munky.org|v3.0

Anyone who remembers Disney’s The Lion King can understand the circle of life. Well now, I want to introduce you to the circle of broke, that subset of the circle of life that dictates how the poor stay poor.

Flashback to November, 2008. My wife, a 5 year employee of a major employer, was laid off, replaced by a more streamlined (read, cheaper) crew setup, and much of the work done by computers. Step forward to April, when I was laid off after 4 painful months of watching our workload dwindle to nothing, my check included. My wife managed to get a job paying 50% less. I continued on at school, and continued to look for work. At least my unemployment check, with Obama’s gift of $25 a week, helped. Even as we were knocked off our rear ends, we continued to try and climb forward. My wife found a job paying a little bit more, and we moved closer to comfort.

But as you can guess by now, the circle of broke was among us. Things were going alright. I still hadn’t managed to find a job, but my prospects for good paying internships were looking good. My 4.0 GPA was something to take notice of, and a couple of professors were vetting me as a possible grad school candidate, with the hopes of getting paid to go through the NSF. I was a semi-finalist of a major scholarship that would’ve paid me a decent dime to go to school. Then it all falls apart. I wasn’t selected for the scholarship. I wasn’t selected for UNC Charlotte’s SREU. Boston U canceled their SREU. Other programs said thanks but no thanks. My benefit year ended, and when my benefits resumed, I had taken a 40% cut because it was based on my pathetic excuse for 1st quarter pay in 2009. Nobody was interviewing me. Then a break, I got an interview from a place an hour and a half away.

But money kept growing tighter and tighter. Last week, my home phone, cell phone, internet, and tv were shut off because of being 2 months behind. Turns out that that interview I had, they wanted me, but couldn’t reach me and took someone else. ARG!

Then my wife came home today with some more troubling news. Her boss let go of two more people today, and told her she may be next. Really? I hope he at least is nice enough to provide a Sam’s Club size case of KY for the reaming that will follow.

But that’s life. Welcome to the circle of broke. We forever hold on to hope, but unfortunately hope doesn’t sell the bills. Maybe if I could just be a con artist and learn how to sell false hope.

I'll sell you my tie

Some people will say so. Most of them aren’t broke so, do their opinions really matter? I mean, I can look at the bright side, I have my family, my health, my house, etc. Ok, well, the health is questionable (large amounts of stress does that to people), stress in the family, and the consistent fear of losing my house and everything.

Simply put, being broke is about one of the worst things that can happen to you. Not because of the lack of money, because it’s true, money doesn’t buy happiness. It’s the fear and anxiety surrounding the future. An unknown future.

For the last year I have been on unemployment, simultaneously looking for work and going to school. I’ve managed to get by, even with all of the income that is no longer coming in (we made roughly 50% less in 2009 than we did in 2008). I was proud of myself, putting us in a position where even with both of us losing jobs and taking substantial cuts in pay, we could still squeak by.

With summer nearing, I began seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I’m a semi-finalist of a major scholarship which would give me a livable stipend (starting at $25,000 a year). I’ve got realistic chances for great internships that would provide decent pay and a wealth of experience. It looked like all of my hard work may be beginning to pay off. All of the restless nights working on school work, studying and forcing myself to understand and apply the concepts, working hard on teams to complete projects and set up conferences. Then yesterday I found out my unemployment benefits are tapped out, a couple of weeks shy of a full year.

Fear, anxiety. How am I going to get by? How am I going to keep paying the bills, keep a roof over our heads, put food on the table. This is where broke is the worst. It isn’t that you aren’t being a man or a woman, doing everything you can to make things right. It’s the lack of any control, knowing you are powerless to fight back.

I’ve applied for my extension, and even though everything appears to be ok, but who knows. I have no power to make them do anything, and now all I can do is hope and wait that that check keeps coming. In the mean time I will keep doing what I do, yet deep down slightly unhinged by the fear.

Is it just me, or is the economy giving us mixed signals. The Dow Jones has recovered nearly 3000 points from it’s low, yet 84 banks have failed this year as of last week. That averages out to 2.5 bank failures per week. Ouch! There are still signs of things sinking, particularly in commercial real estate. Yet other signs show we are improving. Mix signals? As the only vice presidential candidate we’d wanna see in a centerfold would say, “you betcha!”

However, this is a little bit of silver to an otherwise dreary lining. Our recession is moving through its progressions, which equals progress.  Our markets are also clueing us in that the big picture ahead is looking brighter. Just remember that the markets don’t reflect our current reality, but our perceived future. We’re continuing to hit turning points, which is good news for our future.

Unfortunately for us laid off folk, future doesn’t fix the present.

But being laid off does have its advantages. Especially in a recession. This is the perfect time to step back and take stock in our life. Do we like where we were going being we were laid off? Should we change paths? Would furthering my education advance me, or should I look at another career. Some of us may be used to working in industries that routinely lay off and rehire (defense contractors and the like are notorious for this. My friend’s dad has been laid off and rehired between Solectron and General Dynamics for almost two decades, ouch!). Maybe this one stings a little bit more, and makes us realize we need to find something more stable.

So to all my fellow unemployed/underemployed persons, use this as your opportunity to start going in the direction you want to go. Although the “potential employee” pool is larger than normal, we now have the opportunity to make a move and shine. So take advantage,

As for me, I used this as my sign to go ahead and finish school. I was almost done with my associates when I was laid off (I graduated in July), but instead of taking time off before transferring to a 4-year, I took being laid off as my sign to go ahead and get it done with. I’m now in my first semester at UNCC, majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Physics, with a minor in Mathematics. I still have withdrawal pains from the job world, and it is still weird being the “old fart” around campus. yet it has already been challenging and rewarding, and I can now focus on everything a lot more. By the time we’ve mostly recovered from this recession, I will have positioned myself to be a strong candidate for anywhere I want to go.

So use this opportunity wisely, recessions don’t happen everyday.

Billboard during the Great Depression

12.5 million people are unemployed. 4.4 million of them since January of 2008. Wow. The unemployment level has hit 8.1%, and appears to still be rising. Maybe that stress test 10% worst case scenario may not have been strong enough.

So how can we compare how bad this is? Take into consideration that the author was less than 1 year old the last time unemployment levels were so bad. So when I say first in a lifetime, I mean it.

At least the loses have slowed down slightly. 651,000 people became unemployed in February, compared to 655,000 for January, and a staggering 681,000 in December. December’s job losses hit a 59 year high.

Now we are still no where near the levels of the Great Depression. That era saw unemployment levels of 25%. One-fourth of the country out of work. However, the considerations economists use today are different than in 1930-1940, so to draw a closer comparison, we need to take those changes into account. Most sources I’ve looked at believe that if we used the same method today, the unemployment rate would be about 18%. Staggering.

Regardless of what we want to consider as unemployed, the truth of the matter is the figure is high. If we can’t get a grip and turn things around somehow, our future is bleak for quite sometime. We’re in a prime position right now, on the fulcrum between depression and recovery. Hopefully we land the right way.

For those of you who have lost your job, my heart goes out to you. Being jobless is bad enough without the whole economy shedding off jobs faster than it can make them.

But just remember, those of us gainfully employed aren’t much better off. Sure we have a paycheck, but for how long? With it being common place for companies to hide the truth until it hits you square in the face, you never know when you are going to be blindsided.

Sometimes the writing is on the wall, so you try to read it and figure out how to step around it. That’s the spot I’m in. Our piece of the pie is shrinking while others are getting larger. They don’t give us enough work (even though there is enough to go around), but then complain about us not doing enough and refusing to pay for our work hours. Isn’t that great.

Then my boss’ boss, who divvies up the work in the first place, is incompetent in his position, so that everything else gets backed up further. I’ve known for a while that most of the management in this place hasn’t got the faintest clue of what they are REALLY doing, but with the current times I’m worried it might spell out in me losing my pay.

That’s maybe the worst part about a recession. When a number of well qualified workers who could keep a company on its feet are tossed into the fire because those above are incapable of doing their part. It becomes a vicious cycle, trying to put out the fires by unloading the ships, until the only ones left are the incapable managers, then the ship goes under.

Should we hand them the bucket?

So what does this have to do with looking for work? It’s hell looking for a job, it’s hell keeping one. Having a job is nice, you’re getting paid, but being unemployed has an advantage: you can’t lose your job when you don’t have one. At least there is unemployment benefits that may get even better under Obama. Not saying it’s a reason to celebrate being laid off. Just saying that a number of people out there know that they are probably going to have to find work for they find themselves unemployed. Looking for a job is hard enough. Looking for one while your manager is bitching and trying to keep it secret so they don’t just fire you doesn’t add up very well.

And before I get flamed – which is doubtful since few visit my edge of the world anyways - my wife was laid off November 8, 2008. She finally got a job last Thursday. Went from $48k a year to $12/hour. Less than unemployment. But it’s a job. And it has benefits. But to highlight my point, the girl she is replacing was fired after 2 weeks. A common occurance around there. So just be happy for every inch you get.

And remember, no matter how bad it gets, always be true to one thing: A positive mindset.