And this week, the Tallahassee Democrat was investigating under/unemployment in the area. They ran a blurb -- unseen by me -- asking for anyone who was un- or underemployed to call or email the reporter.
The morning it ran, I had a job interview and I didn't see it. Zippy, however, reads the entire paper every day (thank God some people still do) and when I called her after the interview she told me about the story and said I'd call.
I figured I would, but at the time I was headed to stuff envelopes at FLW after a lunch with Beth. During my lunch, she called me again. Apparently the reporter had called Workforce to ask if they had a suggestion for the story and my name was at the top of the list.
So I ran by WF and emailed the guy, who called me back almost immediately (and as I was preparing to clean a building.) We set a time for him to call me the next day, which was right after this networking meeting.
Oh, the meeting. Let's break here to mention the biggest boob I have met in a long time.
OK, this networking meeting is just a group of unemployed people who bounce ideas off each other. It's the first I've been to, and it involves Krispy Kreme.
It also involved some loudmouthed guy whom I vow not to put up with next time. I think his name was Bob, but to me, he was just Arrogant Ass.
There were a dozen people at the meeting, two of whom worked there. Two of the job seekers were male and the other eight were women. When I came in, I noticed most of the women sitting on one side, across from a man who had at least two empty seats of each side of him.
I later learned there was a reason for that, but I ignorantly sat down beside him so the sides of the table would be more even and we could facilitate discussion without having to crane our necks or raise our voices.
Well, none of that was needed, because AA commanded ALL of the attention.
Ten minutes in (he allowed us to get through the introductions unscathed), he absolutely took over the meeting. The WF woman tried hard to reel him in, but he just raised his voice over anyone who attempted to speak.
He was all about self-promotion, taking (or, more correctly, making) every opportunity to talk about his past achievements, which, to hear him tell it, were bountiful. He was smarter than everyone who'd interviewed him, he made six figures, he began several businesses. Oh, and I think he died for our sins.
I got fed up with it after about five minutes but stuffed myself with three Krispy Kremes in an effort to play nicely. I was refilling my OJ when he was bragging, "I traveled halfway around the world," and I couldn't help but mutter, "So what? I went all the way around."
He insulted interviewers, their businesses and practically everyone in the room. He's brilliant, to hear him tell it, smarter than everyone.
And he of course can't figure out why he doesn't get offered jobs left and right.
Well, I was proud of myself for making it through without bloodshed, but I decided if he was ever at another thing I attended I/he wouldn't be so lucky.
On the little survey we fill out, there's a little line for how to improve the seminar. I filled it out.
After the meeting and after my interview, I heard the WF woman burst out laughing from her office. She came out, holding a paper. She held it up for me and asked if I'd written it:
"Shut that guy up."
Yes, I said, I did. And I told her if he was in attendance for anything I went to, I'd leave. She told me she'd talked to him extensively about his bragging and asked him to stop. She's even called him out, politely, in meetings.
So I changed my mind. I told her if I ever see him in another meeting and he pulls the same "I'm so much better than everyone, I don't understand why I'm not getting job offers" I will, *not* politely, tell him why he's not getting them.
Heck, if I was AA's interviewer and he was just 10 percent as asshole-ish as he acted with us, I'd end the interview. No one wants to work WITH someone who acts like he's better than everyone else. I can't imagine considering hiring him to work FOR me. No. No, no no.
So part of me -- a very large part -- is stoked about showing up to some event with him there and being able to tell the guy to STFU.
Yeah, it's not usually a good thing to burn a bridge, but AA isn't the kind of guy who's going to help anyone but himself, so I figure I'd be doing everyone a favor.
Anyway, back to the Democrat.
I'd sent the reporter a list of work I've done since COSing from PC:
- ghost-written a book for a motivational speaker
- written stories for Michigan Hockey Magazine
- overseen kids baseball and softball games for Parks & Rec
- worked at Camp Indian Springs for $37 a day all summer
- worked as a prep cook at a dude ranch in Wyoming
- returned to Morocco to set up a travel program for high school students
- came back from Morocco and finished that budget, thought I was hired permanently and then wasn't
- helped my aunt with her catering business in South Carolina
- babysat my nephews here and there
- done odd jobs for my old boss in Tallahassee, which has included stuffing envelopes for the business, cleaning out the storage building and doing cleaning work in general
He said I was the most "compelling" person I'd talked to and he'd have to lede with me. Not sure whether to be flattered or a bit freaked out over that.
So here's the lede, from http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20110206/NEWS01/102060323/Rate-of-under-utilized-workers-has-nearly-doubled-statewide (you have to have a subscription to view, so I'm posting just my part.)
(Insert my name here) has taken just about any job she can find since returning to Florida in late 2009 after a two-year stint with the Peace Corps.
She worked as a part-time park supervisor in Tallahassee during baseball season last year, and when that job ended, she worked a couple of months at a YMCA camp that paid $37 a day. She was a prep cook at a dude ranch in Wyoming, earning $8 an hour. More recently, she spent a couple of months working to establish a travel program in Morocco, where she was based during the Peace Corps.
Lately, she's been taking odd jobs with a former employer, working only a few hours a week cleaning an office building and stuffing envelopes. Were she not living with her parents in Havana, she would probably be homeless, she said.
"It's been very frustrating," said Wartenberg, who spent a decade working as an editorial and administrative assistant for the Associated Press in Detroit. "There are times when I'm very optimistic, and there are times when I'm really, really depressed."
She is one of hundreds of thousands of Floridians who are considered under-utilized workers, which includes people in the labor force without jobs, discouraged workers who want a job but have given up active searches and people who are working part time who want full-time employment.
It goes on later to say:Trying to find a full-time job has been an exasperating experience for many Tallahassee residents. (My name again), 41, has gone to job fairs in Tallahassee and Atlanta. She puts in about 10 applications a week for jobs in town and across the country. She went to four interviews over the past two weeks.
"I'm doing everything," she said. "I don't know what else to do."
Wartenberg has a bachelor's degree from Florida State University and a master's degree from the United States Sports Academy in Daphne, Ala. Her resume includes volunteer work for the American Red Cross and a week of service helping HIV-positive street children in New Delhi, India.
So that's the news from today. Literally.
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