Have you ever noticed how things usually work just the opposite of how you have always heard they work? This seems to be more and more the case. I'm thinking that maybe everyone just gets tired of being predictable. So they do things just the opposite of the way everyone thinks they are supposed to do it. Whatever "it" is. Of course, here "it" is getting a job.
I just read an article this morning that advised me not to look so hard for a job. For years, all I have heard is, when you are unemployed, your job is Finding a Job. That article said look for a couple of hours a day and then do something else, something positive, something you love to do, and to get with other people that like to do whatever it is you are doing. The idea is to stop trying so hard to find a job and let the job find you.
If you think about it, when you look at the job posting websites, it really only takes a couple of hours (if that long) to look at the new postings that are posted each day. How many times have you been looking at the postings and realized that you are looking at the same postings you have been looking at for the last week or two. I mainly look at Indeed.com. They seem to eventually pull new ads that have been posted elsewhere. So I see some new ads, but they are already several days old. It seems like I am seeing new postings, but not really.
Most of us feel like we should be looking for a job constantly. Especially if we have other family members depending on us to find a job. It gets almost addictive, which seems to be true of almost anything we do repetitively day after day. I have heard people say they can't sleep for thinking about job hunting, or they wake up earlier than usual thinking about job hunting.
That article I read did not really surprise me. I have been telling just about everyone that you can look for a job until you're blue in the face, work on your resume and cover letter until it's immaculate, and do every other thing that the professionals suggest, and still not get a job. Or you get a job because the guy at the grocery store told you where his brother-in-law just went to work. "I think they're hiring!"
The new theory is that you can burn out, get depressed, and become irritatingly boring if you overdo the job hunt. However, don't fall prey to the other extreme. You know, doing everything you can think of except searching for a job, like cleaning the garage or painting the house. The things you should do instead of searching for a job should compliment your job search. They should put you in contact with others that like to do what you like to do. That sort of thing. I am using my not-searching-for-a-job time to try and figure out another way to make a living. You know: blogging, learning to buy and sell on ebay, learning to be a webmaster, and so on. You might want to take a class to learn a new computer skill or whatever. Who knows, you might meet your next office mate at that class.
Also, keep in mind that the reason you are not at your old job may be another one of those deals that do not work the way you think it should work. In days gone by, the best employees were kept and the lesser employees received the pink slip. These days, you may have been terminated because you were at the top of the heap. Your employer may have realized that you had gone as far a you could go in your job. There were no more raises they could give you. You had to go, for your own good, someplace where they could give you new duties and pay you more. Plus, your old employer saves on your high salary and new opportunities open up to the junior employees that do the same things you did.
The point here is, you might want to look for a job that pays more and that will cause you to have to stretch your abilities. In other words, you will become the junior employee in a job that eventually pays more than your old job. This has unintentionally happened to me several times thanks to people who think about things like that. While I was looking for another job just like the one I had, my future employers were smart enough to see my potential for doing a job that offered me new challenges and more money. I say gear up. You can always gear down.
Some think that we live in a new age. Others say we live in a time where right is wrong and wrong is right. I don't know about all that, but I do know things often work just the opposite of the way we think they will work. We think we were laid off because we were doing a bad job when, in fact, we were doing too good a job. We ask for less money and less responsibility when we should be asking for more, more, more.
Showing posts with label job loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job loss. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Unemployment Benefits
I would assume most every state has some kind of unemployment benefits. My state and the federal government collect taxes from employers in order to pay unemployment benefits to unemployed workers.
A few years ago, when I was unemployed, I had to travel to the unemployment office to sign up for the benefits. Now, all that can be done online by way of the internet.
To collect unemployment benefits, you have to set up a profile that includes your name, mailing address, social security number, and the name and address of the last company for which you worked. All this information is used to verify that you did work at that company. The unemployment office checks with the company to make sure you qualify for unemployment benefits.
In my state, there are three main requirements for receiving unemployment benefits: past wages, job separation, and ongoing availability and work search. You must meet all of the requirements to receive benefits.
Past wages are used to determine if you are even eligible and to figure out how much you will receive. In this state, the weekly benefit amount is between $58 and $392 depending upon the wages you have been earning the last year or so. There is also a maximum amount that you can receive, which amounts to about six months of pay in my state. However, I think some states are extending benefits due to our current economic situation and the job market.
You must have a valid reason for leaving your last job such as being laid off due to a general lay off or the company closed. If you just quit for no good reason or were fired for a valid reason, you are not likely to be able to collect unemployment benefits. In other words, you must be unemployed or partially unemployed through no fault of your own to receive benefits. You may have to prove that, but usually the benefits people can just check with your last employer to get the facts.
You will also be expected to be available to work and to look for work while you are collecting unemployment benefits. I currently have to make five contacts each week to receive benefits. That means searching online sites for suitable jobs, networking with recruiters and friends, applying for jobs, going on interviews, and so on. In other words, they are paying you to find a job. Your job is finding a job.
There are some additional terms like reducing the amount you are willing to work for as time goes on. After looking for work, and collecting benefits for a certain length of time, you may be asked to reduce your salary demands by a given percentage. If you were asking for $20 an hour, you might have to start looking for and be willing to accept jobs that only pay $18 an hour.
This all may sound a bit complicated, and I really have not even gone into that much detail, but you will probably receive a booklet explaining it all. If you worked at your last job for long enough and left it for a valid reason, you probably have nothing to worry about. You may only receive a fraction of what you were making, but it can help tide you over until you find that next job.
A few years ago, when I was unemployed, I had to travel to the unemployment office to sign up for the benefits. Now, all that can be done online by way of the internet.
To collect unemployment benefits, you have to set up a profile that includes your name, mailing address, social security number, and the name and address of the last company for which you worked. All this information is used to verify that you did work at that company. The unemployment office checks with the company to make sure you qualify for unemployment benefits.
In my state, there are three main requirements for receiving unemployment benefits: past wages, job separation, and ongoing availability and work search. You must meet all of the requirements to receive benefits.
Past wages are used to determine if you are even eligible and to figure out how much you will receive. In this state, the weekly benefit amount is between $58 and $392 depending upon the wages you have been earning the last year or so. There is also a maximum amount that you can receive, which amounts to about six months of pay in my state. However, I think some states are extending benefits due to our current economic situation and the job market.
You must have a valid reason for leaving your last job such as being laid off due to a general lay off or the company closed. If you just quit for no good reason or were fired for a valid reason, you are not likely to be able to collect unemployment benefits. In other words, you must be unemployed or partially unemployed through no fault of your own to receive benefits. You may have to prove that, but usually the benefits people can just check with your last employer to get the facts.
You will also be expected to be available to work and to look for work while you are collecting unemployment benefits. I currently have to make five contacts each week to receive benefits. That means searching online sites for suitable jobs, networking with recruiters and friends, applying for jobs, going on interviews, and so on. In other words, they are paying you to find a job. Your job is finding a job.
There are some additional terms like reducing the amount you are willing to work for as time goes on. After looking for work, and collecting benefits for a certain length of time, you may be asked to reduce your salary demands by a given percentage. If you were asking for $20 an hour, you might have to start looking for and be willing to accept jobs that only pay $18 an hour.
This all may sound a bit complicated, and I really have not even gone into that much detail, but you will probably receive a booklet explaining it all. If you worked at your last job for long enough and left it for a valid reason, you probably have nothing to worry about. You may only receive a fraction of what you were making, but it can help tide you over until you find that next job.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The Ups and Downs of Finding a Job
From the moment you find out you no longer have a job, being unemployed feels like being on an emotional roller coaster. Even if you can understand why you were terminated, you still feel like you did something wrong. That is probably because you have been around after other lay offs and heard what people said about the people that were no longer there.
People are sad for those leaving, at first, but, as time goes on, they start trying to justify why they were let go. Housecleaning, cutting the deadwood, he/she was in over his/her head. You could probably add to the things people say about their co-workers, trying to explain why they are still employed and their co-workers are gone. It is an understandable reaction. None of us want to think that we could just walk into work one day, be terminated, and have to walk out with that box of belongings as everyone watches.
Each of us reacts differently to being terminated or fired. Some of us think it is kind of funny. After all, how can they live without us? The company will surely go under now that we are no longer there, and that will serve them right. Others cry, some yell, and people like me just move on. My philosophy is that once they start laying off people like me, I don't want to work there anymore anyway.
The first time I was terminated in a general lay off, I was not at all surprised. I had been with that company more than 13 years. I was a nomad technical writer, moving from group-to-group, and I was between projects when the company was bought out by another company. I was told that 10 percent of the employees had to be let go as a condition of the buy out. Of course, getting a severance package that included six months of pay (two weeks of pay for every year I had been there) kept a smile on my face as I made that long trip to my car.
I was lucky that time. Another lady who left the company when I did mentioned my name to a guy who had worked with me a while back. I was hired by his boss as a contractor. That job came to me and it lasted almost three years. The Y2K panic was a disaster for the small contract company and I was unemployed on and off the last six months I worked there. Fortunately, a couple of friends got me back in at the company that bought the company that bought company I had worked for three years earlier with them. As I understand it, I missed some really rocky times while I was gone. The second buy-out had happened about a month after the first buy-out that left me unemployed. That job lasted almost seven years, and through many lay offs, before it was my turn again. Seven years meant more severance pay, which ran out just about the time I found my next job.
My wife has never liked the insecurity of my being a contractor. I have not really had much of a choice as I get older. I have had several jobs as a contractor where the manager offered me a permanent job within the first week. Sometimes I have accepted and sometimes I have not. The point being, contracting can get you in the door, so people can see what you can do and what you are like, and then they might offer you a permanent job.
What I have not mentioned is all the ups and downs I went through when I was between jobs. A couple of summers ago, when I was laid off again, I got a severance pay amount equivalent to about 11 weeks of pay (for that seven years of employment). I could have gone a little longer because of unemployment benefits. I was getting the maximum amount, I think, which is close to $400 a week. I was at about week 12 when I was offered the job that I have had the last couple of years. During that 12 weeks, I went through just about every emotion you can think of.
As far at the lay off, I did not blame myself. I know that it was not due to my abilities. The first time I was laid off, I had met with my new manager earlier that morning, got a rave review, and received a raise, which was used to compute my severance pay amount. Most of the lay offs I have gone through are truly just an exercise in downsizing. I don't think I have ever seen any housecleaning lay offs or getting rid of the deadwood lay offs. However, I sometimes think the best and highest paid employees are picked to be laid off in order to open up new opportunities for the employees that remain, and those leaving can find better opportunities. That has happened to me. My job losses have actually resulted in better jobs at the next company. If the past is any indication, my next job should be a dream.
So I have never had any emotional problems about the jobs I have left, but that does not mean I have not fretted over finding a job. Am I too old to find as good a job as I have had? Are there any good jobs out there? Are my cars and my house going to be repossessed? Is my family going to starve? I wonder if I am really as talented as I think I am. You name it. Every negative thought that you can imagine will fill your mind at one time or another when you are unemployed.
Being unemployed and trying to find a job is about as emotionally distressing a thing as you will ever live through. My dad and grandfather were both self-employed house painters. When they were unemployed at times, they probably just felt that they were between projects. I have tried to develop that mental attitude: I am just between projects. As I carry my box of personal items out of the building where I have just been laid off, I am already wondering where my next project will be, what the people will be like there, and what that future company does or makes.
Don't get me wrong, I still have those depressing days that I think I have worked for the last time, on my last project, but I get over it. I have to. I have a family, a large dog, and a parrot to support.
People are sad for those leaving, at first, but, as time goes on, they start trying to justify why they were let go. Housecleaning, cutting the deadwood, he/she was in over his/her head. You could probably add to the things people say about their co-workers, trying to explain why they are still employed and their co-workers are gone. It is an understandable reaction. None of us want to think that we could just walk into work one day, be terminated, and have to walk out with that box of belongings as everyone watches.
Each of us reacts differently to being terminated or fired. Some of us think it is kind of funny. After all, how can they live without us? The company will surely go under now that we are no longer there, and that will serve them right. Others cry, some yell, and people like me just move on. My philosophy is that once they start laying off people like me, I don't want to work there anymore anyway.
The first time I was terminated in a general lay off, I was not at all surprised. I had been with that company more than 13 years. I was a nomad technical writer, moving from group-to-group, and I was between projects when the company was bought out by another company. I was told that 10 percent of the employees had to be let go as a condition of the buy out. Of course, getting a severance package that included six months of pay (two weeks of pay for every year I had been there) kept a smile on my face as I made that long trip to my car.
I was lucky that time. Another lady who left the company when I did mentioned my name to a guy who had worked with me a while back. I was hired by his boss as a contractor. That job came to me and it lasted almost three years. The Y2K panic was a disaster for the small contract company and I was unemployed on and off the last six months I worked there. Fortunately, a couple of friends got me back in at the company that bought the company that bought company I had worked for three years earlier with them. As I understand it, I missed some really rocky times while I was gone. The second buy-out had happened about a month after the first buy-out that left me unemployed. That job lasted almost seven years, and through many lay offs, before it was my turn again. Seven years meant more severance pay, which ran out just about the time I found my next job.
My wife has never liked the insecurity of my being a contractor. I have not really had much of a choice as I get older. I have had several jobs as a contractor where the manager offered me a permanent job within the first week. Sometimes I have accepted and sometimes I have not. The point being, contracting can get you in the door, so people can see what you can do and what you are like, and then they might offer you a permanent job.
What I have not mentioned is all the ups and downs I went through when I was between jobs. A couple of summers ago, when I was laid off again, I got a severance pay amount equivalent to about 11 weeks of pay (for that seven years of employment). I could have gone a little longer because of unemployment benefits. I was getting the maximum amount, I think, which is close to $400 a week. I was at about week 12 when I was offered the job that I have had the last couple of years. During that 12 weeks, I went through just about every emotion you can think of.
As far at the lay off, I did not blame myself. I know that it was not due to my abilities. The first time I was laid off, I had met with my new manager earlier that morning, got a rave review, and received a raise, which was used to compute my severance pay amount. Most of the lay offs I have gone through are truly just an exercise in downsizing. I don't think I have ever seen any housecleaning lay offs or getting rid of the deadwood lay offs. However, I sometimes think the best and highest paid employees are picked to be laid off in order to open up new opportunities for the employees that remain, and those leaving can find better opportunities. That has happened to me. My job losses have actually resulted in better jobs at the next company. If the past is any indication, my next job should be a dream.
So I have never had any emotional problems about the jobs I have left, but that does not mean I have not fretted over finding a job. Am I too old to find as good a job as I have had? Are there any good jobs out there? Are my cars and my house going to be repossessed? Is my family going to starve? I wonder if I am really as talented as I think I am. You name it. Every negative thought that you can imagine will fill your mind at one time or another when you are unemployed.
Being unemployed and trying to find a job is about as emotionally distressing a thing as you will ever live through. My dad and grandfather were both self-employed house painters. When they were unemployed at times, they probably just felt that they were between projects. I have tried to develop that mental attitude: I am just between projects. As I carry my box of personal items out of the building where I have just been laid off, I am already wondering where my next project will be, what the people will be like there, and what that future company does or makes.
Don't get me wrong, I still have those depressing days that I think I have worked for the last time, on my last project, but I get over it. I have to. I have a family, a large dog, and a parrot to support.
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