So I haven’t been participating much, primarily because I have been under a great deal of stress as I don’t know where I’m going to land on this. For those who read my last post, you remember that I got fired from my job out of the blue 3 weeks ago Friday. This after 12 years, 8 months and 10 days of service there. It was so unexpected that I thought that the general manager was joking at first.
The next Monday, I applied for unemployment. Since I didn’t know the cause of my firing and the unemployment office wanted one, I texted the GM, (let’s call him “Sherman”), and asked what I should tell them. He told me to “just say that you, (I) weren’t given a reason”. Having had experience with unemployment, I knew that wasn’t going to fly, so when asked I said that I was laid off.
After waiting a full week, I got an email telling me that I needed to identify myself with Id.me and if I didn’t, I would not be unable to collect benefits. So the next day I went down to the unemployment office with my documents and guess what? You can’t go down there with documents to identify yourself anymore and I still had to go through the website for id.me. That took a few hours but when I was done, they said that the id verification hold had been lifted and my benefits claim was “being reviewed”. Well that went on….and on….and on….for almost two full weeks! With no changes as of yesterday morning, I requested a phone call to try to find out what the hold up was and I learned some fascinating things.
The woman on the other end of the phone told me that my claim was being held up for two reasons. The first of which was because the office manager from my erstwhile employer had told the unemployment office that I was “fired for cause” but wouldn’t tell them what that cause was. This to me is more evidence that I was fired due to my trans status. The TWC representative then told me that it was a big red flag and in such cases they want to see write ups or counselling sheets in my file but they wouldn’t provide those either, mainly because I’ve been written up exactly one time and that was four or five years ago and for something that wasn’t going to get anyone fired. I pointed that out and that the employee handbook requires write ups and counselling before firing somebody for cause, (hence my surprise at being let go). She made notes and after a couple of more questions, we moved on to the second reason.
It turns out that the office manager, (let’s just go ahead and call her “Karen”) had told them that I was already employed! WTF? This was news to me! I think I would know if I already had a job! I told them no, the place where I was supposedly employed had gotten an unsolicited APPLICATION from me but I hadn’t heard anything at all from them. There were a few follow-up questions and she told me that I would get a decision by the end of the day.
Well I didn’t get a decision by the end of the day, though my account no longer says “being reviewed”. It just gives me a payment status now but no money, (“$0.00”) has been deposited in my account so it’s all but certain that I’m still denied benefits. It’s the weekend and now I won’t know anything for sure until at least Monday. I have to wait for a formal declaration from them which I haven’t received but since no money has been deposited, it’s doesn’t take a Physicist to work out that equation. Still I can’t do anything before the start of the work week and I could still appeal should I be officially denied. If I end up having to do that, I’m going scorched earth on them and their labor law violations. I don’t think it would be especially difficult to demonstrate malice when Karen, at Sherman’s direction, deliberately sabotaged my benefits claim by lying about my employment status and refusing to provide the information they need to process my claim.
So this morning I texted a friend and ex co-worker. This guy is not directly employed by them but maintains all of their equipment but he also is contracted to them so he often helps out in other areas when needed. Anyway, I had asked him to keep his ears open for people in the same line of work in the area who are hiring. I texted him this morning and told him that I was likely denied benefits and I’m going to need to do something very soon. Let’s call him Rog. Rog told me that another ex co-worker, “Randy” had been trying to get them to hire me back because he wants to fire “Russell”.
Russell works in the department that I used to lead but he’s hardly ever at work and he never lent a hand when he didn’t have anything specifically for his machine to run, which I endlessly complained about. Since he took over upon the retirement of “Lisa”, he’s been mostly absent and useless when it comes to work other than his own machine. But he likes to hunt shoot defenseless animals for the fuck of it.* Since one of the owner’s sons, (not Sherman but another) is also into “hunting” they are buddies and he can do no wrong in the eyes of the people who don’t do the actual work apparently.
So long story short, Rog told me that Randy, (if ever I had a “frenemy” that’s who Randy would be. He also heads the entire production floor) and himself were working on the owner, “Dan”, trying to get me hired back. It sounds like the two of them are having to do my job and their own work and they just can’t keep up but again, Russell just won’t help. I had told Sherman when I left that nobody is irreplaceable but everybody is going to have to work harder and you’re, (they’re) going to realize just what it is that I do around there. To be honest, I don’t believe I even have a 5% chance to get rehired but it’s not outside the realm of possibilities. I absolutely made money for them and I think that they took it for granted and believed that anybody could do the same.
Not trying to toot my own horn but just no. When I left the Navy, I remained in the area for a time before I moved and after I left my unit, the airframe shop went from a normal 16 hour schedule, (2 shifts, 5 days a week) to a 24 hour schedule, (12 on and 12 off) for 6 days a week. Solely because I left. I am a work animal and I always have been. I think that my ex workplace is going to get busy again very soon and they will be swamped. Rog told me that he and Randy were going to keep working on Dan, (owner) about getting me back on. That might be my only opportunity to get back into that line of work because everyone else who finds out I’m 64 have expressed little interest as per Rog.
So if we call unemployment benefits plan B and the possibility of going back to my ex employer plan C, we’re already having to move on to plan D because I don’t think either of those first three are in the cards (Plan A of course is finding gainful employment at another shop at my age). Plan D is not optimal because it involves claiming Social Security early. Right now, it would only get me $1,404 per month, which is $600-$1,000 less than what I need at minimum to live. I would need a part time job to supplement it for the entire rest of my life and I would never be able to fully retire. Also, once you claim your Social Security retirement benefit, it can’t be unclaimed. On the other hand, it is mine so it has to be considered but I was going to wait until 67 to retire.
I do have a friend whose son is an area manager for local bakery that does deliveries and he says that I could make the shortfall easily driving for them. I could do the work and it’s not the worst idea I’ve heard this week but again, I would have to do it or another part time gig for like, forever. I also have to be honest here; being off my feet for an extended period of time has been beneficial to my health. It’s unsustainable for the long run but not standing all day has been very nice.
I have had offers of assistance from friends, my good friend in Austin offered to pay my rent for me if I need it and my sister offered to make my next two car payments. My brother has offered to help out with other bills so yeah, I’ve got help in the wings if I need to call for it. I’m okay for this month, even without UI benefits I think. Maybe even April but after that, not so much and this of course is barring any unforeseen expenses. I’ve cancelled my streaming services and am about to change my cell phone carriers to reduce that bill. My utilities are very low already and can’t really be reduced further but medical coverage is another matter. I don’t have health insurance and I can’t afford health insurance. Same with dental. Fortunately all of my prescriptions were reauthorized just prior to this big mess so I’m okay for a half year on that, I can always cancel my next Doctor visit if I have to.
So, that’s it. I won’t go into the enormous, overwhelming amount of scams and spams there are out there right now. It seems like there’s no end of people unscrupulous enough to prey on the most vulnerable. I’ll bet they’re all Trumpies. Thanks for reading if you’ve gotten this far. Next week is probably going to be pivotal for me so I’ll update as necessary.
*(I don’t have anything against subsistence hunting but yeah, this guy actually shoots animals for the fuck of it. And then shows everybody the pictures)
