The Fabulous 400

Several weeks back I received a rejection letter via US Mail (a rare circumstance these days--one, to actually hear back from an organization that you did not get the job, and two, via US surface mail of all things). I had applied for a media relations officer position at Central Connecticut State University and that actually told me that they "received over 400 applications from an impressive group of candidates." Wow, 400 applications! That sure beats the national average, but demonstrates that the economic recovery is far from over and that the job situation is just as bad as it has been for the last year and a half! There are more desperate people out in the real world than people think!!

The Myths of Outplacement Part I

I had the distinct privilege of being provided with outplacement services by my former employer, but that just served in many ways to make me continue to feel attached to my former employer. After all, who was ultimately paying the bill? Of course, I had visions of the outplacement service reporting on my progress back to my employer, updating them on my attitude toward them, or on just how active my efforts were in trying to find a new position. Maybe my former employer wanted some way to cease my severance or stop their contributions to my unemployment payments. It's hard not to suspect your employer of nefarious deeds at this point, nor any of their "agents," i.e., the outplacement service.

In retrospect, I now realize that would be asking too much of the outplacement service. Unfortunately, I had landed in outplacement just when those companies were being besieged with the benumbed. The outplacement service was just unprepared for the amount of people they were required to accommodate--and were rushing to expand staff capabilities and course offerings, as well as improve and enhance their websites, so more and more people could make use of their services online and from home, libraries, or wherever the client happened to be.

Is outplacement worth it? Yes, ultimately, if the resources match the need. This time, the outplacement services had really no good idea how long the recession would last and how the local job market would improve. Their usual bromides would not quite cut it this time. As the year dragged on, they became more aware and cognizant of just what a nagging problem national unemployment would be and tried to be more realistic, but even then I think many of them missed out on opportunities to genuinely help out their clients.

One thing missing from the start was any acknowledgement or recognition of the emotional toll of sudden employment. The justifiable anger and rage that a long-term loyal employee could naturally be expected to feel was minimized to the former employee's detriment. "Get over it," seemed to be message, "and fix that resume." Of course its important to know how to get onto Linked In, prepare for a phone interview or place most of your efforts on networking, but you need to assist the employee past the emotional shock and accompanying grief in order to get him or her into the right frame of mind to jumpstart a job search. At the same time, it would also have been helpful to be more realistic in expectations--help the jobseeker to understand that its gonna be tough out there and no, a job may not just be around the corner, and that in spite of all the networking, application filing, and resume rewriting, there just may not be a job out there, anywhere, for quite a while. How do you adequately prepare a person for that?

What a Year This Has Been!

Happy Anniversary! Yep, its been one year since I joined the ranks of the unemployed! And what a year it has been! To be part of America's best kept secret--that at least 10 percent of her working population is NOT--and that perhaps another 7-10% have given up looking for work completely.

I say secret because this is a topic no one really wants to face--not even the President of the United States until rather recently. Only when Democratic Senate seats started dropping like flies did BH Obama decide that oh, maybe, I should concentrate a bit more on the unemployed than on my close personal financiers, I mean friends, Tim Geithner and the folks he introduced me to at Goldman Sachs.

You really don't hear much talk about the unemployed even though it is such a major societal problem. You hear more about Sandra Bullock being (maybe) cheated on by Jesse James or the latest hijincks from Congressman Massa (has that news cycle not yet passed?). Working people don't want to talk about unemployment especially to the unemployed....why? They are probably deathly afraid that they will be next or pissed that they can't complain to their unemployed friends about how bad things are at work. How can they expect to get any type of sympathy.

But getting the boot from one's company (in my case from a place where I loyally worked for nearly 30 years in a senior management and highly public) and facing this lousy employment market can take its toll. It has been an interesting time to say the least--an opportunity to learn, to get frustrated, to witness classic American stupidity in action and I hope to ultimately grow. Its not been easy--but as the great Elaine Stritch sang the other night at Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday concert (which I was fortunate enough to be able to attend), "I'm Still Here."