Open Letter to The Honorable Howard Coble

Dear Congressman Coble:

Your old friend and my mother, "Hutch" Helen LaVack is no longer able to speak with you. If she were here, I think she would have already expressed some of the concerns I would like to share. So this letter I write for her as well.

What has become of the Republican Party? I have at times voted Republican but can no longer give the party my support. It is going further and further to the radical right. "Tea baggers", gun nuts, and now mobs shouting down fellow citizens and their Representatives at meetings to discuss health care reform; it is sad to see a once great party in such a sorry state. Comparing a sitting US president to Hitler frankly disgusts me. I did not vote George W. Bush and disagreed with a lot of what he did but he was still my President and deserved my respect. The Republican Party seems to have forgotten what loyal opposition means. Of course it is okay for citizens to disagree with President Obama. That's why we have a Republican Party! But fear mongering and spreading hysteria are no way to deal with all the complex issues our nation faces. What is the answer?

The answer lies with you, sir. You and other good and honorable Republicans need to regain control of the party and stamp out this kind of politics. It is bad for your party and worse for the country as a whole.

Sincerely,

Your old friend -Paul D. LaVack

Not Smart...

We as a country are not smart enough to see all the trouble we are getting into. We are too busy being entertained by sports, television and so called “news”. Look at CNN right now. What is news worthy? “Michael Jackson’s mom gets custody of kids”, a story on a flight attendant and seven-year-old leading cops on a chase are happening on July 30, 2009. This is all front page news! Let’s not worry about two on going and militarily un-winnable wars, an over heating planet, the sewer that once was our oceans, exploitation via globalization and a collapsing healthcare system. The list of real and news worthy problems could go on and on but we get Sara Palin! Why? We have gotten this dumb! Entertainment and theatre now pass for news.

I think by design, our education system only worsens over time. There is little to no room for anything involving creativity or critical thinking. It is all about science and math and passing standardized tests. Want to learn about your own body (real sex ed) learn about credit or how to write complete sentences that hopefully make up a paragraph- forget it schools no longer have time for it. Why should we think for ourselves when there is television? We hear sound bites about healthcare reform. Very few of us have any in depth knowledge about what is being decided in our name, much less who is doing the real deciding. It is time to face the fact that we live in an oligarchy and have for some time. I see less and less real differences between the two mainstream political parties. The same people pay both democrats and republicans. Neither really wants true healthcare reform, and an end to the insanity in Iraq and Afghanistan or truly pluralistic democracy. There are a few differences on social issues but these are window dressing on an otherwise one party state. To have a true democracy takes a well-educated population and real choices. We are lacking in both. Few see past the spectacle of election year politics, sound bites and distractions that pass for democratic government. What lies behind the scenes are those with large checkbooks, blinded by sheer greed thinking only for themselves TODAY. This illusion needs non-thinkers sitting in front of their TV’s being spoon-fed the illusion of democracy. Look up “Inverted Totalitarianism” on your favorite search engine. It is a pretty grim but an all too likely path we are going to take. All that is needed is enough stupid people.

The Internet provides a small glimmer of hope. If enough people read stuff like this and start to think, things may turn out different. But who want to read when there are reruns of Beverly Hills 90210 on You tube?

Over 50 and looking for work…

There is no way around it, the older we get the harder it is to find work. It is a lot about perception. The biggest thing for a professional is money, The older worker is going to want a lot of money or maybe make my company’s health insurance bill go up. They may be slow to catch on, epically if a business uses a lot of technology like computers and blackberries. Another problem some people may be uncomfortable telling an older person what to do and with that, not wanting to be told what to do either. Another perception people may face is energy. In this culture, we equate youth with energy. We want the young hungry salesman not the burned out one! And there is always attitude. If you go into an interview with the idea that you will be dismissed because of your age, there is a good chance this will come to pass. The effort is doomed from the start. A few decision makers may feel older workers are going to miss more work than their younger counterparts. There are all kinds of articles on line and elsewhere dispelling most of the misconceptions listed above. So what does this mean for you, over 45, 50 and up job seeker?

Look for jobs that are going to work. A huge company, like American Express or the Federal Government, can absorb someone who may have health issues easier than a three-person operation. As far as pay, it depends on you. Again apply for stuff that will work for you and let them know in the cover letter or interview the price is right. If you are a former manager looking for a non-manager position, let them know (even if it may not be totally true) you are out of the management game. The energy perception is harder to overcome. Dress the part you want to play. The right demeanor and a positive attitude (with a sense of humor?) will go a long way. If you are just getting on line keep learning the computers. If you have been in a role where you have not had to use a computer or blackberry, this not your age will be your biggest barrier. There are tons of ways to learn to use computers for free. Go check with your local library or community college for details. If you have had a great attendance record, highlight it in the interview. Now, how to get to the interview.

For God’s sake there is no need to go back ‘80’s ‘70’s and even ‘60’s on a resume or application. Unless you are talking to someone you are related to, no body gives a shit what your job was back then. Unless it was 20 to life in state prison! The last 10 years is all they want to know. If you have an older degree or high school diploma, list it but leave off the date. The fact you graduated high school in 1975 has nothing to how well you can do a job now but a high school diploma may be a requirement so you need to list it. Now, you may be stressing if you worked only one place for almost all of your adult life. List it from the start year. If you worked at a company from 1990 to 2008 chances are you worked different jobs. List the different positions and explain what you did at each one. If you had the same thing for a long time, list what you did and list other skills you have. Such a resume reflects stability, a good work ethic and dependability. But you are more…

Do not forget you are a person that never can be fully represented on any piece of paper. So do not settle for whoever hires you. No, take control and apply only for things you are interested in. Anything less is a waste of time damn it! Sure, it may take a little longer but it will be worth it. You made it this far, so what is a little extra time?

Corporate Culture... of Fear/ Debit.

Pins and needles. is this what it feels like where you work? Are people around you getting let go for dumb and dumber reasons? How is the revenue flow going? You get the idea. So many work places are becoming so dehumanizing. Management can hold the specter of being fired or laid off over your head and this gives them even more power. "Can you stay an extra hour?" "Get the extra work done or I will find someone who can." I'm sorry but we are going to have to cut your hours." Similar statements (and far worse) are being made all around the country every day. Here in North Carolina, a so called right to work state, you can be fired on the spot with no explanation given. People feel they have no choice but to live like this pay check to pay check. Few people seem to like their jobs so, why do they stay? Most people will say things like family, responsibilities, bills and or to have money. What they are really saying is "I have debit." I owe so off to work I go.

Debit. It is so deep in American Culture. We go into debit for not only houses and cars but just plain stuff as well! Here, people will finance you a pet puppy! We have credit cards that are easy to use (too easy) to satisfy that new manufactured want or need. Check out this for example. By their ads, you would think it is the second coming! Watch the people lay their money down or credit! I recently paid off a credit card (my only one) and thought about closing it out. I had to deal with a flood of dire warnings about how it would hurt my credit rating. My credit rating. Somebody will one day look at this number and decide if I am a low risk. It may look good at the moment but if I dig myself in deep enough, this same yahoo will decide I am not so credit worthy. Pay off stuff on time, play the game, no good they will change the rules on you. Once you get into the debit trap, your managers (the ones who see you as an expense) have even more power over you.

If you are fortunate enough to still be working, GET OUT OF DEBIT! The less you owe, the more flexibility and control you will have. Debit is the new slavery. The laws are made by the credit card companies and banker types for their benefit, not yours. If you owe off to work you HAVE to go.

Beat the "Jobless Recovery"

Sorry I've been away awhile.

Let's get our jobless recovery on! It looks like the banks are getting back in the black and Wall Street seems overjoyed! We worry about passing some more weeks of Unemployment (which is not the answer either) or spending billions on a better health care system but the real story remains out of the main stream. How much was / is the bail out? 14 TRILLION and counting! Do not take my word for it look here. Mrs. Prins knows what she is talking about. If you do not believe her, google "cost of the bail out". There are twelve zeros in one trillion. i.e. 1 Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000... Where did this money come from? Somebody is running the printing press and getting over time! It is no wonder the banker and Wall Street types are more happy these days. So what about you? How's that change working out for you? In my view, the Republicans are even worse, As I get older, I see less and less difference. It is going to take a lot more than 14-20 weeks more of Unemployment to get things going in the right direction again. I will not bullshit you, I'm no economist. So what does this got to do with a job search? Remember this blog is for one person only- you. You can still succeed.

What can you do? I've seen people doing the same old job search routine month after month (and in a few cases year(s). It is like the movie Groundhog Day, except reliving a nightmare of uncertainty, anxiety and false motivation over and over. Even if this method works, the nightmare continues. Get laid off, get fired for some stupid reason and start the whole process over again! Many move with blinders between jobs not pausing to think their way out of it. You must be creative! You must network! Sitting at home in front of a computer isolated from the rest of humanity filling out on line apps and emailing resumes is not going to get you a job, much less a career. This only leads deeper and deeper into cold dark depression. There is another way. Volunteer, play sports, do church stuff and get involved in any other activity you can think of to get around people. The job / career will find you. What need can you fill? What need do you WANT to fill? Answer these and you are on your way. If the Unemployment is out and you are looking at the ole $20 crisis, there are things you can still do.

Here a few ways to generate so income...

1. Voice 123 - voice overs.

2. Market other people's stuff on line

3. Ebay- Sell your stuff or stuff for friends on line.

4. GOARMY.COM They're always hiring.

5. Swift Transportation Be a truck driver.

Capitalism is an ass kicker. Government will not take care of you. You are pretty much on your own. I call it freedom to fail or succeed. Look with in and to friends, family and others to find what will work for you. Use the Internet to apply for jobs but keep in mind this by itself will take a very long time to work if it works at all. Network and network more...

E-mail Alert!

slavewoman@

thedarkavenger@

sexyamama36dd@

darknight@

When applying for a job the email you use says a lot about you. All of the best qualifications in the world will not get you by if anything like the above is on your resume. Employers are being overwhelmed now and have to look for anything to trim down the number of applicants they want to talk to. Some may think such emails might be cool, true or fun but to an employer they may show immaturity, vanity or worse- stupidity. It is a small and seemingly unimportant detail but one that can cost a lot in the long run. For looking for a job, use your name and not something that a 5Th grader would make up. 

The same goes for the music you pick to ring on your cell phone. If there are a ton of good applicants, rap, metal and country are a few ways to narrow the field. If somebody has to sit through music to leave a message and they do not share the same appreciation of death metal, there is a good chance your voice mail will remain eternally empty. 

The same is true for voice mails. If you read the first two paragraphs by now you got the idea....              

Worth 20k a month??

Worth 20k a month?

Why get out of bed? Is it just for the money? The knee gerk reaction would be "Yes". But think about it a little. If I paid you $20k a month to shovel dung, how long would you last? How many of us feel this way about their work already? We cannot stand what we do. It is a lucky person that gets out of bed on Monday morning and likes their job. The guy shoveling dung for $20k a month would not like it! The money perhaps but the job no... There is more to it than money. If you want to keep your next job; find something you like doing, find something that has meaning for you and find something that is fun! Here in the good ole USA we define ourselves largely by what we do. One of the first things we ask somebody we just meet is "What do you do for a living?" And let's face it "I shovel shit" is not a good answer no matter what the pay. So ask yourself what motivates me? If money comes first, you may want to rethink why you are here (and I as an employer will draw the interview to a polite but quick close).  Match the employer to you. If you take "anything" may as well settle for nothing. 

      

Jobs going, going almost gone

The jobs are going, going and almost gone... All of those who think training is the answer are on the right track for the long term. In the short term, where are the jobs people being trained for today going to come from? Everyone cannot be a pharmacist, nurse or class A truck driver. Bio tech and high tech jobs are good but number in the hundreds here in North Carolina. According to this article, we will lose 96,000 jobs by the end of this year! Unfortunately, our state lags behind most of the country in education. So who will want to come here? We offer cheap unskilled labor but NOT near as cheap as China and places beyond! When the unemployment extension run their course and the money for more "retraining" has run out, what will be the next step? The good news is things have to change. We will have redo health care, we will have to adjust our current plan of borrow against tomorrow for what we want today and take education more seriously from day one. With the 12Th worst dropout rate in the country, we have a lot of work to do. Now we have to retrain a largely uneducated workforce for jobs we hope will come. Given time to innovate our way out of the current mess, it may work. We can all think about what success will look like, low unemployment and all boats rising but what about failure? This Russian guy has an idea...         

It Will Not Work...

It will not work... Doing the same thing over and over in a bad economy to get a job will not work just as it does not in a good economy. Ask people you know how they got their last job. How many will say I saw an ad in the paper, sent a resume, got an interview and got hired? How many will say I got a job at a job fair (a good way for staffing companies to collect resumes but not a great way to find work)? How many will say I knocked on random doors at every business park in town until I found where I am now? Well, okay there may be a few. There is another way. Network. Most people find work based on personal connections. They know somebody who knows somebody. I'm a good employee at the local saw mill and my friend Tim Bob is out of work. I hear there is an opening. Tim Bob is a good guy and a hard worker and only lost his job after it went to El Salvador. If I recommend somebody who is a turd, I too will look bad and only hurt myself. The boss man knows me to be a good and dependable employee. So who will he trust? My recommendation or some shmo who answered a box ad in the local paper, you get the idea. So continue to answer ads in the paper, go to big impersonal job fairs but add a little to it. Network. Go to school, volunteer, go to church, join AA; do what ever it takes to meet with and interact with new people. It will also look better on a resume than a glaring gap!             

Back to Basics... Listening and Speaking.

Here are two barriers we may all be guilty of at one time or another, poor communications and not following directions. Being vague and mumbling are no way to impress people. If you are not even sure about the job you are applying for i.e. "anything" and know even less about the employer, expect to be looking a nice long time! Communication goes two ways listening and speaking. Listening can be interesting. How many of us only hear what we want and what we do not want to hear is somehow filtered out? It is as if we want to put what we want into the mouths of others and wait to hear it back. When that does not happen we become combative and say I do not understand you! We may hear something to only conveniently forget it later on! There are tons of examples in the unemployment office where I work. 

"Be sure and call in your claim each week to get your payment." I tell an applicant. 

Five weeks later I hear from that same person "Why have I not got anything from you? I've been waiting."     

Usually followed by "You did not tell me to call it in."

I can only guess they thought the tooth fairy would leave it under their pillow. 

This also happens a lot with people who want to apply for jobs they are not qualified for. The 65k a year looks pretty good so we can over look the degree they ask for along with the 10 years related experience required. Hey, we can learn and if given a chance to talk we will talk them into it! Unless you are a supermodel, this will likely lead to failure. To paraphrase Don Rumsfield, you go to work with the skills you have not the skills you want. Listen to what they want and go from there. When listening do not project what you want to hear, rather take in what is being said and paraphrase it back. Hopefully, that will keep everyone on the same page and reduce misunderstandings.  

Learn to speak with clearly and confidence. How you speak tells a lot about you quickly. In an interview, judgements are going to be made in just the first few minutes of the interview. It is very hard to reverse the first impression no matter how good you may be. Being positive clear and confident in the first few minutes will make for a much easier interview and increase the likelihood of success. People who can speak well for themselves do not come to the unemployment office often. Confidence goes along with success and that is what employers are looking for.        

Buzz words...

How do we get people back to work in an economy that no longer makes things? The buzz words retrain, adjust and stimulate somehow come up short in our current situation. We have gone from an industrial power house to the new FIRE (finance insurance & real estate) economy. The link gives a so so explanation of it but you will get the idea. In my state, North Carolina, what do we do with thousands of poorly educated textile and furniture workers? Back 30 or 40 years ago a job at the local plant was today's government job. You had it made! The company took care of everything. Sure. you were never going to be rich but you always had a roof and a place to be 40 plus hours a week. Down turns came and went. Draw a little unemployment until things turn back around and repeat. Now how will it work? So many of these jobs are gone for good this time. Will the stimulus plan work? Sure, with that kind of money being thrown around a lot of people will go back to work doing something but for how long?  Where is the long term answer? The business people get on TV and warn us all of not going back to "protectionism" and "isolation" but these are not the same people trying to get by on a small weekly unemployment check. Sure, we cannot go back to the world of 200 years ago where we did our own thing  but do we have to compete with places with terrible human rights records, wages measured in pennies and no environmental regulations? Somehow this is supposed to benefit our economy and help create jobs here. Immigration is a great way to keep America healthy and dynamic. The way the powerful are using it today merely to drive down the cost of labor for their own short term financial benefit is making it much harder for people here to find work paying a living wage. In typical American fashion, many here blame the poor slobs fleeing terrible living conditions in their own country. It is divide and conquer at it's finest. They would be better served to follow the money where ever it leads... We hear a lot about change, another buzz word, lately. The current system here is broken and WILL change. Will we be able to manage the real change on the way?        

A TANKING economy...

A big barrier to employment is the economy going into the head first into toilet. There are somethings that are always needed, like healthcare, plumbers police and fire fighters. So what are the rest of us to do? Unfortunately, the jobs that have gone over seas are not coming back because it would be too expensive. Some genius thought we could all get by being greeters at Wal Mart! This all has to be making OBL pretty smug right about now. War can help get the economy going for the short term but long tern it is a pretty bad investment. The Pentagon, military contractors of all shapes and sizes and a hand full of share holders do well but what has the rest of the country gained? Some less informed may say "we have not been attacked again." Simply google "The Power of Nightmares" for an alternative view. It is not a bunch of conspiracy garbage but rather an argument that Al Queada exists in the minds of politicians more than in reality. While you are waiting weeks on in for unemployment and your state is going broke the federal government is borrowing from the Chinese to fund our wars over seas. The numbers are staggering about $1.3 trillion or about $1.7 trillion for FY2001-FY2018. It is like George Carlin said to paraphrase him we may not be able to educate our children or take care of our old people but we can bomb your ass! Do we really need 700 plus bases around the world? We own more land than the Vatican! Sorry to go on a seemingly anti-military binge here. What ever happened to the idea of National DEFENSE? We could spend or money on a lot of other things and be a lot smarter about reducing acts of terrorism. A "war on terror" is an oxymoron if there ever was one! Our current path must change. If you don't think so drop by your nearest unemployment office sometime.