I listen to the news stations and everyday the results are the same; no new jobs created, unemployment up, economic outlook… grim!
Today they listed the unemployment rate at 9.1%...really? I think they make this number up as they go along. This rate doesn’t include the workers that have simply given up trying to find another job because there aren’t any good employers left, or the people who are disabled and unable to work, or the college students who are just entering the work force. According to a friend of mine who works in the unemployment field, he says the number is really three times the rate they are publicly stating; 27%! Wow! That is sad!
I’m trying to figure out why all I hear on getting or keeping a job is to make sure your resume stands out from the other 827 applying for the same job. I listen to people giving advice on getting and keeping a job tell lookers and workers to make sure you go above and beyond what you are required to do at your job. To work extra time, go the extra mile, basically “kiss the bosses ass” to keep you job! Why? It’s not your company, your not benefiting from it being 100 points up on the Nasdaq scale, you don’t own stock or shares in the company, your not an officer making a seven figure salary, you don’t sit on the board, and you don’t make any of the decisions; you’re a grunt in the eyes of the “powers that be”. So why do you have to give your soul for a paycheck?
Why does someone have to belittle themselves just to keep a job or get a job in this country? I’d like to know if the “powers that be” do this to keep their jobs. That was rhetorical; of course they don’t. They fly off to Fiji monthly to seal a deal all on the company’s dime, while the grunt keeps down the fort.
Why would anyone want to take a job that belittles you, pays you only $7.15 per hour without benefits and requires you to work 80 hour work weeks and only get paid for 40 hours. Really?!? All because you want to eat!
I have a friend who worked full time while attending college full time at night and on the weekends. It took them 16 years to finish their Bachelors degree and 4 more years to finish their Masters degree. So twenty years of this friends life was, as they put it “completely wasted” finishing an MBA that is completely useless in today’s economy. Of course they have tons of student loans they will never be able to pay back in their lifetime.
This friend always tells our associates in conversations when the opportunity presents itself; if you’re planning to attend college, DO NOT get any student loans no matter what. If you can’t pay for it yourself, don’t go at all. Then in their next breathe they detail going to college is a complete waste of human resources… pun intended. Take your time and money and open your own business, do not work for anyone else.
Years ago, when a person graduated from college they would get a job they kept until they retired. In today’s society workers are considered Kleenex that are used up and thrown away like an old shoe. So why allow a company to treat you like an old shoe. Why should you spend your life getting educated, working in different industries getting all the hands on experience you can, to get hired by an employer that treats you rotten, especially if you’re a woman?
This friend describes what they have endured in their life time working for “the man” as they call it. Working for a CEO that didn’t even have a degree that was paid $350,000 per year plus benefits and yearly bonus, compared to my friends $50,000 per year salary. Who did all the work? Who got all the benefits? I think we all know the answer to those questions.
During our conversations this friend always states: “why would anyone tolerate working for a company in today’s economy?” Why does a worker today have to beg to get a job, promise to work 16 hour days 7 days a week, no benefits, no longevity and no self respect? Always working under the thumb of the boss knowing the bosses threats of “shut up and do your job or I’ll replace you” means just that. You know there are 600 people out there who would jump in your shoes in a heart beat. Why is that?
Why has the U.S. worker been reduced to begging for a job, getting all the education they could in their lifetime, and then see their job ripped out from under them because they won’t give up their ethics or morals to keep it?
What makes companies (corporations, non-profit and family operated businesses) think they can treat employees like property? Swear at the employee, blame them for their own short comings, set them up for failure, family members stealing and putting the blame on the employee who needs their job to feed their family, make a house/car payment, knowing if this employee loses their job they won’t be able to keep their house. But employers don’t care about the personal well being of the employee, they only care about their bottom line.
Why does the following always happen when you finally land a job?
You get hired for a job with the following agreement made between you and your new employer simply because you need the money and there isn’t any other job out there, you have looked and looked and looked. Working hours Monday thru Friday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. No over time, no holidays off, no benefits, and you’re supposed to be a happy go lucky employee who is glad to have this job! (yeah right)
You know it’s a lousy job but you need to eat, make your house payment and make your car payment, what other choice do you have. You’ve been looking for a job for over a year and this was the only job you could get.
So you start working and the first month is okay; you come in every morning at 7:30 am and the boss seems pleased with your work.
Month two rolls around and you continue to come in a 7:30 am, but now your seeing more work being piled on your desk and now your not getting out of the office until 5:30 pm, keeping in mind your NOT getting paid overtime.
Month three rolls around; you watch the boss coming in later going home earlier while you’re struggling to get all the work piled on your desk done before you can even think of heading home.
Month four rolls around; the boss is taking every Friday off, you’ve stop taking lunch breaks all together just sitting at your desk trying to catch up to the pile of work on your desk realizing that this is a never ending cycle.
Month five rolls around; you’ve missed a deadline even though you’ve now started going home a 6:00 pm every night just trying to keep your head above water at work. The boss strolls in and screams at you stating you were lucky to even get this job, and how dare you drop the ball and miss the deadline, and if you don’t get your act together you’ll be outta there quicker than he can snap his fingers. Needless to say your self esteem has just sunk to an all time low; you’re not sleeping at night because of how horrible this “man” is treating you during the thirteen hours you’re spending at the office. You know all of your hard work is doing some good, not because your boss mentions it, but because your co-workers notice your boss is never around anymore, he’s always off at a golf meeting, or big wig luncheon you’re never invited to. Your department numbers are at an all time high, but your boss says “your predecessor did a much better job than you ever will”.
Month six rolls around: you notice the boss has let go two other staff members in your department and piled their work on your shoulders. You get the payroll numbers for the month and realize when your boss cut these two positions he gave himself and nice big raise and you haven’t received even a thank you to date.
Month seven rolls around: you are now working thirteen hour days and eight hours on Saturday. You approach your boss for a raise and he lays into you like you’re the worst scum he’s ever seen on the planet, reminding you he can get a much better looking girl off the street to do your job in a second. You walk out of his office with your ethics and self esteem handed to you in a hat.
Month eight rolls around. It’s the worst day you’ve ever had, driving into work you get hit by an idiot and you come to work 15 minutes late. Your boss is standing in your cubicle like a viper waiting to strike… “where the hell have you been, your late, I had to go get my own coffee, scream, scream, scream, yell, yell, yell. You mention to your boss you’ve been working thirteen hour days plus Saturday and this is the first time in eight months you’ve ever been late. He doesn’t even hear you; he proceeds to go into the worst tirade you’ve ever seen one human being act out. Then you hear those dreaded two words ringing in your ears: “you’re fired”. He yells with venom “get your shit and get out!”
You’ve been fired by the worst most horrible person on the planet!!! And they have made you feel like the worst most horrible person on the planet!
Now you are supposed to take the above experience write it up on your resume and be positive when you talk to the next employer you go to for an interview and not say anything bad about your past employer even though he was the worst person who ever walked the planet. How can you possibly compose yourself to go through this same scenario over and over again, year after year, to pay for a house and car to live in the United States? Is this truly the American dream for a woman in her mid forty’s?
So you pick yourself up and manage to land an interview with the competitor of your last company and they proceed to ask you why you were only there 8 months? They look at you like your being fired was all your fault, the employer was absolutely perfect, and how can you be so horrible of a human being that you don’t want to be miss treated by an employer? Really?!? So your whole existence in life is based on how much shit you can take from an employer so you can eat, make a house and car payment? Who’s idea was it to drop me off on this planet? I want to go home!
Now in your mid forties you find yourself thrown back into the work force, with a MBA degree that has no meaning what so ever because every college grad has a doctorate, so you are now labeled over experienced and too old to land a good job. But of course you know there are no “good” jobs left, just the crumbs that have been vacated by a worker in your shoes that was fired just like you. All of the “good employers” dried up years ago, and all you have left are companies that are taking every dime they can from hard working folks in Ponzi schemes and laughing all the way to the bank.
So you find yourself unemployed, with a house payment that is 150% larger than what the house is worth since the housing market has also fallen into the toilet right along with the job market. Your car needs major work and you don’t have any health/dental/vision insurance and you’re at that age where everything is starting to wear out. The economy is in the toilet and you had nothing what so ever to do with getting it there, but you have the full burden on your shoulders to bare the weight it is carrying by not being able to get another job, not being able to see a doctor, not being able to make your car payment and not being able to eat because you have no money in your wallet, and now your house has gone into foreclosure.
I hope the “powers that be” who put you into this situation are proud of themselves and sleep well at night because it’s quite obvious you won’t be! Ever!
Welcome to the American dream!
