One Snarky Chica with Issues

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of having been selected for an individualized assistance program to help me to return to work. I had to attend a three hour orientation and assessment seminar at the county job and family services office.

The most frustrating thing for me about being selected for this was that I am just barely over the county line. This county job and family services office for the county that I reside in is 26 miles away. The same office in the adjacent county is 7 miles away. Argh. I do find it a bit ironic that they are making unemployed people drive 26 miles each way for this. And I was not the only person from this area of the county that ended up being at this little shindig.

And I forgot to mention that my attendance at this was required or I would lose my unemployment benefits.

So, I drove my 26 miles and got to this place on the day of the session. After surveying everyone else in the room I felt terribly overdressed in my Timberland sweatshirt and jeans. I would soon find out that I was terribly out of place in this little session. Here I was, an MBA holder, in a room with blue collar workers. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against blue collar workers. My dad works in construction. But, I was seriously out of place.

Who was I in this session with?

• a young guy that had been a delivery driver until he crashed the van
• a woman with a mullet that had worked on a production line
•  a man that had been a maintenance worker
• a man that had been a painter
• a man that had worked in shipping & receiving at a plant

Yes, not only had I left my mullet at home but I was terribly overdressed.

So, when the session starts they tell us that we are probably wondering why we are all there and that it is because of two reasons.

1. We have been identified as people that will exhaust the unemployment benefits.
2. We have been identified as being in a declining industry.

This is rather interesting as the “industry” on my file is correctly listed as accounting/finance. Not exactly your declining industry, is it? It is also interesting that the state is not so much worried about people making ends meet, but about saving money and keep people from getting what is rightfully theirs.

The remainder of the session just further proves how out of place that I am in this session.

Powerpoint slide shows are shown to us. We are told about how the county job and family services office can assist us in getting our GED. We are told how to look for jobs on the internet. We are told how to write a resume. We are told how to dress for job interviews. We are given interviewing pointers. We are told how we can come into this office at any time to get assistance writing a resume.

Then the questions from the class starts. One guy wants to know how he is supposed to start writing a resume. One guy wants to know how he can fold his resume and if he can write on it in pen. Someone wants to know if job hunt correspondence has to be formal. Someone wants to know why they need a resume and what is its purpose. And then someone wants to know about thank you letters and what that is all about.

As I sat in this session I felt two different emotions. First I was angry that I had to drive 26 miles each each to sit for three hours and be told about things that I already knew about. Second I was annoyed that I was taking someone else’s place that might actually have benefited from this session. There is probably someone else in this county that really doesn’t know how to write a resume or might need some assistance getting a GED. Sucks for them though cause I got that info and they didn’t.

The fun part of the session came at the end when we had to verify our information in the system. Seems that they are going to start looking for jobs for us too and matching them to our profile. They pointed us to the page that shows what shifts and types of employment we were looking for. It went something like this:

“You’ll notice that all shifts, including third shift are checked for you. And you will also notice that all types of employment including part-time and seasonal are checked. This cannot be changed. The county feels that since you are unemployed and getting unemployment that you will take whatever job is offered to you or you will lose your unemployment benefits.”

Wow, some nerve, eh? Does this mean that if McDonald’s offers me a job next week that I have to take it, even though it will ony pay minimum wage - and be less than my unemployment check each week? And they really have some nerve making people take seasonal jobs. They know that having a seasonal job means that you are unemployed again real soon. But it works out real nice for them because when you file unemployment again you have that mandatory waiting week of no payment. It is so nice to see that the government is looking out for my best interests.

And, to add more insult to injury, I have to trek back to this office again this week. Yes, that is 26 miles each way for two weeks in a row. This time I get a one-on-one session with one of the people. I can’t imagine what we will discuss. Yes I already have a high school diploma. Yes, I can write a resume. Surprise, my undergrad is in English so I can write a thank-you letter too. I can’t wait to see how they help me find a job, considering that my main problem seems to be that I am over qualified for a lot of accounting jobs and not quite qualified enough for the others.

I tell you, it sure makes me wonder if getting that measly unemployment check is worth it.