There was a time in my life when I got every job I wanted, every single one. From scooping ice cream to waitressing to office work to writing, if I wanted the job, I got it.
I thought myself kind of special, talented for sure. It felt like there was this magical, “if you want it, it will come” force that surrounded me.
That was then.
Today, I am part of a group of people who’ve lost their jobs and hang out at the coffee shop just to get out of the house, an incentive to shower and dress, if you will. Some of us work on our laptops, writing or sending out resumes and checking classifieds. We all know each other to varying degree, and we are part of an exclusive club: Those who will likely never work again.
There’s a story in today’s New York Times about us.
For my little coffee shop club, we also have the added distinction of living in the Metro Detroit area, ground zero for the employment implosion, or the greatest recession since the Great Depression as I’ve heard it called.
Great optimist that I am, I keep trying. There are no newspapers for me to edit, so I design websites, do some freelance writing, and keep growing the hyper-local website I started with a former co-worker who lost his job the same day as me. After a few bumps and a few weeks offline after a dispute with our former developers, I built a new site from scratch, a site that is now mine alone and one I love with all my heart.
When I have time, I write.
It’s a scrappy, challenging environment. There are so many of us out there who do the same kinds of work, trolling for the same jobs and the same dollars, crossing our fingers that we get paid. We compete on one level and prop each other up on another, sharing leads and contacts.
It hasn’t been enough.
Now I am part of a group of nearly 30 people just like me who are taking a small business class, learning about characteristics of entrepreneurs and business plans, letting terms like “elevator pitch” roll off our tongues. While everyone pushes “entrepreneurship” as an exciting new concept, in reality, the spoils go to large, established businesses, for which many of my coffee shop friends and I used to work.
We wait. We cross our fingers. We wish and hope.
In the meantime, we drink coffee.
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roberto luigi
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Steve Klingaman
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Good luck!
Rated.
Work that business class and the entrepreneur angle as hard as you can, after a certain point, it's your skills and experience that are valuable to an employer, but it seems only on an intermittent basis. Wave of the future, I'm afraid.
Rated.
Rated.
I also hate how the world treats the unemployed like a bunch of lazy nothings to spit on. I have been in hustle mode. God knows my unemployment checks don't even really cover the basics. Right now, I'm three days late on my car insurance and a half a payment behind on my car payment. I need the car. It will be paid off next summer.
I want a job, but not just any job. I want something that makes me want to get up in the morning. I want something the uses my creative force. I want something that pays my bills. I will accept other jobs until I can find that, but I want that good-fit of a job. Maybe I'm wrong to feel that way.
I am now putting myself into entrepreneur mode. It doesn't offer health insurance nor will it cover my costs of returning to school. But it does pay for my dignity. And it gets me up and dressed in the morning. (R)
I didn't realize how much emotional support I lost when my job went away, having this group of similar people was a god-send. And I say was, because after 17 months I got rehired by a former employer but in a completely different role. They even gave me back my seniority and all that went with it. Most mornings I wake up feeling like I won the lotterey.
Good luck.
not all bad, if you have a source of groceries and a roof, but a civilized society would put everyone to work. that's not america.
Rated.
HR needs to think more creatively too, or they will destroy the United States over time, because demographically, we need people who are older to keep working a good bit.
Detroit.
Print Journalism.
I dunno. But some stuff isn't coming back.
america has gotten too fat and there too many monopolies. that is not free enterprise, everyone should have a shot at something good!!!
I am very curious to see what effect -- if any -- the millions of 50+ yr old unemployed will have at the voting booth. I find it bizarre there is not some voting bloc, firedover50.com. I mean it.
I can only hope I don't follow the path some others have been forced down. Example - my older brother, a skilled electrician (commercial) since leaving the Air Force in the mid-70's. Currently, he's only a handful of years short of retirement, has gone through at least six jobs in as many years, and currently works through a day-labor place (when they have work) for slightly less that half of what he was making 6 months ago.
And the "experts" say the recession ended in June 2009?
-R-
I too thought it likely I would never work again. And, in fact, I have never worked for anyone else again. But, by 1994, my husband and I had used our writing, design and marketing experience to start a new business. A decade later we were earning more money than we ever had in our, by most measures, pretty successful past. And having much more fun doing it. Our assumption now is that we have skills and experience that will allow us to continue to adapt to new economic circumstances.
I am hopeful that the same will prove true for many of those who are now suffering what we suffered through almost two decades ago.
Even if you can't see the shape of your economic future now, you will, of course, have one. It won't be what it was, but there's a good chance it could be something better.
So I'm practicing my ukulele skills, and starting to scope out which street corners look the most promising.
Other than that, I love self employment. I've gone back to working for others for periods of time, but I like working for myself so much that I keep going back to it.
The best part of self employment is not the money. There are times where I could have made more working for others. It's the if it works, I did it, and if it fails, I did it that makes you want to get up and go get it done.
I wish you luck.
I also suspect there is quite a difference between someone who has a great idea and thinks it is worth giving up their job and investing their life savings in and someone who doesn't.
However, business skills are valuable and learning them may help you make your websites more profitable.
Why aren't we working ?
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So...you can try outsourcing yourself like I did, but you'll never make your way back home (I like to listen to the Beatles song that begins "Once there was a way to get back home..." Yeah, once. Not any more).
I wish I could be more upbeat for you but I think that the shift is permanent- look for young, disposable workers, work them until they burn out entirely, replace with new young workers at lower pay, lather, rinse, repeat.
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This is really sobering, and so was the NYT article. I'm fast approaching that magic age, and I realize that I would be totally unemployable should I lose the job I have now.
I hope that you keep writing about this subject, because you do it very well.
A second difference is that I'm in a very rural area without any sort of hangout spot within 15 miles. I like it here - a lot. It may be limiting in many ways but it's also forced me think in a different way. It's not really sexy in the country but there are things to write about. I sold my first piece ever writing about my boyfriend's family's dedication to the Deere - John Deere tractors for the non-rural. Local media tend to ignore areas like this so I'm exploring ways to use that.
Good luck!
I'm 59 and I have the same situation. I USED to be able to get almost any job I tried for, despite a lack of training or experience for it. But since I look my age, now I can only get contract programming jobs when I can do exactly what they need and they can't find a younger person. I'm training on a new computer language that is becoming more in demand, hoping for a shortage of qualified programmers. Also creating a new artificial intelligence design I hope works well. Thinking of calling the design "money for retirement". It's a race: I have no pension and little savings, so it HAS to work or I'll be on the street. Ack!