Do good hard work and you will find a job.

It's a myth. Perhaps the most destructive unemployment myth of all. A myth like a snake. Silently slithering through the sewer tunnels that run beneath the crumbling towers of a once grand and proud American Dream.

 Corrosive at it’s core because we want so badly for it to be true. We were brought up to believe that it’s true. There are exceptions where it is true. So the myth eats away at the national soul while it does its damage. Leaving a scorched earth desolation marked only by the plaintive cries of “If good hard work won’t find me a job, what will?”

This sewer snake myth goes beyond fanatical right wing talking points used to bludgeon the vulnerable and turns into real portraits of real people’s lives in stories like the one I am reprinting (with the author’s permission for salon to reprint) below.

It’s reprinted without editing. It doesn’t need any. The author is one of the most insightful commentators on the web. One of my heroes. Never met the guy. But he’s changed the way I look at the world.

No small trick when you’re talking about actually changing minds.

He is a devastatingly effective writer with very strong opinions who understandably uses a screen name. If I were him, I would too.

So take a look at his story. NOT his resume. His story. Once you start reading, you won't want to stop.

See if it doesn’t show that good hard work leading to a job is a myth.

And better yet? If you know anyone who might know someone who could turn his brilliance into a job for him---then send me a private message or a way to contact you.

I could put you in touch with this guy. 

Imagine a world where good hard work does get a person a job.

Even if it’s one person at a time.

THE WRITER’S STORY

(Note: The blog he refers to is his own. The words that folllow are his. Verbatim.) 

“My job?

I am currently unemployed and looking for full time work.

Over the last 3 years -- since being laid off from a very demanding, multi-disciplinary position (everything from performance management to writing white papers to managing remote facilities) at which I worked for 10 years, and routinely put in 80-100 hrs/week (no overtime when you are in management) -- I have been underemployed, and have worked several part-time or temporary contract gigs for organizations which desperately wanted to bring me on full time but had their budgets slashed as a direct or indirect result of the Great Recession.

I have also just about exhausted everything I carefully put aside for a rainy day during those years because I never imagined it would rain so long and so hard.

In the past I have been (since leaving puberty behind and in no particular order) a computer programmer and systems analyst, a college professor, corporate trainer, an IT manager, research manager, editor, grant writer, regular writer, senior executive in charge of damn-near-everything from speechwriting to strategic planning to making the PowerPoints look purdy, a policy wonk, performance management guy, project manager, department reorganizer, consultant several times over, a direct social service provider and much more.

I have briefed congressional staff on more than one occasion, prepared bosses for public hearings, and addressed foreign delegations.

I have been on the radio several times, done public speaking, and sold a few stories here and there.

I have made many inquiries about work in the journalism/pundit trade -- in print or in front of a mic and/or camera -- and have never heard back from anyone. I have sent out lots of resumes and inquiries for many other things and, for the most part, have never heard back from anyone. I don't take any of that personally because shouting into an abyss is just how it is in the working world today.

On my last gig, I was heavily recruited for a full-time job by both my boss and his boss. I went through an intense, week-long series of interviews and psych, IQ and "cultural fit" exams. After they were done, I was told I had a virtual lock on the job. That I was perfect for it.   My boss was excited.  His boss was excited.  HR was excited because the number of hoops they had to leap through to hire anyone at this place exhausted them and they were always glad when it looked like the end was in sight.  Then, two days before my temporary contract ended, the president of the organization abruptly decided that she wanted to move in a "different direction".  My contract was not extended and I was let go. My boss was in tears. His boss apologized. HR was stunned.  I have not been able to find anything since.

I have also written and Photoshopped this blog almost every day for going on seven years -- rain or shine, 80-hour-work-week or unemployed-and-getting-discouraged -- and podcast  every week with Blue Gal (the 112th straight episode will drop tomorrow) which, all combined and despite the incredible kindness and generosity of my readers and our listeners, brings in considerably less than what a single, minimum wage/no benefit job would pay.

I am, of course, also an amateur historian, amateur paleontologist, definer of civilization and leader of the civilizing forces...but it turns out those gigs only pay a living wage when you can get casino moguls to write you multi-million-dollar checks :-)” 

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So good, hard work. But still no job.

He’s a nationally known blogger. Knows all about resumes, and interviews and creating his own job. All that stuff from the “how-to” books that, as it turns out, doesn’t really help much either.

But still no job.

Bet you know a similar story.

And I bet you know the myth that good hard work brings a job.

The really tough question is the next one.

What’s next?