Let’s start by calling this what it is. It's a DEPRESSION. It may not meet some “official” definition but that’s what the reality is. The “official” definition, like much of Washington, D.C., is often slow to wake up to reality.
Stop lying about unemployment numbers. When the rate dips, the economy adds like +/- 100,000 jobs. Yet there are MILLIONS of unemployed. How does the rate drop with just those few jobs added? What’s not being said is how many hundreds of thousands fall off the unemployment rolls and are no longer counted. They're still unemployed though and still looking. They’re just not getting benefits anymore and therefore not being counted. The true unemployment rate is never reported. If it were, Congress’ approval rate might just dip into the negatives. Given the current state of things, I’m sure a negative approval rating is entirely possible.
My story: after 11 years of complete and total dedication to my job, I was let go. Complete and total dedication is not an exaggeration. I worked while on “vacation” road trips; what I called “workations”. I frequently sent out emails at 3AM. I lived and breathed my job as a Payroll Manager and took my job very seriously. Unfortunately, after the acquisition of a competitor using a different product with much better reporting, the company decided to convert. Once converted the consolidations of functions occurred. The Payroll functions were consolidated to two cities; one the home of the acquired competitor and the other the home of the corporate offices. No one was offered a position in the new cities. The company hired all new staff from outside. New blood is OK to a degree but in my department in Atlanta alone, 35+ years of company experience were thrown away. That’s just company experience, not total years of payroll experience. That’s a lot of experience just flushed down the toilet. Now, two plus years later, I still hear horror stories about payroll and it just irks me to no end that my recommendations on how to stay on top of things and be proactive are being ignored. The company has always been a reactive one and refuses to let go of that mentality.
There really needs to be a different classification of unemployment for people who didn't quit and weren't fired. Laid off is a totally different experience. During the course of my life, I've quit a couple of jobs but most I have been laid off primarily due to companies either closing or relocating. I was fired once but it was so bogus that I was able to draw unemployment. In fact, I drew unemployment to go back to school for six months. That was a long time ago though.
During these past two years of being unemployed, I've searched and searched for jobs. There just aren't any in my field. And I've read the ridiculous posts on boards about how the unemployed need to just apply at any and all jobs. They don't speak from experience. I do. You can't just apply at any and all jobs. Most companies, especially now, are so picky about qualifications because they can be and because it’s a way to eliminate the thousands of resumes they’re getting for each listing. I would have been perfect for one job but I didn't have experience on Version 4 of the program they use. My experience was on Version 3B. Payroll software is payroll software. They all do the same thing. And with my 25 plus years of experience on all types of software, they're all fairly easy to learn. But that didn't matter. They wanted that one version. That’s picky; too picky in my opinion. Many qualified people are excluded from consideration for things that have no bearing on their actual ability to do the job. I understand the need to whittle down the candidate pool but things of this nature are just absurd.
I have noticed that ALL job listings seem to require years of experience. How are kids just starting their careers supposed to actually START them? How are the unemployed supposed to change careers? Are there no companies that invest in people and training? I am left to wonder about the state of business in America when companies refuse to train their staff and no longer invest in their well being. Most companies have done away with pensions and gone to 401Ks. This leaves a majority of American’s retirements at the whim of markets. While good in the short term (at least for Wall Street), it’s just bad for America and Americans in general. Companies don’t care about their employees or people in general they way they used to, or were forced to by unions. Where I used to work, and I’m sure this applies to most companies, the only view is always the current month’s bottom line. Investment of any sort is frowned upon. What’s lost in the mix is the intangible, not measured in dollars, goodwill and employee morale. If this could be put on the balance sheet and income statement, I’m sure more companies would pay attention to it for it’s not entirely intangible. As the old adage says, word of mouth, etc. There are several companies I will not do business with based solely on word of mouth experiences.
Continuing on with my story, eventually the bills began to stack up and I had to take time away from looking for a job to deal with creditors. Mind you, these were banks that were bailed out with our tax dollars that were now hounding me for more dollars. If you haven't seen HBO's, "Too Big To Fail", I recommend it. The absolute worse was Chase, who bought out WAMU. I will never deal with Chase again. 45 calls a day and not ONE voice mail. That's just rude. And these calls came from all over the country. When I finally did talk to them and told them that I was unemployed and couldn't make my mortgage payment much less pay utilities and buy food, they still wanted to know how much I would send them each month. I finally had to interrupt the gal and tell her that I knew she was reading from a script but that my responses weren't scripted. It was time to LISTEN. She didn't much care for that and wanted to stick to her script. Eventually, I hung up on her and wrote a four page letter blasting their business practices. I'm sure it did no good because they could care less but they at least read the part about not calling. Of course, they have never written either.
THEN....I had a friend that was paying my Barclays bill. And when she came into some extra money, she made a $1200 payment on my account and told me to use it for food, essentials and to pay off my car. Barclays responded by dropping my credit line $1300. Consequently, I wasn't able to use any of it. When I called Barclays, they said they did that because I was behind on my other credit cards. When I explained that I was not behind on my payments with them, they basically said that my history with them didn't matter. Since I was late on other bills, they reduced my credit line.
Well, I can't begin to tell you how angry this made me. And, naturally, as my luck would have it, this happened on the same day that the A/C unit quit working. No A/C in June in Georgia. So, I might not have been as nice as I could have been when I called them since I was hot, physically, mentally and emotionally. That course of action to protect themselves cost them my business. I thanked my friend immensely and told her to stop paying them. I wrote them and demanded that they reverse their actions but that was ignored. They've not gotten $0.01 since. Pretty stupid move on their part.
This was after credit card companies hiked our interest rates across the board because of their own greed which contributed to the financial meltdown. I will never have another credit card. They're the devil incarnate. Unfortunately, the banks have schemed to make them necessities, not luxuries. Our society does everything with plastic. Even checks have become obsolete. Progress and convenience have conspired to make consumers powerless.
Congress did a lot for businesses after the meltdown. Of course, if Congress had really wanted to keep the economy going then the bailouts would have been made to the real economic engine; the consumers. If I had gotten a big chunk of bucks, I would have paid down credit flushing banks with cash and creating a confidence that while intangible would have been remarkable. That confidence would have also fueled other purchases due to the betterment of my financial situation. But Congress, like my former employer, couldn’t see beyond the current month’s bottom line. Unfortunately, what Congress never did that was and still is sorely needed (and retroactively at that) is a moratorium on payments for the long term unemployed. I know that business is important but let's face facts. If there are no people, there is no business. So why is it that our government protects business at the expense of people? I wasn't over extended. I wasn't rich either. I was making ends meet and was comfortable. And that's all I really wanted. But then I got hit with a 75% reduction in income. But I couldn’t lower all my bills by 75%. Unemployment doesn't begin to cover living expenses. Living expenses is an understatement. Let's call them existence expenses. Either way, in Georgia, the maximum you can get is $1.00 an hour more than minimum wage, which is an unsustainable living wage. And we wonder why more people are living in poverty today. And what’s really scary is that the poverty amount has not been updated in decades to reflect the constant increase in costs for everything.
Back in 2003 I was over extended and I filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy. If you remember, creditors were pitching a fit that it was too easy to file bankruptcy and convinced Congress to change the laws which they did in 2005. Now, instead of being able to file every 6 years from filing date to filing date, it's every 8 years from discharge date to discharge date. And the associated costs have skyrocketed thus making it even harder to file. During my initial unemployment period, I went to see an attorney about filing a chapter 13 just to keep creditors at bay and save my house. Incredulously, I left the attorney’s office. I needed a job to file a 13. I wasn't making enough money with unemployment to be bankrupt!
Finally, I had to decide. Do I make the utility payments or the modified mortgage payment? Frankly, one is no good without the other so I had to just walk away from the house. I inquired about doing a Deed in Lieu. That would have entitled me to a $3000 payment under the Making Home Affordable program. But it's too easy in Georgia for banks to foreclose. There is no incentive for them to accept a deed in lieu. Georgia doesn’t require a court proceeding to foreclose. All they have to do is file a notice in the local paper for 30 days and then show up at the courthouse steps the first Tuesday of the next month. When I called and inquired about doing a Died in Lieu, I was told that I had to list the house for 90 days first. Within a half mile drive from the house there were 11 other houses on the market. So listing it was a pure and utter waste of time and resources. I’m not really fond of wasting time. Walking away was one of the toughest decisions I ever had to make. I was in that house for 10.5 years. It was my home, not just a house.
I received a letter from the mortgage company saying they were going to foreclose on September 7, 2010. I wrote them again requesting a Deed in Lieu. The only response I received was a letter stating that since I did not provide the additional information they requested that they would not consider my request. What additional information? I never received a request. By that time, I had already moved so I didn't follow up. Perhaps I should have. At any rate, they finally foreclosed on April 5, 2011.
Previous to this date, I had contacted my bankruptcy attorney from 2003. It amazes me that back in 2003, it cost me a total of $800 to file a Chapter 7. Now attorney fees alone are around $1,250 and the filing fee is $299 AND you have to pay $50 for "counseling", both before AND after so it's really $100. If you're really bankrupt, how can you possibly pay these fees? It's just absurd. Nonetheless, I had most of this already saved up in anticipation of filing in February so I could stop the foreclosure. Remember what I said above about the law being changed in 2005? I knew about the change to 8 years. I didn't know about the change in dates from filing to discharge. I initially filed in February, 2003 so eight years was February, 2011. I could file and stop the foreclosure. But alas...congress screwed me yet again. My discharge date was in June, 2003 so I couldn’t file until June, 2011. I couldn't stop the foreclosure. Thank you Congress, paid with our tax dollars, for throwing me under the bus so that business can line your electoral pockets and you can vote yourselves perks and make public service a profitable career.
And tax dollars they are! When I filed my 2009 taxes, I still owed monies to those thieves because I had used my retirement to stave off foreclosure to no avail. That 10% penalty, which is now an additional tax instead of penalty (I need to research when that changed), is killing me. I had to contact the IRS and explain that I just didn't have the additional funds to just hand over to them when I couldn't afford to eat and had lost my home. So they set me up with a payment plan. I'm still trying to figure this one out. They charge you a $105 fee to setup an installment plan. Hello? You can't afford to pay your tax bill so you have to pay a fee for the privilege of paying additional penalty and interest? I think thief is the appropriate term. But, get this!!! They'll reduce the fee by $62 if they can direct debit your bank account for the monthly payment. I declined the privilege of the government just taking money from my account. Call me crazy, but for some reason I just don't trust the thieves to do that accurately. When I received the agreement in the mail, there was this nifty form where you could apply for a reduced fee. In essence, if you met the requirements, you could have $62 removed from the fee. In reviewing the form and the instructions and related income chart, I qualified for a reduced fee. Seems there are several ways to eliminate $62 of the $105 so why not just charge the $43 and eliminate all this other stupidity? I completed the form and mailed it off. The reply I received was that I didn't qualify. I asked for reconsideration and enumerated my reasoning. I was told in extremely poor grammar that the fee was charged. Nothing in my correspondence was addressed. I then replied back and sent letters to both senators and my representative and this time requested that not only should the fee be reduced but it should now be abated.
In contacting my elected representatives I had to also complete forms authorizing them to act on my behalf. Hello? Isn't that part of the job to which they were elected? Now I have to AUTHORIZE them to represent me and inquire to a federal agency on their constituent’s behalf? How asinine is that?
The next letter I received from the thieves floored me. It really shouldn't have but it did. Basically, they wanted to know what I was asking about because they couldn't find my previous correspondence. And you wonder why I didn't want them to just take money out of my account?!?! I copied everything; relevant tax returns, previous correspondence, letters to the elected representatives, their responses, and the form I filed. That was all mailed 5/11/11. As of September, 2011 I have received no response from them. Should I be concerned? I wrote a follow up letter as well in June but still no response. I have received responses from all elected representatives that the $62 has been applied and I have verified that against my monthly billing from the IRS. The IRS has never contacted me directly about it.
So I've pondered and pondered as to why I was able, initially, to get interviews but no offers. Companies will talk to you but common courtesy seems to have died a quiet death. They provide zero follow up. Not even when you follow up with them and ask for it. I interviewed four separate times for one company. The fourth interview was the firing squad interview of 4 on 1. I sent Thank You cards to each person that interviewed me. I never heard from a single one of them again. The only feedback that I have been able to obtain I got from a recruiter who told me that they’d heard that I was not forthcoming with information. I find that hard to believe. I mean, it's an interview. They ask questions. I answer. If they want more information, they need to ask for more. I'm not a mind reader. I do payroll. It's confidential. My nature is to not disclose much information. And I'm interviewing for payroll positions. This really should be a plus but it's not. Go figure.
One day this past summer, I heard from two different recruiters. One was very excited to submit me for consideration. They would then do a drug test. Fine. And a background check. Fine. And a credit check. Problem. When asked why that would be a problem I thought to myself, "you really didn't read the resume, did you?" but I replied that I'd been unemployed for nearly two years. OBVIOUSLY my credit would not be pristine. Oh well. I couldn't be considered. Now I ask you....where in employment of people does one's credit report have ANY bearing on their ability to do the job? Employment is NOT credit. They shouldn’t be looking at credit reports. Frankly, if someone's financial situation is a concern in the job, then the internal controls at the job need to be looked at because if you can embezzle, then there's a problem in the controls. But, it's easier to just exclude people from consideration rather than to review your internal controls and make sure that it's not a consideration. SOX compliance, et al. Yea. Whatever. Yet another arbitrary way to whittle the candidate pool down.
Later that same day, another recruiter contacted me about a job I had applied to with their agency. It was a lower position than I'd had in the past and the company was afraid that I'd leave when the market turned around and they didn't understand why I had even applied to the position. Well, I've been unemployed for nearly two years. It was a payroll job that was close to home. The question is why wouldn't I apply? And frankly, the way companies are working their skeleton crews to death, who won’t be looking for a job when the market turns around?
So, in one day, I got two extremes from being unemployed. Neither one actually dealt with my ability to perform the work. So, to those that say that the unemployed need to just apply wherever, I say, "Go ahead and see how easy it is."
Now, I've not been completely lax during all this time. I did take a couple of temporary positions. Unfortunately, one was with a friend of mine (now an ex-friend that refuses to speak with me) that got me the position. It was a small company and we were treated as independent contractors. When I was told that it wouldn't be "under the table", I reported the earnings to unemployment as I'm required to do by law. When the 6 weeks were up and I needed to start unemployment again, my claim was put on hold while the state did a wage investigation as to the legitimacy of the independent contractor status. As an independent contractor, I would be responsible for all taxes and unemployment wouldn't be part of that and the company didn’t pay any unemployment tax either. The position, under the law, was an employee situation, not contractor. The company got hit with back taxes, both federal and state. My friend viewed this as a betrayal and without a word, unfriended me. My inquiries to her went unanswered.
That wage investigation took 8 weeks. While the state, which I also fought against the investigation, did their interviews, they did not process my claim so I had no income whatsoever. All the paperwork indicated that the investigation would have no bearing on the claim but that was an obviously blatant lie. I even wrote the Governor and my state rep and senator. My elected officials were such a help that I think I'll vote for an ant next time. At least ants work.
At that point, I had to go on food stamps just to eat. Because I don’t live alone, I had to include the other person in the household on the application. However, because we are not related, they would not be considered but had to be included. I was able to get $200 a month for food. And the two of us actually managed to live on that. Mind you....if we had filed separately, we could have each gotten $200 as well. Had we been able to file as a legally married couple, we would have only received $375. Figure that one out. I know math is hard but come on. And there’s a plethora of reasons the other party didn’t apply that I won’t go into.
Once the unemployment finally started up again and those missing weeks were finally paid, the food stamps stopped. Apparently unemployment is too much money to qualify for food stamps. Geez...and we were living so high on the hog.
I finally landed another temporary job and once again, when that ended and I had to reapply for unemployment, there was a delay in processing the claim. Now, this was as an employee so the state was getting their share. To this day I have no idea why my claim was delayed. Eventually, they paid and retro as well but I had to get money from my mom just to buy food. It took the state 6 weeks this time. I love how I play by all the rules and yet I am the one that gets screwed. I understand that the state needs to protect the funds against fraud but let's get real. 14 total weeks of delay....I can't tell creditors that they can't be paid because the state is "thinking about" or "processing" my claim. The claims are done electronically so there is no reason it should take that long. And when you file, they don’t look at the current quarter. They look at the four previous quarters so they already have all the information in their system. I’m sure that matching that date to my claim should be a simple task for a computer but this is Georgia so who knows? And speaking of all that, if I can go online at the unemployment office to file my claim, why can't I do that at home as well? As gas gets higher, I have to piss away money in gas on a trip to the unemployment office just to use Internet Explorer on the state’s intranet because they can't figure out how to do it on the internet? I can do weekly claims online at home so why not be able to file as well? Perhaps the state gets a kickback from the oil companies?
So, I continue to look and apply and I'm beginning to feel that it's to no avail. Why can't I get hired? Where are the professional jobs hiding in this new area in which I live? Why can't I even find a temp job? How can I stay positive with all this negativity being thrown at me? I'm stronger than all that. I will find something someday. I just wish it were sooner, rather than later. Later has already cost me more than I was willing to pay.
And now I watch the political landscape and wonder to myself, what happened to this country? Why is it that Americans are so generous to other people when natural disasters strike but have no generosity when it comes to fellow American’s that have been hit hard by this downturn? I wonder to myself when it became OK for Americans to applaud at the idea of letting an individual with no health insurance just die. I would love to have insurance but it’s completely out of the question while on unemployment. While I’ve not tried to apply for Medicaid, given my experience with food stamps, I’m sure that I make too much money with unemployment. I could go on and on about the embarrassment that was our Congress this past summer but the fact of the matter is, nothing will happen in Congress because Americans have gotten exactly what they wanted; a divided government. And just like America, this division gridlocks all necessary work in the name of ideology. It’s pathetic and it’s shameful. We are no longer one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. We are now a divided nation, under conflicting ideologies, with liberty and justice to all who can afford it and disdain for any who can’t, for whatever reason.
This is just one person's experience. The world is unfair. Life is unfair. This is known. But this is America. Land of opportunity. Right? Isn't it? Or is it? I’ve always believed that it was the land of opportunity, provided you weren’t born here. As I get older and experience more of this great country of ours the more I believe I’m right.