Job Spectrum

Thank the Lord for a new year. For plenty of us 2007 was great, for others not so good. I dropped into the not so good part back in Feb when I was ejected from my home of ten years. If any of you've ever bartered for the rent you know that if you are gainfully employed with a fulltime job, bartering ( in this situation working part time for a pool service which belonged to the individual I leased from ) represents, in truth, a 2nd job. It's a heck of lots of work.

Though friends and family quickly came to my rescue I had to leave a job I loved, move out of the area and relocate to ultimately, after a second move, live with a member of the family, because my salary check covered costs but not the rent. The 1st move was dear but by selling off a large amount of what I amassed over the years I was ready to pay for the move with garage sale funds. After the move, I asked for unemployment but was denied the benefit. If you've ever gone thru this process before, you may recall you had to talk to a representative who would go over your current position and then write their call sending the correspondence that takes another week or so to get to you, by mail.Without too much bias, I'm guessing, by the sound of my interviewer's voice, she might have been in her middle-to-late twenties.I sensed we had, not only a generation opening, but that she actually didn't hear or at a minimum, sympathize with my present situation. Ah, to be young and gullible again!

I made up my mind to appeal the choice and won my case though it was another four months before I saw any payments and the advantages have since been exhausted. As I had no "backup " revenue aside from a 401K with 2 thousand bucks in it, daily costs like automobile payment, vehicle insurance, gas, cell phone costs, mastercards, resources, food, etc, quickly ate up what I had managed to save. Actually I am in possession of a couple of visa cards I named Peter and Paul because I need to borrow from one to pay the other. For that matter, there's also Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that I am stretching reasonably far now too.Yada, yada, yada!!

This isn't supposed to be a poor me story because after some time of feeling sorry for myself and sitting on my "pity-pot " 8 months now, I have made a decision to home work. This call did not come easily but I have asked for over 150 roles, both online and thru work agencies ( I'm registered with at least 7 ) and still no job. One of the agents really called me after I had physically gone to them to apply, and asked me when I was born. I believed that was a little suspicious because I'm now 61 and it's illegal to discriminate due to age, yet I suspect that's precisely what could be going down. What a shame! No-one wants to be put in a situation where they feel as if they're begging to acquire a job they aren't only qualified to have but will accept something that they did when they were first beginning out in the job marketplace. Just put me to work. To be a WalMart greeter is excellent and honorable, just not yet! The pay would not even purchase my groceries for the month, much less fill the gas tank.

At any rate here are five ideas for those in a corresponding position, to help keep in good spirits :

One. Surround yourself with people who love you because although this is your own race and you        have to run it alone, it is nice to have an entertaining section.
Two. Be diligent in your hunt for work, while being open to new possibilities.
Three. Do not be scared to ask for help ( even from your kids ).
Four. Accept, value and act on excellent advice from family, buddies, neighbours and pros not forgetting to thank them.
Five. Keep yourself healthy by eating right, sleeping enough ( not that much ) and do whatever exercise your body can easily endure.