An Example Of Cutting Off Your Own Nose To Spite Your Own Face.

by Chris – Unemployment-tips.com

(United States)

Although, I never find it difficult to label something an irony, the unemployment benefits system in this country and those reporting on the economy are a veritable fountain spraying ironic BS everywhere.

I’m a little angry today so feel free to ignore me.

I was out and about today .. asking google questions as usual when I came upon an article at USNews.com Why Everyone Suffers When Job Seekers Give Up written by Liz Wogemuth.

First, she states the obvious .. unless you are oblivious.

“When able workers drop out of the job market, their households make do with less income, and their long-term financial health may be threatened, as savings are depleted. The aggregate economy suffers, too, as it chugs its way out of recession it loses their contributions as workers and their buying power as consumers.”

This wouldn’t have upset me quite as much .. if it weren’t for the link to an article named “21 Things Hiring Managers Wish You Knew”.

For the sake of my derisive argument .. I would say it’s the buying power as consumers that is the real concern .. because most of the time, in the past, and in the present, contributions of workers go unnoticed and lead to employers asking ..

“What is the root cause of low employee morale?”

This is such a stupid question I’ve got to wonder what type of people ask it?

When people get irate about being asked to do twice the work at half the pay, take one on the chin for the good of the team and do it in half the amount of time, or receive performance reviews which try to blame them for dropping sales quotas in the middle of the worst recession ever ..

It’s doubly, a stupid question. But since I don’t think the answer is all that difficult .. I’ll answer it.

Employee morale becomes low when the employer creates .. or allows an insidious downward spiral in morale due to ignoring a basic human desire .. need even, to keep our humanity intact.

In other words, anyone with a fair amount of good sense can tell you why employees will respond more favorably to respect and recognition for their hard work than a raise, which usually requires another piece of their soul.

Back to the article. She then wrote something about how in June, 2010, 1.2 million American workers were no longer looking for a job because they are “discouraged” as labeled by the labor department. This is what really sent me over the edge.

When Department Rhetoric Needs To Take A Hike

Excuse me, how does the labor department know that 1.2 million people are “discouraged” and not looking for non-existent jobs?

From where I stand, I “speculate” the only way they can come up with such an accurate estimate is from the unemployment departments that have stopped or suspended benefits of 1.2 million workers who have not fulfilled the “work search requirements” as prescribed by each state to retain eligibility, either admittedly, or by way of a random audit conducted by the unemployment department. Or maybe some vindictive type clicked the “report unemployment fraud button, prominently placed on state websites.

Maybe they are discouraged, wouldn’t those of you with jobs be “discouraged” if after applying for 100, 200 or more jobs .. nothing came of it?

But maybe, just maybe, they are just plain tired of playing unemployment charades because this ain’t been no party .. for millionS of people and there’s only 1 job for x amount of unemployed people. I reject the figure of 1 for every 5-7 people .. They need to quit shoving the “adjusted” rate down everyone’s throat .. it’s not accurate.

Hidden Agendas In The Unemployment System

Let’s talk about attrition. This is a word I consider everyday, and “repent” for my corner of culpability with this site.

I no longer had the stomach , as this guy, sarcastically, although correctly, suggests you might need.

I’m grateful everyday, that there was a way out of that God forsaken moral conflict of a job.

What’ll it be, said Elmer, to the wabbit. .. Your soul or your job?

Okay, I’ll quit whining about me and get back to who I think has been been putting the tightest screws to the unemployed.

Attrition is something that wears or grinds something down .. usually with friction. In the case of unemployment .. it is clueless unemployed people being worn down in a number of ways they always have been .. in smaller doses though.

Employers often get an assist from outfits such as this one. This is a growth industry because they bought all the little ones up. It’s now an hr bigbox store .. which in the natural scheme of things, for those with money .. will create competition from start-ups.

But I’m not here to talk about hr bigbox stores practicing attrition. I’m here to talk about state unemployment programs using attrition.

Oh sure, they like to keep the finger of blame pointed “elsewhere”, but I believe in addition to the “usual suspect” ways, they keep people ignorant, they are now denying claims that should be approved at the initial level to the point of LUNACY and there are some pretty funky decisions coming out of appeal sections.

Amazingly enough, I’m certain they would if pressed, be able to come up with a good reason to explain some oddities in the decline of the recipiency rates

Whose Well Being Is On The Bottom Rung

It all comes down to an essential .. whether to make it .. or not spend it .. MONEY.

The Federal unemployment fund is broke. It is the fund the states borrow from when their funds become insolvent.

So where’s the money coming from? Low interest loans taken by the Feds, then loaned to the states, but now, they don’t have to pay interest.

And we wonder why they drag their feet on passing federal extensions of benefits.

Yet few mention that “the system” was completely inadequate to deal with what has happened.

Unemployment Benefits as they exist today .. are the equivalent of putting the whole class in detention simply to control the troublemakers.

This is a 1935 system .. the same act that created Social Security .. and we should all know the state of that .. questionable at best.

The punishment also includes that all you have worked for your whole life .. the wage, the benefits, the college funds, the 401k’s, the status gained by experience, mean little if anything to others.

Unemployment does not mean you become egoless.

There is nothing in the system that makes it equally fair to all.

Every step can be a misstep that may increase the struggle.

It is a maze with many unexpected deadends.

I would like to see growth in the American economy .. as much as the next person.

Is it really such a scary prospect to unshackle the American worker from the suffocating restriction of maintaining benefits? They need to be allowed and helped to aspire to something greater than they were before this recession?

Or would that deplete the number of those in stand-by chattel status?

Discouraged? … How about pissed off at the stupidity of those who lead .. by putting the ring in the nose of once capable people with names, homes, families, dreams, respect, pride in the value they brought to their job …

Now, just known as the unemployed, job seeker, those who game the system, those who want or expect too much from a new and suitable job.

Who’s really gaming the system?