This blog is a ground-view of how this unemployed American who's chronologically challenged deals with this unfortunately historic time; what I see, feel, how I deal with it and what I see others who are facing the unemployment situation are doing. And because I volunteer at a non-profit group in my city that helps people trying to get back into the non-viable capitalist system that seems to be trying to kill us, I see a lot.
What Goes Around Comes Around
Last week I had a job interview. Even though my resumes are clear and concise telling of my miraculous achievements that make the businesses I work for successful, these days interviews are few and far between. This was for a government contractor, and I was called on a Tuesday with the recruiter pleading me to meet with them this week. I pretended to hem and haw over the phone giving the impression that I was trying to find room in my busy schedule when actually I was free anytime, and finally settled on Thursday morning. I figured this company must be kind of desperate since it is unusual that they would want to meet with me almost immediately. So I showed up at their offices at the appointed time and lo and behold, there is only 1 person in this office who looks over 50; everyone else looks like there in their 20’s, or 30’s. Their late-30’s COO who’s doing the interviewing tells me that this position has not been settled on yet, that depending on the funding coming from the customer it might only be part-time, but they want to be ready to hire someone if and when this funding happens. After my prodding around some more, come to find out that the government customer has requested someone who is a little more of a “subject matter expert” in the field I am working in that their company is currently offering.
Now, what this COO didn’t know was that I actually interviewed for this position 3 months earlier. (Boy did he look surprised when I told him!) It was at their other office in another town a few miles away with a 20-something project manager of the group I would be working with. How the hell you can become a good project manager in your 20’s is beyond me, but I digress. Needless to say the 20-something did not call me back after what I considered a good interview. My natural paranoia led me to guess that the 20-something chose to hire someone closer to their own age. Discrimination? Probably. Provable by law? Absolutely not.
I need to mention having done a lot of contracting for the federal government before, and I know they are fairly good at avoiding discrimination and any perception of bigotry. Not perfect by any stretch, but they usually try. So now I’m guessing the government customer has caught this contracting company with its pants down – that they are noticing most if not all of this contractor’s employees are under 40 and that violates their own federal laws so this contractor better start hiring older workers.
Will I work for them if they make me a lucrative-enough offer? Sure. But after over 2 years of unemployment facing this kind of bigotry and insult I’m going to demand a SH*T-LOAD of money. I don’t care if I don’t get the job because I asked for too much, my psyche and self-respect needs this. Without it I’d rather walk dogs or drive a truck (which is a very real possibility).
Whoopy-Doopy
“Why doesn’t the government do something about this?” screams Little Nell as Snidely Whiplash ties her to the railroad tracks. Well, there is H.R. 1113, which is an amendment to the 1964 Civil Rights Act that bans discrimination on the basis of unemployment status. This bill was brought about in answer to the numerous job ads out there which state that the currently unemployed need not apply.
Truthfully, every little bit helps: this is a constructive move. But frankly, whoopy-doopy. I have a friend who is in the same long-term unemployment boat as me, whose wife used to work for a major university. She was laid-off as a result of age-discrimination. He called in the EEOC to help, and together they won a legal victory from a judge saying that there was enough evidence to proceed with a trail, but because the EEOC is understaffed they would not supply my friend and his wife with legal help for this. Of course they had no money to hire legal help themselves, they spent it all on just winning this first victory. Meanwhile the university brought in big-gun lawyers. The whole thing was dropped not because they were wrong in the fact that age discrimination had taken place, but because they were out-lawyered and out moneyed.
All of which tells me that this constructive H.R. 1113 amendment to a great law is just window dressing, that bigotry and discrimination by age will continue for years after this has passed, just as discrimination by color has continued after 1964 and continues to this day. Lawyers and money are hard to beat. Yes, thing have gotten better, but over years. We over 50 don’t have years, or lawyers, or money.
Getting Past Pessimism
The blogger War on Error posted “The Jobs Gone, the Soda Revolt” in which he states “Corporations Killed the Jobs to Increase Profits, They Fired Us and Won't Rehire Us”. While I admire his energy and can agree on some of his points (such as most of us in this country are still in denial of the problem of long-term unemployment as well as the fact that we who are affected need to “organize, organize, organize”) I refuse to believe the current situation is “the new normal”. I refuse to believe that.
This country has been through a lot worse in the way that employers/corporations have treated workers. For evidence I offer the 1886 Haymarket riots, or any of the strikes in the 1920’s where workers were killed trying to get a decent living for their work.
Hope
The course I took and now help to facilitate on looking for a job while being over 40 teaches the usual stuff courses that teach how to look for a job: how to fix your resume according to the latest fashions HR people are looking for, how to interview, and lately the emerging trends on social media and how to deal with them. But that is not the REAL objective to the course. The real objective of the course it to give hope. Hope that the person gets knowing better how to deal with the ever-changing job landscape, hope that you CAN get back to a normal that includes taking care of your responsibilities and a measure of dignity and self-worth.
And that what the president can give. And that’s why so many people including yours truly, voted for him last time. And that’s what FDR gave people in his time. The WPA didn’t end the depression, but it did give people the hope that things really were going to change. Without that hope I don’t believe this country could have lifted itself by its boot-straps soon enough and become the arsenal of democracy when WWII came along. Hope set the table. And that’s what the government in a capitalistic society can do: set the table for businesses and even corporations to add jobs and lift us all out. But the people have to have hope first – without it nothing can happen. With it everything can happen.
And that’s what the current president is NOT giving us. If he wanted to give us hope, he’d fight the destruction of collective bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin and Ohio. He’d chew out states in the press for shortening unemployment benefits. He’d promote bills to give benefits to 99ers. He’d bring up the fact that we can’t increase the retirement age without ensuring those who can’t afford to retire yet can still have employment. Even if he’s done these things I haven’t seen any of this, and I follow politics more closely than the average Joe or Jane. This absence of hope is what the labor unions are seeing too. That’s why they’re choosing to withhold some or all of their monetary support this election; because democrats aren’t coming to bat for them.
The reality that 50 X sees is Obama is going to win re-election no matter what. Not only is he “the guy that got Bin Laden” which Joe-six-pack will love, but the republicans are self-destructing by choosing to insist on their candidate endorse the Armageddon that is the Paul Ryan budget. The only way to make our progressive voices heard above the centrist din is by endorsing a progressive democratic candidate that would be an alternative in the primary. Sure, it would be a suicide mission, but sometime that’s what it takes to give one hope.