a job, any job.
Our country is in for a long-term recovery and it will not be an easy one if the economists are correct in their prediction of a protracted recession.
Christmas is near though for many it will not be a merry one again this year–and perhaps for several years to come. I want to suggest something for those of us not in this predicament, those of us who are employed or retired and not suffering these economic hard times: Maybe, instead of lavishing ourselves and our loved ones with expensive and materialistic gifts, we might just consider cutting back and instead giving something to those in need. Pick out someone close to you–an unemployed friend or relative (we all know one or two of those I believe)–and take just a portion of what you might have spent on yourself or your family and provide those in dire need at Christmas with a little boost of something they cannot buy themselves. A monetary donation, no matter how small, would be well appreciated in these cases I suspect. Whatever you decide to give, large or small, will go a long way to alleviate the stress these times wreak on those less fortunate among us.
If Christmas is a time of giving vice receiving, I know you’ll feel very good for what little you can do for someone close and in distress.)
Merry Christmas to all!