faulker009

You may want to sit down for this one, because this one could get a little heavy. From the moment I started writing a blog on my journey through unemployment, I’ve tried to be as honest as humanly possible. (Of course, the blog is anonymous, so I guess I’ve managed to leave out one little detail.) I’ve always tried to express exactly how I’m feeling through this miserable roller coaster ride, whether its a good day or a bad minute. Well, this morning I am throwing a pity party and you are invited. Let me cut to the chase. I’m really starting to believe that I will never get a job again. At least not a job in the industry that I called home for 25 years. I’ve never asked for sympathy and I’m not about to start now, but I’m just expressing the sinking feeling that is on my mind this morning. Whatever took place two weeks ago might as well be two years ago at this point. Yes, that phone could ring at any moment, but I’m pretty worn out from the shoulda, coulda, woulda. I feel like I’v...

Early this afternoon, in the middle of my weekly therapy session, I got the alert that a new email arrived. But this was not your normal email. This was an email from the editor of businessinsider.com that my blog had just been posted on his website. I had been waiting for about two weeks for this email. Needless to say, the tone of the therapy session changed immediately. Normally, I turn my off ringer during the 60-minute soul searching, but for some reason, today I did not. I guess I know the reason now. When I reached out to businessinsider.com, in addition to Oprah & Rosie, the New York Times & the Wall Street Journal (among others), I really didn’t expect any response. After all, no response is what I have been getting plenty of during my long run as a member of the unemployed. But unlike the others, I did get a response from the Henry, the editor. He said that my blog was “interesting and often moving”. Sounds like a compliment to me. He also said he would pu...

During the last 13 months, I have tasted pretty much every emotion on the unemployment menu, from “who cares” to “why me” and every side dish in the middle. But only one time, has this grown man been brought to tears. After one month of unemployment, I was lucky enough to get a little part-time job for a month, so I stopped filing for unemployment. One month later, jobless again, it was time to re-file for the government’s goodies. In my state, you can pretty much do everything online, except re-open a claim. To make that happen, all you have to do is talk to an agent on the phone, they ask a couple of questions and bingo, you are back on the list. At least, it’s supposed to be that easy. As you might expect, the unemployment office is a wee-bit overloaded. In fact, if you are not one of the lucky ones to get through when the phone lines open up at 7:30am, they don’t even give you the option of waiting on hold. But they do give you a couple of very fancy recorded words of inspiratio...

With those two little words -- “Checking In” -- on the subject line of an email that arrived at 7:18am, the tone for day was set. When I was working, there would be days where it felt like I couldn’t go a minute without getting a new work email. Now, I go full days without getting anything. I’m even off the list of people to get their package enlarged -- if you know what I mean. I used to look forward to seeing my voice mail light unlit, now I can’t wait for the phone to ring, even if it’s a telemarketer. It’s hard to believe that people were only talking to me because of where I was and not who I was, but with each passing day, it’s becoming more clear. Perhaps the most disappointing and discouraging part of this unemployment process is the lack of response from people I considered friends. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting and am not expecting ANY kind of free meal and I certainly never expected somebody to hand me a job “just because we were friends”, but I didn’t expe...

January 1, 2010 Today is the first day of the new year, the first day of the new decade and hopefully the first day of a new life. I enter 2010, like one of many million Americans, whose office door was slammed in my face, through no fault of my own, leaving me unemployed and unhappy. There are a lot of ways to fight back, but in the best interest of sanity (and staying off the top 10 most wanted list), I am taking a different approach -- writing a daily blog. This desire to express myself has been burning inside of me like a forest fire from the moment I was told, over the phone, 13 months ago, that my services were no longer needed. For me, it took a $1 movie rental to help me find my way. I’m not sure that “Julie & Julia” will ever make its way into my DVD player again, but to see how one person’s choice of expression inspired her was enough for me. Unfortunately for you, and me, there will be no Beef Bourguignon on this blog, but the recipe here is to connect with you,...