(D)Unemployment - Part 1
I have never before applied for unemployment. I have never before been laid off. Unfortunately, after nearly nine years in the same job, I found myself having one done to me and me deciding to do the other. And yet, even though I’m a first-timer in the system, I today found myself caught up in what I will refer to as The Sweep.
A few weeks ago, when my long-time employment ended, I applied for unemployment insurance, as is my right. After all, my taxes, your taxes, our employers’ taxes have been funneling into the system for decades, presumably sitting there should any of us need some money to bridge the gap between employment situations. Two weeks after filing that claim, I received a letter from Work Force New York, a division of the NY State Department of Labor, telling me I was required to come to a meeting that they scheduled at their convenience without even consulting me to ascertain if I would be available. In fact, not even a conflicting job interview would be taken as an excuse for missing the meeting (though if I showed up in person - no phone calls allowed - and proved I would be unavailable, I could reschedule the meeting). The penalty for missing the meeting? Loss of unemployment insurance benefits.
Not wanting to anger the unemployment gods, who know just how to kick a person when they’re down, I went to the meeting. And you know what? I sat in a room with 12 other people and was told that we had been chosen sort of at random, but according to some cryptic criteria that included the fact that we had been employed for a long time and/or were first time applicants, and that this meeting was basically the Department of Labor’s way of doing random sweeps in the hopes of catching frauds or scaring you out of using the system.
Oh, there was some marketing-like double-speak about job search workshops (which oddly sounded like their way of forcing you to come again so they could check up on you or get you out of the system), but for the most part, the implication was clear.
And what was that implication? That the Department of Labor, and specifically in this case the unemployment insurance services, need to do these sweeps - I mean workshops - to justify their own jobs, which are funded by funneling off the tax dollars you pay into the unemployment insurance system in the event that you need those funds.
Remind me again - what are we paying into the unemployment insurance fund for? I thought we paid in so that we could get that so-very-far-below-livable-wage unemployment check while we are looking for a new job.
And yet, for all its inanity, there were a few good things to come out of this mandatory meeting:
I get to keep my unemployment benefits for another week (unless the Department of Labor reads this blog) and there were enough characters in the room to be worthy of doing a Part 2 to this article tomorrow.
So come back then…
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TheWriteJerry @ August 21, 2007
Wow. Interesting. As if you hadn’t gone through enough recently . . .
Jeff, that was my first thought exactly. Here I was, just back from my father’s funeral, and I receive a threatening letter from the government concerning a situation beyond my control (getting laid off from my job), just because I had applied to get some relief via the tax money we’re all forced to pay into the system that was now threatening me!