Been a ’senior electronics technician’ for 35 years, the last 20 doing mostly PWB layout for several employers - 7 years, 3 years, 2 years & 8 years. The last job, the cheeses kept saying ‘times are tough’ for about 5-6 years yet no layoffs per se, while some temps have come & gone, the [...]

I am a full-time Ph. D. student, in my very late thirties. I am presently very underemployed and underpaid as a part-time private music instructor. As a result I am having to rely on my mother for nearly half of my financial support, which is extremely hard for me to cope with — I feel at this point in our lives the situation should be reversed.

55 years old, former corporate/university employee, now supporting husband (retired physician) and self on salary as medical transcriptionist. Threat of outsourcing jobs, medical debt to another hospital (and I believe politically on blacklist at my workplace for this as administrators are colleagues/talk). Many jobs including temp over the years, in NYC, DC, Los Angeles, and [...]

I am in my late thirties, and still searching for that perfect job. Been on the job hunt for about five months now. After countless hours on job sites, an occasional career fair, and once-in-awhile a “networking” party, I’ve come up with nothing memorable or promising, and it’s begining to get me down.

At 35, I’ve been laid off from 3 jobs - within an 18 month period before I was 31 years old. A single teen parent, I put myself through university in 4 years to earn a BA. I didn’t have parents who could help me. But that’s not impressive. My drive and determination and strength have threatened every supervisor I’ve had to date. Not really laid off - fired for speaking up or standing up for myself.

I’m a 48 year old, African-American male, with a Masters in electrical engineering, and I’m currently looking for work. This is the third time I’ve been laid-off and I am no longer considering full time employment as a possibility. My focus is on contract only positions now because all of the jobs I’ve held since [...]

I am a 59 y/o white male who originally came from Brooklyn NY, where I had lived the first 38 yrs of my life and for the last 18 have been living in NJ. I have two college degrees; a B.A. in Sociolog (1983) and an A.S. in Math (1979); the former from Hunter College, the latter from Kingsborough Community College. My work for the last 17 yrs was in the field of mental health, in which I have held various positions, the last being the most lucrative and clinical, that of an emergency psychiatric screener.

After receiving UP’s latest email, this person writes: 
 I thought this was a message/website from my new employer UPS. But it’s not and I’m glad. I have been working since I was 14 years old. I’m smart, hard working, dependable, and now College educated. I have done everything in my power to get a decent wage [...]

I am among thousands of attorneys who believe unionization is the only way to change the unconscionable exploitation by the employment agencies and their law firm clients upon whom we depend for work. Some of us depend on this work because of the six figure law school debt incurred because the mid- and lower-rated law schools misrepresent both the employment opportunities and the income that can be earned in the market.

I am a university researcher, but I have been a lifelong employee in nonprofit organizations. I am joining UP because I have seen the tentacles of corporatization and managerial dominance creep into organizations that should be free of those things. There is no reason for universities and nonprofits to constantly restructure, give their workers nonsense psychological “tests,” hire layers of bureaucracy, and drive down wages while promoting a select few. If nonprofits and education can’t stem the tide, we are done for.