Employment Insecurity

I've had lots of ups and downs within the past two years...Within this amount of time, I've always have spurts when I was unemployed. Just like other people, I have the pleasure of being at the end of the totem pole. People judge me left and right, before they even get to know me.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to my best bud Kev. I was telling him how I was so frustrated and mad at this so called world of opportunities. I know when I first lost my old job in August, I had put in like 20 applications with no phone calls, no interviews, no nothing in return...By me being a single parent, I had to turn to my family for support. Not that they wouldn't help me, but it's not the best feeling in the world to ask your folks to pay our bills. I got looks from some like they wanted to say, "As if I don't have bills to pay of my own."

Many people asked me...oh...why don't you go on welfare? My only reply to this is Why? To be yet another statistic? I am already a few. I don't plan on getting use to the government to barely help me enough to survive so that I get lazy and give up my dreams. My God promised me more than that. And what I did get from social service...they quickly tried to stop. Me not working? Yeah right. They suggested I go the welfare route too...And when I told them I'd rather take college courses, they laughed and said, We don't help adults in college. Like it's some sin to educate myself while I search for employment. They didn't help me with daycare....nothing. So I guess the government wants you to accept being jobless and become so needy that you never better yourself. Cause surely being a single parent, trying to go to college to get a degree so I can have a fighting chance, is not on their list of people to help. They would rather help those who chose not to ever help themselves. I could go on about that, but that's another story.

And the employment insecurity commission was no help at all...I filed the whole time I was unemployed, with them saying there was a pending situation in my case, but keep filing. They smile at you, while looking right through you. Internally saying, "NEXT!" I thought that I would at least find relief with the weekly payments...and of course...after a full month of filing, they denied my claim...But told me to keep a record of my weekly job hunts...FOR WHAT?!

Has the economy become so bad that people are seen as only numbers? I didn't think so...but I was soon about to find out.

I sent in applications for clerical work, sales, you name it. They looked at my resume and loved it. Who wouldn't want a person who's worked in sales off and on for like five years, who can type 50+ words a minute. Very good at Word and PowerPoint, and has excellent Customer Service Skills...Sounds pretty good.

Yet when I walked in the door, I can feel at most places, I was already listed as a number...A number that included the do not call pile. Now I know there are lots of strikes against me. For one, I'm a woman. Two, I'm black. Three, I didn't go to college. And four, I have a past.

Ha! That takes all of what was mentioned two paragraphs above to amount to zero. But I think it's so selfish and funny at the same time. These employers would rather have a white male, who knows crap about crap, screw up in a job in which I excel in , all because of looks. And people wonder why so many companies fail...Just like the one that was on the news the other day about this white man, his wife, and possibly his sons, stealing billions of dollars of the man's place of business. Shoot, his wife had her own company card, and even charged Netflix on it!!!

My best bud has some of the same issues as me, except he has no past. He has actually served a good minute in the army, and was injured. Although he's well qualified, employers go out of their way to make sure he doesn't work for them.

Talk about keeping the poor man down. I'm not racist by any means. I like all races, however, I can't say I have many close friends of other races. And no, it's not cause of me, it's cause of them. Yeah, blame it on my locs(cause there is nothing dreadful about them, so don't open your mouth to say dreds), and blame it on the fact that you think I grew up in the hood(never lived in the hood), you can do whatever you like. Cause I know who my Savior is...His Name is Jesus. You should really try him and stop playing around with his Word...Cause not nowhere in the bible have I seen that any race was better than any other one... Just like Tyra Banks said to this girl who claimed to love God and be a good christian, but couldn't fathom why her female friend would want to date a Mexican, "Study your religion more. Really study what you claim to be." No one's perfect. I know I'm not. And in this world of economic stress, we're all getting worse. As a people, we're becoming greedy and stingy.

My future is always bright, whether I recognize it or not. God has blessed me with a good job. I am still pursuing the military, and my writing is slowly but surely coming around. I won't let the employment insecurities of America hold me back any longer. And when I do retire after 30 years of the military, I will hold my degree to be a pharmacist, and you know what? I will practice becoming a pharmacist, and eventually open up my own place. My goal is to also have a part of my business to help single mothers out there, and parents that go through the death of their little ones. I'm gonna be on top regardless.

I hope everyone out there without jobs find something that they excel in. Baby if they don't to give you a job, create one. Make plans and avenues for yourself, cause that's the only person looking out for your good out there. And first and foremost, praise God...even when you don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of...Praise and Thank him everyday....Trust in Him...For he will renew your strength.

As always, Much love and Hugs
Naturalnsasy