Archive for June, 2009

This article appeared on CNN.com/living on June 29 from CareerBuilder.com. Click on link to read entire article.

“Sherry Shealy Martschink, 57, is a former state legislator, state senator and worker’s compensation commissioner for South Carolina.

She’s a recent law school graduate and has experience in journalism, marketing and education.

For the past few years during her job search, she’s been told — in not so many words — that she’s overqualified.

“Sometimes the opposition is in the tone of voice rather than the actual wording of the questions and comments,” Martschink said. “An employer may say something like, ‘We are hoping to find someone who will make a career here’ or ‘Why would you want this job after doing such-and-such?’ Another type of question has to do with whether I could be a team player after being in such leadership positions.”

How does Martschink respond to such opposition? Plain and simple:

“If I weren’t willing to do the work, I wouldn’t be applying for the job,” she said. …”

This is an email conversation between UP member Pamela Allee and UP site editor Diane Alexander:

Pamela writes:

Everyone deserves to earn a good living! Let’s stop the nonsense that people without degrees are less deserving of respect, etc. — so often by those with degrees. Possession of a degree does not necessarily indicate anything more than privilege.

I do agree with your site – up to a point. I think it is also very important to caution disgruntled members of the professional class against taking it out on those of us who are “merely” support staff. I’m speaking from 55 years of working experience, mainly in two fields (medical laboratory and marine engineering).

Diane writes:

Dear Pamela,

Thanks for your comments — I agree with you. But I hope that our site does not imply that people without college degrees are less worthy of respect or the opportunity to earn a decent living.

The idea for United Professionals, as you may have read on the site, came after Barbara Ehrenreich wrote “Bait and Switch: the (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream.” She was overwhelmed by how many people she met on her book tours who had similar experiences with layoffs, age discrimination, and many other obstacles in trying to find work in their fields.

Before that, Barbara wrote “Nickel and Dimed,” where she went undercover to expose the futility of trying to get by on entry-level pay as a aid, Walmart worker, and waitress. I know that Barbara and UP’s entire board of directors are ardent advocates for a living wage and dignity for workers of whatever kind.

I understand that the terms “white collar” and “professional” can be seen as elitist, though in fact UP has members from all different income, job, and education levels. One fellow I’ve corresponded with asked if, as a truck driver, he could be a member of UP. I told him that he is a professional — a professional truck driver — and that UP doesn’t care what color anybody’s collar is. Our emphasis is really more on the endangered middle class than on white, blue, or pink collars.

I’d love to have you write your thoughts into a blog piece.

Pamela writes:

Hi Diane — Thank you for replying (and so quickly). I totally agree with the intro on your page, and yet I responded to a nerve that has grown ever more tender over my working life. I don’t know how much is “just me” and how much is “the times,” but I’m ever more aware (and resentful) of class distinctions based chiefly upon education.

I blush to realize that I’ve been resorting to classic scapegoating and muddling of related issues. My frustration is probably exacerbated by the continuous disregard for the public exhibited by our (degreed) public servants (sic), from the smallest town hall to Congress.

Thanks again, and I hope UP contributes to some much-needed social equality along the lines of an America that needs to be. (Langston Hughes said it best.)

Diane writes:

Hi Pam — I also feel somewhat uncomfortable with the terms “white collar” and “professional.” But there are lots of white-collar people who didn’t go to college, and plenty of college graduates who have working-class jobs.

I would love your perspective to be heard on the UP site. I bet you’re not the only one who feels that way.

Pamela writes:

All honest labor is skilled labor, and as such, deserves respect: both self respect and the respect of others. I very much object to ranking work as “peonage” or feeling that one’s job is somehow”beneath” one, simply because this mindset seems always to bleed over to condescension or worse.

The absence or presence of higher education is a crap shoot as far as predicting actual ability. It is becoming more of an indicator of privilege than anything else, unfortunately.

All of us — especially, I suspect, people who read and write for UP — can come up with an “in a better world” list around education, among other things.

That better world can start now, in the workplace, if we each begin to acknowledge what I began with: All honest labor is skilled labor and deserves respect. I know this is a bit simple, but I think it’s a very good place to begin questioning one’s own responsibility in the general scheme of things.

Pamela and Diane would like to hear other people’s comments on this subject.

I have a secret obsession—soap operas from Asia. Ok, it’s not a secret anymore. I just love them. Most of my favorites are from Taiwan and South Korea. They often have formulaic plots, usually have funny side characters, and best of all they end after a few weeks. My latest indulgence is a Korean drama called “City Hall” about a sassy woman who becomes the mayor of her hometown and romances an up and coming national politician. What does this have to do with United Professionals?

While watching the last thrilling episode I realized I don’t know the names of all of my own local and area politicians. Just like I can’t accomplish much without a professional network, how to I expect to be part of societal change if I don’t know anything about who is working in my government? I now know my mayor is named Dan Pike and he worked for ten years in the seafood industry. His goals for the city include looking at other cities to find best practices for getting input from the public.

What I want all UP members to do is find out who your local, regional, and state level politicians are and what they stand for.  Then get in touch with them, and let them know what’s on your mind.  Here is a link to get you started:  https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml It’s as easy as entering your zip code.

Blog: www.karensouthallwatts.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ask_Karen

Tom Bishop is the Marketing Program Manager at AutomatedQA, and is responsible for the company’s online campaign strategy, messaging and material development, communications and sales department support. To United Professionals, he offers experience in online strategy and implementation of community building and communications programs. Tom brings more than ten years in brand strategy, campaign management, market segmentation, research and data analysis, and business development, with expertise in Content Management Systems, SEO, database tracking and analytics. He has a great deal of experience in start-up companies that are positioned for rapid growth. He received his MBA from Boston University School of Management in 2002.

“I joined United Professionals because of its clear mission to defend the democratic principles that a fair working economy and a strong middle class are built on. Now that we have seen the open war being waged by corporations against those principles, organizations like UP are more important than ever.”

Karen Southall Watts [www.karensouthallwatts.com] teaches for Bellingham Technical College in the Business and Professional Development division of Continuing Education. She maintains a private consulting and coaching practice focusing on entrepreneurship and management issues. Karen is the author of numerous student workbooks, ebooks and articles that can be found online.

“After working in adult education for over a decade, I understand the time, energy and expense that people put into their professional development. I want to see my students and all other graduates go into a job market that recognizes and values their talents and efforts. I support the work of UP because I believe workers deserve employers who respect them as individuals, support them as members of society and pay them a living wage. I see UP as the natural partner of higher education.”

Tom and Karen both emailed UP with ideas. Their excellent suggestions led to their inclusion in UP’s newly-formed “Idea Committee” along with board members Trude Diamond and Barbara Ehrenreich and site editor Diane Alexander. Tom is now co-chair of the Website Team, and Karen is co-chair of the PR Team. Thanks to both of them for their volunteer work and continuing great ideas!

Don’t forget that UP dues are optional.

Please tell your friends to join!

This is an excerpt from an article on Workforce.com. See entire piece at http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/26/48/55.php

“After the first hearing in its legislative history, it’s unclear whether a bill that would require companies to offer paid sick days will take a path toward reconciliation or strife between business and advocacy groups.

But at a June 11 meeting of a House Education and Labor subcommittee, the Healthy Families Act created tension between the panel’s Democratic chairwoman and an official of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-California, said the bill, which would allow employees to accrue up to seven paid sick days each year, would provide economic security for workers who cannot take time off for themselves or loved ones during an illness because they are afraid of losing their jobs.

Woolsey asserted that only 8 percent of workers have paid family and medical leave. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut and author of the bill, said that almost half of private-sector workers lack paid sick days.

SHRM chief operating officer China Miner Gorman warned that the bill would foist new requirements on employers that could turn out to be as difficult and costly to administrate as the Family and Medical Leave Act—whose 200 pages of regulations she held up at the hearing. …”

Need a laugh or a break from your routine? Here is an excerpt from the blogsite www.unemploymentality.com:

“The unemploymentality is a transformative state of mind that is the result of a sudden loss of job. Initial symptoms include spite and resentment towards the ubiquitous “economy.” People in these early stages can often be found at bars and Speakeasys, their heads hung low over a pint. Later stages of the unemploymentality are subtle as it adapts to the individual’s social, political and cultural environment.

You may not be able to identify someone with the unemploymentality until you ask, “So, what do you do for a living?” At which point the person may rant, answer with sarcasm or avoid the question altogether. But don’t count these people out. They’re a resilient bunch. The advantages of the unemploymentality are countless hours that are often devoted to personal expression and creativity, once job boards and Craigslist have been exhausted for the day.

The purpose of this blog is to report and document the growth of the unemploymentality, case-by-case, as it spreads across the globe in all its glory. Do you have the unemploymentality? …”

Well, you are not alone.

How do you think it feels to be an autoworker right now? And I’ve spent time with plenty of laid-off paper mill workers, construction workers and miners. They’ve got skills; they’ve got experience. They just don’t have jobs.

So let me be the first to say this to you: Welcome to the American working class.

You won’t get rich, unless of course you develop a sideline in blackmail or bank robbery. You’ll be living some of the problems you report on — the struggle for health insurance, for child care, for affordable housing. You might never have a cleaning lady. In fact, you might be one. I can’t tell you how many writers I know who have moonlighted as cleaning ladies or waitresses. And you know what? They were good writers. And good cleaning ladies too, which is no small thing.

Let me tell you about my own career, which I think is relevant, not because I’m representative or exemplary in any way, but because I’ve seen some real ups and downs in this business.

I didn’t start out to be a freelance writer or a journalist, but after a number of false starts and digressions, I discovered that’s what I really loved doing. In about 1980, I was a single mother of two small children, and my work quota was four articles or columns a month. I did my research at the public library. I bought my clothes at Kmart or consignment stores. The kids did not get any special lessons or, when the time came, SAT prep courses.

Then came the fat times, in the ’90s, which I realize now were an anomaly in the history of journalism. The industry was booming; editors would take me out for three-course lunches in Manhattan. I’ll never forget one of those lunches: It was with the top editor of Esquire, and I was trying to pitch him a story on poverty. He looked increasingly bored as we got through the field greens with goat cheese, the tuna carpaccio and so forth – until we finally got to the death-by-chocolate dessert, and he finally said, “OK, do your thing on poverty — but make it upscale.”

It was still an uphill struggle to write what I cared about, but at least I was getting generously paid – up to $10 a word by Time magazine. Imagine that — $10 a word. Most Americans would be happy to make $10 an hour.

Then, bit by bit, it all began to fall apart. The news weeklies: Time let me go in 1997. The book publishing industry was in tatters by 2005. And then the newspapers began to shrink within my hands or actually disappear. I was beginning to feel a certain kinship with blacksmiths and elevator operators when the recession hit in 2008, and every single income stream I had began to dry up.

But it was the recession, of course, that saved me from self-pity. I began to get sick and tired of the typical media recession story — which was about rich people having to cut back on the hours they spend with their personal trainers. All right, I realize those are man-bites-dog stories compared to a story about a laid-off roofer being evicted from his trailer home. But it seemed to me that the recession had absolutely eliminated the poor and the working class from the media consciousness. Once again, they had disappeared from sight.

So a couple of weeks ago, I pitched a certain well-known newspaper a series of reported essays on precisely this topic. They took it — but at about only one-quarter of what they had paid me for writing columns five years ago, barely enough to cover expenses. That bothered me. But then I had a kind of epiphany and realized: I’ve got to do this anyway. I’m on a mission, and I’ll do whatever it takes.

Which brings me back to the subject of journalism as a profession. We are not part of an elite. We are part of the working class, which is exactly how journalists have seen themselves through most of American history — as working stiffs. We can be underpaid, we can be jerked around, we can be laid off arbitrarily — just like any autoworker or mechanic or hotel housekeeper or flight attendant.

But there is this difference: A laid-off autoworker doesn’t go into his or her garage and assemble cars by hand. But we — journalists– we can’t stop doing what we do.

As long as there is a story to be told, an injustice to be exposed, a mystery to be solved, we will find a way to do it. A recession won’t stop us. A dying industry won’t stop us. Even poverty won’t stop us because we are all on a mission here. That’s the meaning of your journalism degree. Do not consider it a certificate promising some sort of entitlement. Consider it a license to fight.

In the ’70s, it was gonzo journalism. For us right now, it’s guerrilla journalism, and we will not be stopped.