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Archive for December, 2006
Thursday, December 28th, 2006
— Eric Sanders
Stop me if you’ve heard this one – or are living it yourself.
Equifax Direct Marketing Systems “eliminated my job” – and those of 11 other employees – two weeks before Christmas 2003. I soon learned that the traditional note of “education required: B.S. in computer science or equivalent experience” in help-wanted ads, had lost its alternative. Since I had never acquired a college degree – ascending to a $65K position entirely through OJT and experience – I was suddenly unemployable, if I was still interested in programming IBM mainframes.
At that time, I was living in a house I had “bought” (in partnership with a bank) in 1999. I lost it. Once I lost that $65K per year, I couldn’t pay on the two mortgages (the second is a tale in itself), and then I couldn’t find a buyer who could pay what I owed. Foreclosure ensued.
My great good fortune consisted in being so welcome at my favorite neighbor-hood gun shop that they have let me sleep on an airbed in the back room.
In the rest of the forest, meanwhile, all my creditors have each been trying to consume my entire salary – yes, I finally found a job with benefits, $12 an hour, working the sales counter at that same gun shop. Short commute, anyone?
Now, my story has finally arrived at Chapter 7: no assets, a trainload of creditors – debt collectors, actually, at this point.
Have you heard anything about the new bankruptcy law? We are now required to undergo bankruptcy counseling (available online) – a process involving debt analysis, resource analysis, and budget development – at the end of which, we learn what avenues are open to us; and credit counseling (also available online), which is the real subject of this essay.
One of the main points the online counseling course makes is that savings – paying one’s self – is critical, and that Savings should be the first item in your budget after Income.
I just received my last check of the year and, since it was for $750, I decided to open a savings account with $75. I learned Comerica has a peculiar dedication to their Prime Directive.
Until I have $400 on account with them, I would be charged $5.50 per month. This is in addition to the interest they will make on my deposit. If I deposit $75 per check, I won’t attain the minimum balance until nearly four months have passed, losing $11 a month.
Were I silly enough to attempt any transactions by telephone – say, transferring funds into my checking account, for instance – I would only get four free telephone transactions per month; any others would cost me a buck apiece.
If I actually withdrew any funds completely, I could only do that six times per month, before being charged three dollars per additional withdrawal.
These $1 and $3 charges appear to be imposed regardless of the account balance.
Perhaps Comerica wants me to hit my minimum balance ASAP – and discourages any voluntary reductions in my balance accordingly.
On the other hand, maybe they just want my money – and to hell with any financial problems their Prime Directive aggravates.
Hm? Did I open the account?
Hah!
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Tuesday, December 12th, 2006
By R.Gordon
Once upon a time, I saw the world through an optimistic lens. I felt safe. I believed in the truth of determination. I was stubborn in my acquisition of skills. I believed in my own essential goodness and the goodness of others.
I am an attorney. I chose this profession instead of that of a chef. Throughout my senior year in college, I pondered the question: Law school or culinary school? From the age of 16 through college, I worked in restaurants and with caterers. If there is such a thing as getting a “rush” from a job, it came from creating and working a party that all would remember. It was, however, too self-indulgent a choice, aimed at providing wealthy people with a damn good time. I had to become part of the solution, not part of the problem.
I don’t want to portray myself as a self-righteous do-gooder. I have a healthy and balanced appreciation for material comfort. I want to receive, in exchange for my services, compensation that is fair and related to my skills, experience, and the time commitment required of an employer. My bottom line is to live a basic middle-class lifestyle.
My career path, in short: many years as a legal assistance staff attorney, representing abused & neglected children, victims of consumer fraud, and persons seeking income support from state and federal government programs; a one year judicial clerkship with a federal district court judge; employment as a school law/labor law attorney, first in the private sector and then, at last, for a large nameless urban public school system in a city famous for political scandals in which clout is a prerequisite to employment opportunities.
The school district’s leadership toppled for internal political reasons. I recall being warned that my new boss was ruthless. My resignation was one the new boss sought to achieve, with methods some would describe as . . . I will let those reading this piece use their critical thinking ability to make the required inference.
I remained unemployed for over a year. During this period my search for employment was relentless and exhausting. At some point, I simply gave up looking. My “network” failed to be useful to me. Bessie Smith’s song Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out captures the sentiment. I decided to evolve from an unemployed labor attorney to a self-employed labor arbitrator. My arbitrator friends told me it could take five years to make a livable income. I’d have to find a day gig to support the arbitration practice until it took off.
Out of the blue, some months after becoming a labor arbitrator, I received a call from a state agency wondering if I was “available and interested” in a position as an administrative law judge (ALJ). Needless to say, I jumped at it. The salary, however, is very, very, low. There would be no upward adjustment for prior experience. But I needed the money and still need the money. It’s not a part-time job. There are times when I work a 10 to 12 hour day.
The impact of this situation on my well-being is basically like all other people who face an uncertain future due to employment woes. My heart goes out to all of us — whatever the occupation — white collar, pink collar, blue collar, no collar. The front page of the December 10, 2006, Sunday Chicago Tribune features a story that is a must read: (Bone-Weary Haulers Raise Stakes on Road by Stephen & Darnell Little, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-061210truckers-story,1,2535447.story?coll=chi-news-hed ).
I believe our society is in deep trouble. I do not feel safe. Hard work, determination and endless education are not enough. Why? The global economy; the demise of labor unions; office politics; workplace bullying; ruthless and incompetent leadership in the private and public sector; the unwarranted arrogance, lack of empathy and foresight of economic policymakers and our elected officials; unthinking consumer behavior; and society’s tolerance of unacceptable employment practices and even slavery (see the NPR story on the plight of “guest workers” in Jordan’s clothing industry at www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5510902 ).
I can only hope for an awakening of empathy. There but for the grace of God or random luck, whatever the case may be, all of us go.
For more from this author, see www.myspace.com/disposed_american and www.myspace.com/uninsured_american.
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Friday, December 8th, 2006
– Bob Swiatek
I have three words for the new word and idea in the dictionary of 24/7: el toro crappo. It just doesn’t work and we need a replacement: 30/15. A few years ago I wrote a book entitled “Tick tock, don’t stop: a manual for workaholics.” It was published in July 2003 and it received some very good reviews. Not enough people read it so I’m writing a new one: “This page intentionally left blank: 30/15 not 24/7.”
Too many people struggle to stay ahead in the rat race of the workplace. Today the gap in pay between upper management and those who actually produce the goods – whether it is a product or a service – is higher than it has ever been. The minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 an hour for almost a decade. Meanwhile congress has approved its own raises in the middle of the night eight times during that same period. On the average, those at the top receive five hundred times the salary of those in the work force. The employees’ plight is so desperate that I am convinced that slavery was never abolished. All you have to do is witness the downsizing and outsourcing that has occurred and the lives of workers today.
Laborers in the Third World, various workers in this country – blue collar, white collar or no collar – have all been turned into slaves and are no better off than those who suffered in the heat on the plantations for too many years before the Civil War restored some of their dignity. You can be unemployed, underemployed or overemployed and underpaid – working two jobs to pay for food and shelter. You could have a job but no home. Having to make the choice between being homeless or without food is not a choice anyone in America or any third world citizen should have to make.
No one can be productive putting in sixty hours a week and the minimum wage is minimal in every sense of the word. How much productivity do employers get from workers during a “mere” forty-hour week? If so, why do managers – some appear to have the brains of a rutabaga – still insist on the practice? I experienced the shortening of the workweek for a while on the farm, in the factory and in the office, but that changed and the workweek got to where it is today. With technology, shouldn’t it have decreased over the years, rather than skyrocketed to such heights? On April 6, 1933, a bill was passed by the Senate to establish a thirty-hour workweek and the House of Representatives was on the verge of passing it. Unfortunately for all of us, it didn’t quite make it, as the Roosevelt administration – you figure out which one – didn’t approve of the idea. It is time to pass the 30 into law. In addition, a new minimum wage of $15 dollars an hour should be passed nationwide. With the vast wealth of our nation, there is no reason for poverty, homelessness, the unemployed, underemployed or people working sixty hours a week and still not making ends meet.
“We are going to have to develop a concept of enough at the top and at the bottom, so that the necessities of the many are not sacrificed for the luxuries of the few.”
Marian Wright Edelman
“We should be able to earn a living wage without sacrificing our psychological, spiritual and sometimes even physical well-being by giving over our entire lives to our jobs.”
Paul Rogat Loeb, Soul of a Citizen
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Friday, December 1st, 2006
– Brian Dean
Losing your job doesn’t mean you have to lose your sense of humor. After the initial shock, you may find that humor really is the best medicine.
The weeks leading up to a corporate layoff are some of the most stress-filled days of your life. If anyone attempts humor, it is usually the gallows type — no one is really laughing. When IT happens, we all experience the normal stages of loss:
Denial — “But…I was Employee of the Month.”
Anger — “I’ll be back — as soon as I can find a gun shop.”
Bargaining — “Take the new guy instead.”
Depression – “Must find chocolate.”
Sooner or later, you will come to Acceptance. It’s over, and it’s time to move on.
At this point, it helps to remember that you just left a very stressful situation, with conditions that were largely out of your control. Remember, the 21st-century corporation is a crazy-making institution. Take some time to celebrate the fact that you’re out of that institution. Maybe you’ll be institutionalized again, and maybe not. In the meantime, lighten up.
Didn’t get a retirement party? No plaque? Make your own! If the organization didn’t recognize your contributions, create your own celebration. Remind yourself that it wasn’t all stress and loss. You worked hard and some people appreciated it, even if they didn’t find good ways to tell you.
When my sister was strong-armed into early retirement, my wife and I designed a “cubicle cake” for the party. We glued sugar-cookie walls together with frosting and installed a desk, complete with edible computer. The result wasn’t professional, but the process of breaking down “her” cube and having her friends eat it was a ritual that actually helped my sister accept her retirement.
Now that you have spare time again, spend some of that time laughing. Rent DVDs of standup comics, or rediscover Monty Python. You really do need something completely different, something silly.
If you think you’re ready, check out a Dilbert collection at the bookstore. If you’re laughing, buy the book. If you’re grinding your teeth, move on to Dave Barry.
Humor should create stress-relieving endorphins, not bitterness. If watching The Office amuses you, keep watching. If Dunder-Mifflin reminds you of your old office, change the channel.
Every day, you have ways to improve your mood. Humor is the safest and most satisfying. Now, put on that goofy shirt you couldn’t wear to work, silly-walk down to the video store, and find something funny.
Visit Brian Dean’s site for some wickedly funny faux corporate memos at
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/brianddean/mmindex.htm.
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