blowing humanity

I was listening to the radio the other day about a guy who lost his six figure job five years ago.  During the interview, he said he sent out thousands of resumes to prospective employers and about once every two months he might get an interview.  His major complaint was every potential employer who interviewed him said the same thing.  They don't like to hire people who don't have a job.

On the surface this sounds a bit silly.  Why would you look for a job if you already had one?  If you're looking to fill a slot, why not hire the guy?  He apparently is competent and qualified to do such work.  

Let's back up a little bit.  This guy had a six figure income five years ago.  That's, at the very least, $100,000 a year.  He was unemployed for five years and spent that time tenaciously copying resumes, writing cover letters, licking envelopes, and supporting the USPS with his frequent visits and stamp purchases.  Unemployment insurance, if any, would only cover a scant fraction of his previous salary, so those unemployment checks were basically pocket change.  What was this guy doing to improve his situation?  He considered sending out resumes and going to an interview a few times a year was enough to land him a job at least equal to the one he lost.

Let's do the math.

If a guy can go without an income for five years it's because...
a)  He doesn't need money.
or
b)  He has enough leftover money from his previous job to carry him for at least five years, allowing him to do absolutely nothing to change his present situation other than delude himself into believing flooding the mail system with his loser resumes will land him the jackpot job.

My job requires me to look over applications and resumes all the time and have to determine from that stack of personal information who I can hire that would give me the biggest bang for my company's buck.  The first thing I look for is availability... when they can work, when they can't work.  If they're a potential warm body they're half way there.  The next thing I look for is work history.
This is a deal breaker.  Show me someone who hasn't worked in five years and I'll show you someone who doesn't want to work.  It's that simple.

I can see where this guy's coming from.  He wants to get a job that pays at least as much as he made before.  Any less and he's not advancing in life.  Cost of living goes up so his pay has to go up or he's sliding backwards.  Why accept a job that pays less than he had five years ago?

I'll tell ya why.  Because if he had a job before he went into any of those interviews he'd at least appear as a guy who really wants to work instead of an indolent asshole who wants a six figure job sitting on his butt all day.

If I was this guy who made six figures a year five years ago who can't get a job merely because he doesn't have a job, I'd get a job just to appease my future employer.  Believe it or not, there's lots of jobs out there.  Maybe not the ones this guy wants but there are jobs like distribution centers, supermarkets, retail, banks, coal mines, and tons of other livelihoods less desirable than a six figure income sitting on ass and playing with your laptop.

And when his short stint as blue collar worker or service employee or sanitation worker lands him his ticket to paradise, he might bring to the table something more than his greed and all-for-me attitude and actually know what it's like to walk in the shoes of the people who made this economic empire a reality... The people who actually do things.

The universe throws things at us for a reason.  Maybe the reason this guy lost his job was to learn humanity.

Too bad he blew it.

how to change a light bulb

This made me nervous just watching.  Let the cartoon pass and hold on.

avoiding unpleasantness

where are they now?