Category: Job Search

Posted on

Well, Practical Considerations must come first…

I was planning a couple of trips. 

These trips were contingent on my getting the unemployment / and issues surrounding the furlough sorted out so that I could be gone for extended periods of time.
Between my company demanding that I appear there at the drop of a hat. Not knowing if I’ll be called back or how much time I might have before I have to report. That the company is still having me fill out their damn time card and to do that I have to have internet access. The uncertainty of the unemployment payments and that I must be here at least once every 2 weeks to fill out and sign their paper forms. 
It looks like my dream of traveling is shot full of holes.
Part of the delay in traveling is because I was hanging around during Js vacation month. Every day I asked “What would you like to do?” Now we’re at the end of that vacation month, we’ve gone and had some fun but nothing like the longer trips that I’d envisioned.
Since funds are dwindling in the accounts, I’ve started the job search program. In all my plans I’d never once considered the furlough prospect. 
It’s something that I’ll not voluntarily participate in again. It bleeds your resources and leaves you in an indeterminate state, neither employed or unemployed…  It messes with your head because you’ve never quite got enough information to make decisions with and no matter how many questions you ask no-one ever has any answers.
In my case, the company had appeared to be operating in a chaotic mode. Even HR didn’t seem to have a clue about what information they were supposed to give employees. My faith in the company has been horribly shaken.
I’ve remarked privately to friends that I’ve thought the company was cruel. Over the years they’ve always created a panic situation just before the Summer vacation season. My management has always said it wasn’t intentional, I’ve always maintained that the timing spoke to either very poor planning & budgeting or intentional fear-mongering to insure that the employees were always grateful that they had a job.
Either way, the circumstances have had profound effects on all of us. There are many of my co-workers that have maxed out their vacation accrual because they didn’t want to leave for vacation during a “Crisis”.
Now as we wait and wonder, it’s a mixed bag. On the one hand if we’re laid off we’ll have some pay. If we’re not laid off we’ll go to a new project and in all likelihood face the prospect of the annual panic and never spend our vacation time.
I’ve decided that I really don’t want to have to deal with that level of uncertainty all the time. To that end, I’m initiating a job search now. I’ve been answering inquiries from headhunters that have reached out to me. But now I think it’s time to ramp up the search and get proactive.
This of course means a few things.
Yet again, my dreams die, or at best are shoved to the background.
I’ll probably end up going back to technology. While technology has been very good to me financially it’s not what it once was.
I risk becoming bitter and angry that I once again have to step up and commute through the HELL that is Southern California traffic, while my other half essentially gets to work from home. A home by the way that I will rarely get to enjoy because I’ll be pissing my life away on the freeways.
Due to the fierce competition for limited jobs in Southern California, it’s very likely that I’ll have to make some serious compromises on salary, or health care & other benefits.
Maybe I’ll get away… but it’s looking less and less likely.
As to my dreams… well it’s looking like to follow those, I’m going to be making some hard choices. 
I’ve been putting off making those choices for a long time now… 
I guess I’m about out of runway…
Posted on

A potential EPIC Fail??

Got a letter from California Employment Development today.

Looks like they’re going to pay me my unemployment via a debit card.

It’s only slightly more convenient than if they were paying me in gold nuggets.

For those of us that actually have a bank account and who pay our bills via that account, a debit card is problematic.

For example

My Mortgage, Car payment, credit cards, and utilities are all paid out of my credit union account. Without a constant flow of REAL money going through that account in short order I’m going to be in default on a lot of my financial obligations.

I suppose that I can reroute the payment to the California issued Debit card but there’s since I don’t know how much is going to be available from week to week on the debit card that doesn’t really work either.

Especially since I was planning to use my unemployment check to supplement my savings and thereby be a responsible if unemployed person. In that  I WOULDN’T DEFAULT on my obligations.

Now what do I do?

Cash out the debit card each week and then deposit the cash into the account I need to have it in?

I thought about trying to phone in payments to my various debts but I know that at least a couple of those businesses charge a hefty fee to do that. (One organization charge me $25 bucks once to process a payment from a debit card.)

All of this leads me to wonder what were they thinking?

Direct deposit or a check makes much more sense from the perspective of someone with bank accounts, and a regular payment schedule.

California claims this is to save them money in postage, but they’re still sending me  the little form to fill out and sign (which used to contain the check for the previous 2 weeks) So what are they really saving?

Then there’s the Bank of America who administers the card. They’re making a ton of money on short term interbank loans, and they’re also getting a % on each and every transaction. What a racket!

Well, I’m hoping that more information is forthcoming when I get the damn card.

I see the potential for another complication that I wasn’t expecting.

Posted on

Another day MORE negative Cash Flow

Apparently, the California Employment Development Department is much too busy and far too important to actually make good on their promise of sending me a packet in the mail within the time they specified.

Not that I’m terribly surprised…

The Unemployment people are just as screwed up as the DMV. I do find myself asking why I’ve been working so hard to pay my taxes when frankly I get none of the benefits.

Bad roads, terrible commutes, people whining about the “poor” (many of whom do not deserve benefits because they’re not citizens), no police coverage…

Yeah you read that right. No police coverage, at minimum they’ll get to town oh… sometime… maybe…

Oh course that’s if you can actually speak to someone at 911. Most of the time you get a recording to hold and I’ve personally been on hold for 10 minutes trying to report an accident.

Yes all of this is about Californias budget.

What I can’t understand is the philosophy in Sacramento.

When I don’t have money… I DON’T SPEND MONEY!

I start by cutting ALL un-necessary spending.

I focus only on paying the bills and I terminate all services that I can no longer afford.

So applying that logic, why the hell doesn’t the state stop pissing away money on social services that we KNOW are prone to abuse and fraud and concentrate on the core services that they’re supposed to provide?

You know, Roads, Schools, Government services… oh like answering the Damn phone!

I don’t care who’s responsible… Grey Davis, Arnold, Brown, they’re all the same…  They’re all figure heads who were or are being castrated by a house and senate that has not adjusted to the new realities of the RECESSION!

Yes I fucking said it! A RECESSION is what we’re in and you know what?

The sooner these morons in Sacramento AND Washington admit it, the sooner realistic actions can be taken to get us back on track.