Ready to Work, No Place to Go.

washinton post ^ | By Yuki Noguchi

[austinite]

Dan Kugler's professional life has hit several rough patches since he lost his job at Concert Communications Co. in February.

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[austinite]

Middle Mgt bites the dust....

[mewzilla]

There's a lot of that going around. As for no place to go...How about to work? He may not be able to find what he wants now, but there are jobs out there. He can take one of those until he can get a job in his profession.

[AdA$tra]

My wife's Uncle worked for Concert in the DC area. He went back to work for BT where he was previously. He was middle management and kind of an idiot as well. Things must not be that bad.

Actually, the telecom industry has been decreasing its workforce since the invention of the computer.

[Huck]

As for no place to go...How about to work? He may not be able to find what he wants now, but there are jobs out there. He can take one of those until he can get a job in his profession.

That's exactly right. People have a sense of entitlement nowadays. They think they should be able to stay in one kind of work and keep the same income level no matter what. So they sit idle instead of doing honest work.

What's the unemployment rate? 6%? During the Great Depression, it was something like 25%. I suppose then there were folks who really couldn't find work. In 1979, my father was an out of work physicist who specialized in navigational systems. Things got so bad he had to work in a shoe store for a while, til he found another job in his field. That's life, as far as I can tell.

My company has been thinning the herd every quarter, and will continue to do so. My department is ripe for more cutting. But the workers sit around and wait for it to happen. Then they will collect their gubmint checks and complain that there is no work.

As for me, I am not waiting for things to happen to me. I have been looking for the last 6 months, while I still had a job. I just got a job last week. It'll be similar work, similar pay, but in a new industry. When I gave my notice here, the general reaction was one of envy. It's as if it never occurred to them that they could get off their duffs and take some responsibility for their own future.

[Age of Reason]

They think they should be able to stay in one kind of work and keep the same income level no matter what.

And just why shouldn't they feel that way?

(Note that I said feel that way--not act on that feeling, which would be a denial of reality.)

[austinite]

When I gave my notice here, the general reaction was one of envy. It's as if it never occurred to them that they could get off their duffs and take some responsibility for their own future

I really like that.

[Age of Reason]

He may not be able to find what he wants now, but there are jobs out there. He can take one of those until he can get a job in his profession.

So it's entirely his decision?

That is, he simply goes up to an employer and says, you will hire me because I am willing to do your job even though I'd rather not and you are obliged to give me the job anyway until I can find a job doing what I prefer to do?

[bankwalker]

If you've managed to save some money, self-employment may be a much better option than a 'job'.

That's what I did, and I'm very glad I did.

Some businesses are much cheaper to acquire than university goat paper.

[No Left Turn]

Many employers will not hire people far afield from their experience or over qualified relative to the job, because they know they will have to start over when the economy picks up and your physicist discovers he no longer has to sell shoes. If the government didn't tax the sh*t out of people, they would be better able to save and be prepared for unemployment, so I don't find myself being so hard on the temporarily unemployed -- They're merely getting some of the money back that they paid into the system, one way or another.