When unemployed means unemployable

[The Straight Story]

When unemployed means unemployable

Some companies are telling those out of work for a year or more that they need not apply

With three college degrees, including an MBA, a resume boasting volunteer work and a 25-year stint at one company, Linda Keller is devastated by what potential employers see in her.

"She's lazy. She's not doing anything. Her skills are out of date. She's out of touch with reality," Keller rattles off. "That's what hiring people think."

That's because Keller, 53, has one strike against her that's hard to overcome in today's ultra-competitive job market: She's unemployed -- and has been for 19 months.

She's among 4.4 million people nationwide who have been out of work for a year or more. The group makes up more than 40 percent of the total unemployed, the highest percentage since World War II.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20110123/SPECIAL01/101230382/

[Carni]

1. She should just lie

These HR people probably won't be bright enough to pick up on it, or energetic enough to check.

[Lars39]

7. People need to band together and start giving each other references.

[Horse with no Name]

11. I was going to post the same thing

Or people should even pay a few bucks for a website and say they are self-employed.

There HAS to be a way to fight this.

[badtoworse]

15. Very Bad Idea!

Maybe they won't pick it up, but if they do, there is a good chance you'll be fired for cause. IMO, that's an even worse boat to be in.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. This is extremely immoral.

But why should we expect anything else from American companies? After all, they're busy exporting jobs to India or China to save money...

Why on earth should we expect them to hire extremely competent workers who have many, many years of experience?

After all, those people are likely to be older, and so not only will they not work very long for these employers, they also expect to be paid commensurately for their years of experience.

In other words, they deserve to be highly paid.

What sensible employer would want to do that?

:eyes:

[The Straight Story]

8. Sad indeed, now that I am working I get about 3 companies a week interested in me

When I was out of work would go months without so much as an email from anyone.

Now I am not even looking and suddenly folks are hitting me up and wanting me to interview.

Many of the jobs (not all) are looking for someone for 6-8 months contract, no way I am giving up a full time position for something like that - where were they when I needed something/anything?

I have sent some of those jobs along to my friends who are equally qualified but unemployed and they have yet to hear back from them.

[TheMadMonk]

19. have you tried doing it the other way around and putting a friend...

...forward yourself?

It just might work.

[RKP5637]

3. I've known/worked with a number of people like this, multiple degrees, well over $100K/yr

at one time, some now working for under $10/hr., others just stopped looking, others simply retired on minimal cash flow. All deemed throwaways now by the corps., once top performers in their respective fields, now unemployed through no fault of their own in this warped/twisted game we call employment today.

[lonestarnot]

6. We are truly fucked unless these people create some waves. Most I talked to are too tired.

:(

[RKP5637]

10. To get my severance I had to sign away my life. I had been there for quite

awhile so I got a good package and volunteered to quit, but I had to sign all kinds of legal BS to never do anything to dispute anything. In my case I'm jaded with the whole system anymore. It is rigged against many and those not having experienced any of this will eventually have their turn come IMO. It's doesn't matter how super-star a performer one is ... This is where the BS gets to me on those wanting people to work well into their 60's. They are clueless, there are very very few jobs for anyone as they age.

[badtoworse]

16. Signing a release to get your package is standard.

I've done it three times - no big deal.

[RKP5637]

20. Yep! n/t

[zazen]

9. c'est moi; some days it's beyond debilitating and I want to give up

I've actually wondered about ways to off myself so my kids will get the insurance, because I don't want to be a burden to anyone.

I've really got to find a support group of others like myself, because I know I'm not the only person who's felt this way.

And no, I'd never go through with it (unless I had an incurable diagnosis or something), if only for the kids' sake. But you get so desperate that you sometimes start falling into that pit. I know it's illogical.

Somehow I kept thinking all of that stuff Carolyn Baker, John Michael Greer, et al, have written would apply to some in another life, in another time. Not this life, not this time. But it is now.

Someone on Energy Bulletin just wrote about the difference between poverty and misery. Poverty is manageable--hard, but predictable. Misery is living in continual fear that your economic situation will get worse. I'll dig up the link. It was very helpful.

[RKP5637]

12. Try not to let them win by you getting that down. It seems depending where you are

you might be able to find a support group. Don't get so far down you can't get back up! There are many people in this same boat. Years ago one had to try pretty hard not to have a job, but anymore IMO a job is getting to be a luxury. You are definitely not alone in any of this.

[maryf]

4. agism is another strike...

sorry to say at 54, K&R

[RKP5637]

5. Oh, but that's against the law. What a bunch of bull crap that one is, n/t

[samplegirl]

13. This is me.............all the way

I've been out of work stayed home and took care of my mother for years to keep her out of nursing homes. Now that she's passed
have tried and tried to get a job and not one reply ever.
Now in my fifties I guess I would be doing great to get a job at a fast food restraunt.

[badtoworse]

17. Any chance of getting trained as an LPN and being a private duty nurse?

You've had practical expreience, perhaps you could get hired with some formal training.

[Initech]

14. We seriously need to kill the unemployed = lazy meme.

[GoCubsGo]

18. No shit.

Twenty-five years at one company, and that's meaningless to those assholes? Lazy? It took her former employers 25 years to figure out that she's "lazy"??? Sadly, I know how this poor woman feels. I was 20 years at my old job. Doesn't mean shit.

[RKP5637]

21. In one of my jobs in the old days one had tenure after 10 years. It was a major

corp. and the president of the company wanted the managers to come in front of him and explain why any employee with over 10 years of employment had to be let go ... what had possibly changed with the employee or were the managers so incompetent they could not make proper use of the employee.

Now, this was with no unions or anything. And these were the old days at this company. Employees were highly valued and the company made a major investment in employees. It was also an international corp. based in the USA.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. That meme is just an excuse.

There is another agenda.
think about it.
This problem is being reported all over the country. It sounds like collusion.

The companies letting go of people over 50 do not have to pay for what were existing benefits,
and they can and will hire young people at less pay with NO benefits.

The people over 50 losing their jobs are going to struggle to keep up any sort of middle class lifestyle.
Most pensions/retirement do not kick in until age 59 and 1/2.

the younger employees coming up are not going to be able to afford that lifestyle.
( I am talking on average, here)

It honestly feels as if, 25 years ago, they invented IRAs and 401-ks, got us all to put our money in them,
and then made it almost impossible for us to live long enough to get the money out.
If you do need your 402k to live, you pay steep tax penalties for early withdrawal.

Every day we hear about bankrupt cities "having to" steal pensions.

The old rules, the promises, are broken.


Seems as if we, the victims of this corporate mugging, should not be overly concerned with the old rules of finding a job.

[Warren DeMontague]

23. Isn't laziness just another form of self fulfillment, like trying to get rich?

Isn't the whole goal of the capitalist enterprise to huck as many bucks off everyone else as possible, at their expense, while making your life as easy as possible, until you have so much cash that you reach Robin Leach nirvana and never have to do anything, ever again, as the servants bring you grapes and file the dead skin off your feet?

Wasn't it Karl Marx who was on about "The Worker" this, and "The Worker" that, blah blah blah..... Is there any more American, patriotic pursuit than AVOIDING work, at all costs?

Why, I ask you- Aren't lazy people exactly the sort of self-starting go-getters our cutthroat capitalist economy NEEDS?