Requiem for a Hard Drive

It died yesterday, the hard drive in my Mac Book.

For six years, during spans of employment and unemployment, it chugged along until it could no longer.

It was old, I knew that. So when I turned it on yesterday and it took longer than usual to boot up and I heard ominous clicking sounds from the innards of the computer, I panicked but was not surprised. I really should have seen this coming. In fact, I knew the day of reckoning was near. So much so that I recently took money from a retirement account, ostensibly to pay bills, but I knew a big chunk of that coin would someday soon pay for a new model when the inevitable day came when my old computer died.

I called Apple, but the nice lady could do nothing for me except make an afternoon appointment at the nearby Apple store.  

I lugged the heavy, now-dead computer there, and told the young techie what the problem was. He took it into the back room to do more tests. (As a cancer survivor, more tests means bad news.) Sure enough, he confirmed the worst: The hard drive had died and all my files were lost. (Please spare me the I told you so’s about backing up my files. I didn’t. I’m no

techie. And how many people in this age of the Cloud and google docs backs up their files anyway?)

The choice was this: Keep the old computer with a new hard drive inserted in it, take the now-dead hard drive to a data recovery service in the hopes of resurrection (which may or may not be possible and would cost at $300), or buy a new computer.

Merely replacing the old hard drive with a new one would have been the cheapest option, but one that would have left me without a computer for days. With no computer, I can’t work, and if I don’t work I don’t make money. I need money.

And like everyone else, I like shiny and new. So I bought a new MacBook Air (the cheapest one I could reasonably afford while still buying one useful for work), and will contact a data recovery service to see if anything can be salvaged from my old hard drive.

The irony isn’t lost. Me, the person who rails about employers who only want to hire young people ditched without hesitation my faithful old computer whose only crime was that it aged. The hard drive may have died, but what remained could have worked again. Yep, folks, I laid off my old computer. Just like that.

Apparently, I’m like every potential employer: I want shiny and new and easy. So much easier to hire a young person, right? So much easier to train on new tech systems. So much easier to justify the lower salary, even if they don’t have the experience or qualifications for the job. They come with no baggage, unlike my old hard drive with its decades-old files and photos. Who wants old?

Is this what out society has come to? It’s one thing to discard a computer for a newer model, but a person? Just like that old hard drive, perhaps our knowledge and life experience can be saved and put to use once again. Here’s hoping ... for me and the old hard drive.

The Office Coffee Cup

I opened the kitchen cabinet door and I spied them. The duo of office coffee cups I used at my two previous full-time jobs.

The taller, leaner one was fashioned to look like a glass beaker for measuring liquids. I bought it years ago at a nearby science museum where I brought my niece and nephew when they were much younger. So the science theme fits.

The other mirrors a more traditional ceramic mug emblazed with the face one of my favorite authors from my English Lit major days, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Admittedly pretentious, I bought it — where else? — Barnes & Noble. It’s tan and sedate.

The office cup was the first thing I brought to my job after I was hired. It was the first item packed away after being laid off.

Now, they sit on my shelf, never used since I carted them home. Like me, they’re still there, but unlikely to fulfill their purpose ever again.

I remember when I was hired again after being out of work for 16 months, I didn’t want to take the same coffee cup with me to my new job. Genetically superstitious (I blame it on my Italian heritage), I thought it would bring bad luck. Whatever karma I believed I would avoid with a different coffee cup was sadly misguided. I was laid off again.

I don’t know why I keep them. Why not just trash them (as I was) or recycle them (as I’m hoping to be in a new job). Maybe I keep them as a reminder.

A reminder of what, I wonder. Two painful layoffs and extended periods of unemployment. Still-hovering financial struggles. My fading hope of finding work. Perhaps I simply don’t want to discard items that could still be useful someday. Too bad potential employers didn’t view me the same way.

Is there any more depressing and archaic symbol of office work than the office coffee cup? It’s the first thing workers grab in the morning, whether in a haughty paper cup from Starbucks, the ceramic mug on their desk filled with bleak-tasting, office-brewed coffee, those blue-and-white Greek-styled ones from a food truck or diner, or, my favorite, the more egalitarian Dunkin Donuts orange-and-pink version. Sometimes, commuters fill a carafe with coffee so they can drink in the joe while driving or taking mass transit. I once took a carafe on a light rail train and spilled it.

Then, at their desks, workers sip the steaming liquid, simultaneously calmed and jolted for the day presented before them. It's a comforting ritual, as long as the coffee doesn't spill. Oh, my, how life and coffee can be upended...

Yet sometimes I think I never want to bring another coffee cup to an office ever again. I'll drink my morning coffee at home.

The Right to Say No

A few weeks ago, I declined two freelance jobs.

Granted, these jobs were low-paying and just so you don’t think I was being a lazy bum, I was juggling several other freelance assignments at the time. I honestly could not take on

more assignments. Still can’t, at least not now.

Nevertheless, saying no was a major step for me. When I first started on this freelance journey, I said yes to every assignment, only to find myself working seven days a week with no social life (nonexistent as it is) and getting stressed out. I soon realized that is no way to live, no matter how much I needed the money. I wasn’t doing myself any favors, nor would I be an asset to the companies if I turned in sloppy work or missed a deadline because I was frazzled or doing too much at the same time.

So I thought hard and long, and said no, which is never easy for me. I was raised to be a “good girl,” to do everything everybody wanted, expected and asked of me, whether family, friends or bosses. I believed if I said “yes” to everything, acted nice, and worked really, really hard, people would like me and I wouldn’t get laid off.

How’d that work out for me, eh? I’ve been laid off twice and repeatedly stabbed in the back by work colleagues.

Now, with the perspective of age and two painful layoffs, I realize I do have the right to say no, to pick where and with whom I work and for what compensation.

Companies possess the right to hire, fire and lay off workers with no explanation given. What they fail to realize is that workers have the same right to choose their workplace.

I understand the needs of companies change over time, and staffing levels reflect that. (Yeah, two layoffs in four years kinda taught me that.) Going back to those freelance jobs I declined, in one instance, after submitting several assignments to the company, I was told they had enough and wouldn’t require my services anymore. In the other, the company was undergoing a reorganization of their freelance staff, so I had no way of knowing I would be retained. (Reorganization is a code word for “layoffs.”)

Again, I wasn’t upset. Freelancing is inherently unstable, and companies remain free to cast off workers without any explanation.

But it’s also true that I have rent and bills to pay. I simply moved on to other paying jobs. The heck with them.

So I was a bit surprised when I was asked if I wanted to work for them again. I politely told both that I could not because I had other freelance assignment on my desk. One lady understood and said to contact her when I was free to do assignments for her. I might. The other guy never responded to my email.

I was also a bit amused by their requests. Didn’t it occur to them I took other assignments? Just as they rejected me, don’t I have the same right to decline their offer — or take another job?

Our society has, I believe, a rather warped perception of laid-off workers. We’re considered unemployable losers — even though we did nothing to merit our termination. We must take any job offered, without any consideration to whether we want the job or not. 

Contrast to that to someone who quits their job with no new job lined up to “find themselves.” They’re considered brave — they stuck it to the corporation and are viewed as free spirits — even though they may have made a really bad decision. Leaving a job with no job in hand is never justified unless you are being harassed or the job is severely impacting your health and wellbeing. Merely being unhappy at work or believing the job is beneath you is never a good reason to quit without simultaneously landing your next  — hopefully better — job.  

Likewise, someone who is fired gets sympathy, yet their firing may have been perfectly justified by poor work performance or some stupid or unethical action on their part.

No so with laid-off workers. Tossed aside by corporate cost cutting, our futures decided in some closed-door meeting of the All White Males Club, and perpetually rejected by prejudiced HR departments, we sometimes feel as if we have no free will at all.

Saying no returns some free will and yes, power to us laid-off workers. At least for one brief moment we don’t feel like Miss Colombia, the Fredo of beauty contestants.

Of course, there may come a time when my financial situation dictates I must take whatever lousy job offered. I haven’t reached that point. Yet. I'm self-aware enough to admit to my folly.

I simply don’t buy the belief I have no free will. I have the right to decide with whom I want to work — jerks need not apply. Just as companies low-ball workers on salaries, I’ll grab the highest paying jobs.

And I have the right to say no.

Dreaming of Bacon

A few nights ago, I dreamt of bacon.

It sizzled in a pan, along with some slices of ham, the fat bubbling up between the former slabs of hog flesh. Then, an egg slithered into the pan; its whites spread to the edges as if running a race, while the yolk — yellow, round and perfect — remained Buddha-like in its stillness.

I don’t recall if I ate the bacon, eggs and ham. I probably woke up before I was able to

partake of this fat-laden but delicious feast. Just one of many bizarre dreams I encounter before I open my eyes to the pebbly gray of dawn and which quickly fade into the mist of deep subconscious.

I wonder why I had a dream about bacon. I love bacon (who doesn’t), but I haven’t eaten in a quite some time. Was it a subconscious stirring of hunger pangs?

I can’t say I’m hungry. I eat quite well. Yet my financial situation has forced me to curtail certain food purchases. No longer will I spend $5 for three ice cream pops. I scour for the cheapest cuts of meat and cereal boxes. I simply cannot afford those luxuries anymore.

Notwithstanding recent holiday indulgences, I know my hunger has subsided. Perhaps my nervousness over my incredibly shrinking bank account has slashed my appetite. In the past when I’ve been anxious about some major change in my life my hunger typically disappears only to reappear in calmer times.

Now, I feel anxious all the time about my financial status. How much in taxes will I pay next year on my paltry freelance revenues? Will my savings dissipate before I can find a full-time job? Will I end up homeless? And please don't get me started on my health insurance. These thoughts keep me awake at night (when I’m not dreaming of bacon that is.)

I’ve lost some weight (that’s a good thing), but not that much. I’m still frustratingly chunky despite my diminished food intake.

Sometimes, though, as in dreams, my hunger pangs rear up and take me by surprise. Like when I’m out for dinner with friends and relatives and I clean my plate. Oh, look at her, they must think, she can really chow down. No wonder she’s so fat. People can be so cruel when they don’t know your true circumstances.

Little do they know of my modest daily meals: cereal for breakfast, salad or occasional small sandwich for lunch, small piece of meat (overcooked) and serving of vegetables for dinner. Oh, once a week, I have pasta and sauce. I’ve cut out desserts (again, a good thing). They don't know of the meals I've skipped altogether.

Perhaps my bacon dream had nothing to do with actual hunger. Perhaps it’s my subconscious wish for a time when I’m no longer living this ascetic lifestyle forced upon me by two lengthy bouts of unemployment and unstable freelance work.

Perhaps it’s my longing for the day when I can buy whatever I want…food, a car, a new apartment, clothes. A time when I can indulge in bacon (although I’ll probably skip the ice cream from now on). Does that make me selfish?

Or travel. Can’t say I’m a big traveler (my sensitive stomach and swelling of my right leg make travel a bit problematic). All the time I see and hear of friends and family taking marvelous trips and I wonder, How do they get the money to do that? Then, I remember, oh, right, they have jobs.

I wonder why I can't have the life they seemingly have so easily. They have jobs, and I did, until I was told I didn't anymore through no fault of my own. Sometimes, it does make me angry. If it wasn't my fault, why am I the one dealing with the fallout? This summer, I bought two shirts — more out of defiance than need. I just wanted to buy clothes like everybody else.

I’m not jealous of others’ good fortune. I’m just wishing, hoping and dreaming of the day I can indulge as they do in nice clothes, trips … and bacon.

Take This Job and…

Well, you catch my drift.

Since it’s Labor Day weekend, it’s time for my annual vitriolic (and admittedly biased) rant against corporations and their management lapdogs. Instead of recounting once again my

past humiliations at the hands of devious bosses and co-workers, I’ll tell you of two recent events showcasing just how cheap, disdainful and discriminatory companies are when it comes to hiring and treating their employees.

A few weeks ago, I answered an ad for a freelance editor. In my reading of the ad and my understanding of the term freelance, I assumed the job would be working in the office part-time or writing/editing on a project-by-project basis. Not a bad gig, I thought. Even better, the publication specializes in an industry I’ve previously covered.

I was called in for an interview, and so I went. From, there it went downhill, and fast.

First, the job wasn’t part-time or freelance as I and most understand those terms. It was a full-time contract position. In other words, I would be hired to toil full-time, yet paid hourly with no health insurance, retirement plan, or any other benefits. The ad was misleading, to say the least. In the company’s president’s (more on this a-hole in a bit) view, “freelance” meant the workers could say, leave early occasionally if their work was completed and they needed to visit a doctor. How compassionate of him! Frankly, in my experience at real full-time jobs, most bosses are pretty flexible when it comes to medical and family emergencies.

When I pressed (politely) on possible benefits, he scoffed at me, mumbling something to the effect that providing those perks was too much bother for him. Oh, those pesky full-time workers! How dare they demand fair wages, a decent health plan and a 401(K)! The nerve!

This rather alarming display of stinginess and condescension came after this 60-something, aging Don Draper-type bragged how his family owned buildings in the Garment District of Manhattan, and how everybody knew and loved him. This creaking vestige of imperialistic White Privilege just had to impress me with how great it is. I wanted to barf.

Obviously, he had the money to foot the bill for benefits. He just didn’t want to be bothered. Sickening, truly sickening.

His “publication” —and I use snark punctuation here— was nothing more than a mouthpiece for various PR agencies in the city. Even my sleazy bosses at my former former job wouldn’t publish the nauseating fluff/crap this guy did. He admitted he would never publish a real news story on a person or company. If a company were going through tough times, he would ignore it in print. I’m no investigative journalist, but you can cover the real news and be fair at the same time.

But, hey, everybody loves him. Wonder why?

The job entailed duties so easy I could do them my sleep. I’m looking for a bit more challenge in a new job than that. Also, the publication, as I mentioned previously, covered an industry where I know the most of the players and worse, could encounter some of my former colleagues at my former former job if I went to an event. I’d rather have a root canal than meet up with those bastards and backstabbers.

If that weren’t enough to make me walk away, given the overtly pandering tone of this “publication,” I would be a laughingstock to the entire industry and my former colleagues and bosses. Haven’t they had enough fun at my expense when they cruelly laid me off?

You guessed it. I politely declined this full-time-with-no-benefits job.

How dare she? She’s unemployed! She must take any crappy job offered!

Not really. Just because I’m unemployed does not mean I have given up my free will. I have every right to choose where and with whom I work. You know, the same right everybody else possesses. I believe anyone who criticizes me for not taking an unappealing job is probably miserable in his or her own job and feels everyone else should be, too.

Let me also remind you, I was gainfully employed, happy to work with horrible bosses, impossible workloads and stomach-churning deadlines. Until I was laid off. Where was my freedom of choice then?

I would dearly love another full-time job — if I were offered one with decent benefits and duties that allow me to use my background while also expanding my skills. None has been offered to me.

Unlikely I will ever be offered one, considered the blatant ageism I face. Back in the spring, I went on a job interview and was told point-blank I had “too much experience” (translation: you’re too old). I didn’t get the job. No surprise.

A week or two ago, I submitted an application for that same job, although I didn’t know it at the time. The name of the company sounded familiar, but since I submit an average of two applications a day, I figured why not give it a try? I had all the qualifications for the position.

The HR lady sent me an email asking for a preliminary phone interview. That’s when I did some digging and realized it was the same job I had interviewed for back in May but was rejected because of my age.

I was angry at first – why put myself through that humiliating experience again? — but didn’t do anything until I calmed down over the weekend.

On Monday, I decided to compose a direct, but professional email. Since we scorned candidates get so few chances to vent our feelings to our rejecting employers, I had to take advantage of this rare opportunity.

I recounted my experience, how I was told I had too much experience (as if that’s a bad thing), how those are code words for “too old,” and how I was ultimately rejected for the job.

I closed by saying that there was really no benefit for me interviewing for the job again if the company and the lady I interviewed with still practiced age discrimination. I received no reply from the HR lady. Why should she care anyway? Nobody is going to sue the company for age discrimination, least of all older, unemployed workers with no money. Nevertheless, I took a bit of satisfaction in at least calling the company out on its rather overt ageism.

Oh, and by the way, why is it advertising an opening for the same job a mere three months later? Gee, guess the Millennial it was so hot to hire for a paltry salary didn’t work out, eh?

I know what you must be thinking: How dare she refuse another job! Well, I wasn’t offered that job. Chances I wouldn’t be again. I haven’t gotten any younger in three months or undergone plastic surgery (though I did get my hair cut and colored).

This is what workers of whatever age face today in the workforce: Either you’re being discriminated against because of your age or forced to work for a meager salary for no benefits. Management holds the hammer, and boy, do they use it against workers at every chance. Especially when it comes to layoffs. Layoffs, in my opinion, are nothing more than management getting somebody else — their workers — to pay for their mistakes. And managers wonder why employees flee for another job at the first chance?

Sometimes I wonder, have I willingly left the labor force, or was I kicked out? It’s a bit of both, I think. Two layoffs in four years have made me justifiably hesitant to take another full-time job. A job I can lose through no fault of my own. I refuse to ever again be a pawn in some hidden Machiavellian management scheme that leaves me jobless and broke while my former bosses and their lapdogs continue to rake in their undeserved salaries.

A day to honor workers? What a freaking joke!

Are You a ‘Savior’?

This is the second in a series of posts on jobs you should probably avoid. Having labored

through hundreds of job interviews, I aim to impart my knowledge to fellow job seekers in the hopes they don’t fall into these traps.

Last week, I discussed how to spot a jerk in a job interview. This week it’s the “savior” job interview.

The subject line of the email stated “job interview/confidential.” The word confidential was my first clue something was a bit off with this job interview, and I had a feeling what it might be.

Nevertheless, I replied and set up a time for the interview, which was to be held in the restaurant of a hotel in a quiet, old-money part of Manhattan. After I confirmed the day and time, I was told not to tell anyone about the interview. Like, whom would I tell?

On the day of the appointment, I walked past weathered brownstones that have seen better days but still house only the very, very rich and made my way to the hotel. There, I spoke to two nice gentlemen about the job, my background, etc. The interview went well, or so I thought. Then came the kicker: “Thank you for coming,” said one of men. “We’re exploring our options.”

Peeved, I left and thought to myself, “Hey, buddy, I just wasted three hours! I have to dry clean these clothes!”

Yep, I feel for it once again, the “savior” job interview. These guys wanted to make personnel changes and were looking for ready candidates to fill the jobs of employees they most likely wanted to dump. Not bad in theory, but horrible for those employees and their oblivious replacements, AKA, saviors.

So what is a “savior” job interview? It’s when a company or manager has a “difficult” employee they want to replace but doesn’t have the cojones to outright fire. Or, they don’t want to fire them until they have a replacement lined up. Makes sense, right?

But it’s more than that. Since I’ve been on several of these savior job interviews (which I’ll recount presently), I’ve come to recognize there is another dynamic lurking beneath the surface: The workplace is dysfunctional and the manager, unable or unwilling to deal with the situation, hopes to hire someone new who will somehow pacify the rancorous office environment and make everything wonderful. A savior, get it?

My first experience with this savior job interview came during my first unfortunate stint of long-term unemployment back in 2010. I was summoned, again, to a diner. (That is always your first clue something is amiss. Why not hold the interview in the actual office of the hiring company?)

The interviewer then proceeded to tell me, rather obliquely, but clear enough so I understood, that the person currently in the job wasn’t working out. While it’s difficult to gain insight into the mind of a complete stranger, from what I discerned the employee in question was rather passive-aggressively needling his boss to fire him. I actually checked out this guy’s LinkedIn profile. He had authored books, so my hunch is that he believed the job was beneath his talents, which it might have been.

He wanted out, but wanted to be fired (in the hopes of getting unemployment and severance?) instead of being more assertive and proactive and quitting a job he obviously hated. Obviously, a dysfunctional relationship between manager and employee. I can’t be sure, since I never met the guy in person, but that was my take.

Then, as a waitress who wanted us gone from the table so she could get a better tip was rushing us, I was forced to take an editing test. In a noisy diner. While the guy stared at me. Not an ideal setting for a test.

Eventually, I received an email informing me I was not chosen for the job. No surprise. But with nothing to lose, I asked the interviewer why I was rejected. He said there was someone within the company who better fit the profile of what he was looking for in the job. Fair enough. Oh, and I didn’t do very well on the test. Ya think! Sheesh. I resisted the temptation to remind him I had to take the damn test in a noisy Manhattan diner and let it go.

More recently, I went on yet another savior job interview, one of the oddest job interviews I have ever endured. For an hour — an hour! — I sat dumbfounded as an arrogant, condescending bully of a boss (throughout the interview he repeatedly and rather threateningly struck his shoe with a steel letter opener) regaled me with the intimate details of an employee’s home life that he believed was impacting his work performance. Why was I being told this? What impact did it have on the job I was being interviewed for?

Oh, but he didn’t want to fire the guy, he insisted. That would be too hard. He wanted to bring in another staff member to help him.

So, I politely asked, what were the duties of the job? His answer (this is a direct quote): “To make my life easier.” Ah, a savior.

He did tell me of one incident where he had to step in and take over this employee’s duties while he was on a faraway business trip and he become ill because of it. On this point, I agree with him. If this employee didn’t do his job, he had every right to be angry. But I’d also like to know why: Was the employee sick? Was there a family emergency? Did he deliberately shirk his responsibilities? I’d like to know the why before I simply fired the guy or hired another person to be the “savior.”

When I spoke to another employee at this company, he said quite sternly, possibly as a warning, that the boss had a bad temper. This job came with more red flags than an Indy car pileup.

From my reading, all these episodes have several factors in common: a dysfunctional workplace; an underperforming employee; a manager too timid to deal with the situation; and the vain hope a newcomer can make everybody sing Kumbaya. Not gonna happen.

What should happen, in my humble opinion, is the manager and employee first attempt to repair their broken relationship, if possible, with an honest dialogue. HR can be called in to mediate, but in my experience most HR people avoid interfering with bad manager/employee pairings and simply tell the two to work it out on their own. Good luck with that.

Now, let me say here, I don’t put all the blame on the manager. While I believe it’s a manager’s job is to provide fair and specific guidance to employees, it’s up to the employee to be conscientious and capable enough to carry out his or her duties.

If the employee still underperforms, well, then he or she must be fired, and the next in line promoted to replace that person. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?

Except…most managers prefer to do nothing and let the situation fester. Or, they figure they can bring on a new person to be the savior. Stupid management 101.

Is that fair to the new person who is hired as this savior? How are they supposed to learn the job (especially one with unspecified duties), get along with their new co-workers, and correct the dysfunctional morass permeating the office? That would be difficult for any one person to do.

Even boards of major corporations a fall into the savior trap. A company is floundering so they bring in a new highly trumpeted CEO. Months pass, and the company is still sinking. Not even the new CEO could save the ship.

These situations burn me for another reason. Managers will hand-wring for weeks and months over whether to fire an obviously underachieving slacker. Or, they will put the employee under a “performance improvement plan” or PIP, so the employee can either shape up or be shipped out. Either way, the employee is given a chance to save their job or make a conscious decision to leave.

No such luck when it comes to laid-off employees. We are given no such opportunity to save our employment, or even given any insight into why we were selected for the trash heap. That always seems unfair to me.

Perhaps managers hem and haw over firings because it's a tacit admission they hired the wrong person or aren't very good managers. The fault falls on their weaselly shoulders. With a layoff, they can blame the economy and poor revenues.

So, back to the savior job interview. Should you take the interview now that you know the warning signs? Yes, for no other reason than for practice.

Should you take the job? Well, that’s up to you, of course. But I would want to know the exact duties of the job (other than “to make my life easier”) before I agreed to work for that company. Otherwise, you are being set up to fail. Most employment experts agree with me on that point.

You are there to do a job, hopefully one that aids in the profitability of the company. You are not, and will never be, the company’s or a manager's savior.

Next week, I’ll discuss the “unicorn” job ad.

Walking Dogs and Talking Economic Recovery

I saw Nancy the other day. She’s the nice lady who lives down the street in the corner

house. We used to take the same bus into the city.

She was walking Elvis, a particularly hellacious little Maltese who barks incessantly at the sight of me. “Guess what?” she told me. “I got laid off in November.”

As I recall, she worked in the insurance industry, but I don’t know for which company. For now, she’s collecting unemployment and babysitting to pocket some extra cash. Nobody, she said, can live on unemployment alone. How true.

Sometimes when I jog I run into (not literally) Jeanine as she walks, Rocky, an adorable and much calmer little dachshund. His stumpy legs shiver in the cold. Yet he’s friendlier and lets me pet him.

Her company just hired another worker for her department. She says she knows I’m going to get a job soon. From her lips to God’s ears…

What to make of these divergent scenarios? One lady worked for a company that downsized her job; another for a company in expansion mode.

Which is true? Which is the false mirage?

As I scan the news sites daily, I come across so many contradictory articles, statistics, and opinions about the job market. Which to believe?

Here are some of the clashing tidbits I’ve found regarding our rather bipolar economy. (Snarky comments in italics are mine.)

The unemployment rate is at 5.5%. That means full employment. Hooray! Well, not if you are Nancy or I.

Big companies like IBM and Target are cutting jobs in massive numbers. Or maybe not. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Tell that to the poor chumps who actually are laid off.

The unemployment rate is so low because many long-time unemployed have given up looking for a job and are no longer counted in the labor rolls. I’m a long-time unemployed worker. Therefore, I do not exist.

Despite the low unemployment rate, wages have not risen. But they might soon. Raise? What’s a raise?

The economy added nearly 300,000 jobs last month. Where? 

These statistics and ponderous yet detached musings on those numbers only impart a 27,000-foot-high airplane view of the job market, where you only spy the outlines of land and sea, the crevices of valleys tumbling down from the high mountains, or the lights of the street lamps and maybe the roofs of houses.

You never hear about what goes on inside those homes: The father telling his family he got laid off from his job and can no longer pay for the eldest son’s college tuition. The single mother crying at the table because her job was terminated and she doesn’t know how she will pay the rent or feed her baby. The older, single female worker laid off twice in four years struggles to find a job in the face of age discrimination, trying to pay bills with low-paying freelance jobs.

When the Great Recession of 2009-10 roared and thousands were unemployed, newspapers wrote those stories. Not anymore. Hey, the unemployment rate is 5.5%! Nothing more to see here. Move along.

The Democrats crow that their policies have saved the economy. Have they? Or is it just a natural economy cycle taking place?

The Republicans, looking for a wedge issue, bemoan the gnawing income inequality gap. This makes me laugh, bitterly. Funny they don’t mention how their slavish devotion to Corporate American has directly led to that very same income imbalance and wage stagnation. What did they think would happen when government removes the necessary regulatory reigns from corporations? Of course, corporations immediately hack away jobs in the thousands to pile up profits. Give raises to the workers? But that might cut into our executive bonuses! Perish the thought and hand me the keys to my Mercedes.

Let me be clear, this is not a political blog. But I do detect a sickening excess of political spin when it comes to the economy and job numbers — by both sides. It’s either partisan self-congratulation or brazen manipulation for each party’s purpose, which, at the core, is only about winning elections and staying in power. Neither party exhibits any real understanding or compassion for the citizens of this country, the people they are supposed to represent. I’m sick of the whole damn lot of them.

How about helping the long-term unemployed by reinstating extended unemployment benefits? Or providing funds to the jobless so they can learn new skills and return to the workforce? How about going after companies that blatantly discriminate against older job seekers?

How about nudging companies to lift wages so families can enjoy at a minimum a comfortable, middle class lifestyle? When people have more money, they tend to spend more on goods and services. That could help the economy rise, right?

Nah, nothing will be done. The unemployment rate is 5.5%, so who cares anymore about those long-term unemployed losers? Let them shrivel up their savings and become homeless.

Yes, I do admit the economy has improved. But better than it was is still not great. Competition for jobs is fierce, and employers are very, very picky.

Just ask Nancy and I.