The Underemployment and Unemployment Thread

[Geordie]

I understand that a few of us are either unemployed, or under-employed and under-paid in whatever jobs we may do, especially menial jobs, despite our skills.

Feel free to share with us your experiences, as well as your thoughts on being underemployed/unemployed.

 

[Intemporal_Reverie]

Yup. It happens every now and then. Funny thing is I have also been underpaid with many jobs as well. Especially when I did IT related work. In terms of being totally unemployed, been this way for a little bit. But as of now I am working at my own financial recovery process. Things are starting to improve and they will get better over time. I believe in this and it must be done.

Also, someone had to give life to this thread at some point.

 

[umbrellabeach]

I worked as a courtesy clerk at a grocery store for almost two years, until I moved. Now I need a job but don't know what I want to do. I want to be physically active in it but not have to deal with a lot of people, especially the public. Any suggestions?

 

[gailt915]

I'm currently unemployed and have been for some time. I've worked a couple temp jobs here and there over the last 4 years. The jobs, themselves, are usually ok, it's the job environment that makes me nuts. I have severe auditory sensitivities, so usually the place is just too dang noisey: people eating, snapping gum, talking loudly and/or arguing, music playing too loudly. Sometimes it's noises from the room itself or a room near by. I worked as a receptionist at this metals fabricating place (for about 4 weeks...) I was ok working a 4 hour day, but when they asked me to go full time (which I did, for 3 days!!!) I had to quit: I sat 20 feet from the door into the factory and 50 feet from that door was a punch press machine the size of a small house. It made this huge bang noise every 2 seconds....all day long!!!!
It's been hard to find a job that doesn't rile up at least one, let alone all, of my sensory sensitivities. I'm also older.......I think I've used up all my tolerance "resources".....now I can barely leave the house

 

[King_Oni]

Compared to people my age I have little job experience. I held a single job for about 18 months (picking and packing medical products in a warehouse) and had some minor sidejobs, anything from a single day, to a week, to a month.

There's a few things I learned from there. One being, regular jobs don't work for me for a variety of reasons. This eventually set in motion the entire process of my diagnosis, becoming aware of issues and whatever there is, since I don't think I could keep myself sane if this was how my life was going to be. It's bigger than "I don't like this job". A boring job I guess, one can overcome to some extent, but there's a lot more going on. And with bits and pieces I'm getting the acknowledgement that it's a serious matter from the services involved.

Another thing I noticed, and I actually have this on paper from former employment, is that my supervisor found I shouldn't waste my time on a menial job like the one he was in charge of. He thought I was way to bright to end up in a place like this, and in his reasoning, he figured that I will either get unhappy or really bored if there's not a challenge at hand. And he knew all too well he couldn't offer me any challenges in the short and long run. So with that I think it's interesting to note that even if you don't have any degree or anything, there's really thin line you sometimes have to balance on in being a simpleton or being too smart. It's one of those unwritten requirements which is really hard to gauge too start with.

I've also found that there's something to be said, and I don't even know if this is autism related in terms of employment, but there's just certain jobs I found didn't work for me. I just lack that practical insight or the fine motorskills to actually do this job. I remember at that same warehouse job one of the many steps in packing a product was manual labor in putting the correct label on the box (as well as some other stickers)... no matter how much training I had, I did not have those motor skills to sit down and put those stickers on "perfectly" as if it were done by a machine. I was one of the few (if not only one) who just couldn't manage to do this... that's motorskills (and the lackthereof). This in turn makes even jobs with no actual qualifications a lot more troublesome, because it's being seen as if everyone has the same practical insight to get something done. But by now I do now that a diploma (or lackthereof) says totally nothing about a practical skillset (and most importantly; motorskills). But it's an assumption that everyone should be able to do this. Just like it's an assumption that everyone has a same basic understanding of language (and therefore how you use it), a suitable social ettiquette, a certain hygiene standard and then some. Assume nothing! Everyone is as clumsy as they can be and hope for the best... is it a pessimist point of view? Probably... it's also the most realistic one to avoid disappointment.

 

[Butterfly_Lady]

I have been unemployed for 4 years now. I did a side job recently working on someones car and sold a few key chains that I have been making but no regular job. the two jobs I did have I felt under appreciated, especially at the Honda dealership since he busted me down to doing nothing but oil changes (If I wanted to do that I would have stayed at the "quick lube" place I was at before).

 

[robertwnielsen]

I can relate, Butterfly_Lady...it's been between 6 and 7 years unemployed for me...I'm trying to write a book (two books, actually...one a military thriller, and the other focusing on my experience with PDD-NOS and autism), but neither one is going anywhere...although, I did find a website with a list of publishers that are accepting submissions, so as soon as I get enough of one book or the other to the point where I feel like it's actually good enough to submit, I'll hopefully do it. (Provided I can work up the courage.)

 

[Nolan1971]

I have been unemployed since July 2012 the longest I have ever been without a job. I have lots of work experience 27yrs worth.
I have been lucky enough to always find a new job when one did not work out mostly due to discrimination and the few good ones either retired
or went out of buisness I enjoy working but from experience I feel the discrimination against people with any disability is getting worse:banghead:

 

[King_Oni]

I feel the discrimination against people with any disability is getting worse:banghead:

I don't know if it's worse.. but at least we can agree that it ain't getting better in any way.

 

[Nolan1971]

Well I guess I feel that way because the few jobs that I loved and treated me well where all small mom & pop type companies which are fast becoming
a thing of the past including my positive times working in union companies which are also going the way of the dinosaur.:unhappy:

 

[Dragon's Tooth]

Well I guess I feel that way because the few jobs that I loved and treated me well where all small mom & pop type companies which are fast becoming
a thing of the past including my positive times working in union companies which are also going the way of the dinosaur.:unhappy:

yeah I know what you mean about the small companies. The best job I had ever was when I worked with a manager who had been a manager at a previous job. So I had worked for him once in another company, he moved on and I needed another job so I asked him and I got another job with him at another company. He was very supportive of people who weren't very equipped for working. One of the other guys I worked with was a diagnosed ADHD but I'm sure he was a bit further along the spectrum. He made a lot of mistakes but this manager was pretty patient with him.

One company I worked in their idea of a review was to get everyone else to write down stuff about you and then they would go over that in an interview. Because it was anonymous, some of the things other people wrote about me at least were extremely nasty. I probably should have sued them over it because it was a horrible experience and they basically said "well you just have to deal with it and improve one stuff". some of the comments were just nasty and not constructive at all. I could have dealt with constructive criticism ... just not an excuse for everyone you work with to be horrible to you. Needless to say this was a fairly large company and their justification was "we need to show the share holders something". The worst part was I knew who wrote what (honestly it wasn't that hard to tell) and I had only written good stuff about others. I figured if I had nothing good to say why write anything. which I was also told off for. Needless to say after this experience I went home and had a massive depressive episode and cried for about three hours.

I'm unemployed and wondering what to do with myself. Well I know what I want to do. But it all costs money. and money is something me and my husband don't have much spare of atm. All I really know is that I have way too many negative experiences working for someone else (I'm unemployed now because of a horrible experience with another boss) and it would be very upsetting to try again. Right now I have a lot of anxiety over working because of the horrible experiences I've been through. All thanks to my aspieness which I didn't know about until about a year ago now.

I sometimes wonder if things would have been different if I had been something other than an aspie at least in employment terms.

 

[anne.bc]

My only job that I have ever had is with my dad's old company, which was a property management business. I have been looking for employment for 4 years, because the "jobs" I get don't happen anymore... it was pretty much a "here's something to do. I'll give you money to do it.", so it was practically commission since these "jobs" were so sporadic. I don't even know the status of the company anymore, but I do know that dad isn't working ever again. I am looking for just about anything so I can move out and be married already. I've been engaged for 3 years, and it will be 4 in late September. All he's got is a min-wage job that guarantees him employment until September. It's a water park job. A job is a job, but that would barely pay bills. I could possibly take two jobs since my schedule is much more flexible than his.

I hope this is the year I finally beat unemployment. I should have gotten my driver's license sooner before the economy took a nose dive, so I could have had a job in high school. I am totally regretting that now, at the age of 25 as I am still stuck here living with my parents. At least I get interviews?

 

[Truck]

Let me start by saying I'm not an educated man. I didn't finish high school. This limits my employment options.

I owned my own business for ten years and I loved it. When my profits started falling I didn't know what to do. So, I just kept working and hoped things would get better. They didn't and I had to close up. By then I was completely out of money and homeless. So, I became a truck driver. Now I work and live in a truck owned by the company I work for. I travel all over the USA. I go home for about 4 days a month, then back on the road.

Truck driving is about the only blue collar job left in this country. THe pay is alright after you've been in it a couple of years and I have awesome health insurance. The down side is it's very lonely. But, modern technology has helped. I can access the web through my smart phone hot spot and keep in touch with friends and family. I can also post in forums like this one and pretend I have a social life.

 

[Dragon's Tooth]

Let me start by saying I'm not an educated man. I didn't finish high school. This limits my employment options.

I owned my own business for ten years and I loved it. When my profits started falling I didn't know what to do. So, I just kept working and hoped things would get better. They didn't and I had to close up. By then I was completely out of money and homeless. So, I became a truck driver. Now I work and live in a truck owned by the company I work for. I travel all over the USA. I go home for about 4 days a month, then back on the road.

Truck driving is about the only blue collar job left in this country. THe pay is alright after you've been in it a couple of years and I have awesome health insurance. The down side is it's very lonely. But, modern technology has helped. I can access the web through my smart phone hot spot and keep in touch with friends and family. I can also post in forums like this one and pretend I have a social life.

my husband barely finished high school i.e. he scraped through to pass. First one in his family to finish. He now works in a mine and earns $140,000 a year. I got a bachelors degree in IT and I can't get a job. I'm too over qualified for fast food and its not exactly the right bit of paper for admin work. Plus I swear the people in my town would still use a slate and chisel if they could.

 

[Perkinsj88]

I decided when I was 16 or so after having quit school (I never made it to high school) and getting my GED. I wanted to be a mechanic, the cars were big puzzles, I was good at finding the piece that didn't "fit"..the broken part in other words. I pursued this for a long time with only a slight discourse of office work. Sudden loud noise send me into a frenzy sometimes. The noise from an auto repair shop became almost white noise eventually, it stopped bothering me. I did very well in this field except for the people or "shop politics". Commission based pay and certain people in charge of who get's what work required me to participate in the politics or in other words "make everyone happy". My most recent job was my longest, I had a dear friend who suffered from severe ADHD, we worked fairly well together (when he was medicated lol). I liked most of my co-workers at first. I started out going above and beyond, this made me "the golden boy" for a stint. I even went as far as to alter our mechanics work schedule in a way that allowed everyone to have 2 days in a row off before I expressed my complaint of not having a real weekend (2 days in a row). The boss man praised me for this and I got my 2 days in a row off but my schedule was rejected. New guy get's hired and yells at me for something stupid..tries to lecture me. I essentially tell him to F*** off. He tells boss, I explain to boss, all is well. This guy get's fired eventually...he nearly caused the death of a customer and her children. We are short on mechanics who can perform complicated repairs, I step up and do well. I went from changing belts and hoses to engine's and transmission's. I demonstrated my ability to problem solve. Boss gives me bonuses and perks, no permanent raise in my base pay even after I asked. He has me remove and install an engine in his personal car. He intended to sell it for profit and offered compensation at the sale. After I finished it...he decided to not sell it..he gave it to his cousin or something. (I was only paid 12.00 an hour for my base wage, engine swaps and such are well above this pay rate, should earn 18 an hour or more for doing this). This already had me grinding my teeth, then he hires a new guy. Supposedly he's a master mechanic. End's up I'm just tossed to the side so he can have enough work, he quit in about 6 months. So..I have this job one day..brake repair on a elderly lady's suv who always came outside to chat and watch while I worked (frequent customer). I find the brake parts I was given by service manager are sub par, I informed the manager and offered to demonstrate this as I could measure them and he could read the numbers. (The rotors were too thin). He "checked" it out by making a phone call and then told me to just use them. Well, I had already told the customer I was waiting for an answer for this problem so she wouldn't think I was just being lazy and not working on her car. She saw me working again and asked if I had the right parts now...I couldn't lie to her..it was wrong to..even if someone else says they are right parts. She flamed the dude that made me use the sub par rotors and I got in trouble for it. I told the boss all of it yet it never went any further. I was essentially demoted and the manager remained as a manager. I found myself not caring anymore and was fired for "being zoned out". In the end my need for excellence got me fired I suppose, even though it placed me in high regard at the start.

 

[Peter A.]

I did find a website with a list of publishers that are accepting submissions...(Provided I can work up the courage.)

Really? Where? I've been unemployed now since October of last year, when I told the manager I worked for that the company would not be in such a mess if the people who ran the joint actually knew what they were doing and weren't so incompetent. I'm just like that, I simply will not tolerate idiots, and I don't care who they are.

Anyway, I've been thinking of doing something radically different (i.e. not working for a boss - I've given up on that idea as the lost cause it is), and being a writer, or even just an editor or reviewer of other people's work, would be perfect.

 

[robertwnielsen]

Peter,

Here ya go:

Book Publishers Accepting Submissions by Category | MY PERFECT PITCH

Like I said, if I can find the courage, maybe I'll write enough of the book I'm working on (an alternate-history fiction novel set during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962) to actually start submitting.

 

[robertwnielsen]

Really? Where? I've been unemployed now since October of last year, when I told the manager I worked for that the company would not be in such a mess if the people who ran the joint actually knew what they were doing and weren't so incompetent. I'm just like that, I simply will not tolerate idiots, and I don't care who they are.

Anyway, I've been thinking of doing something radically different (i.e. not working for a boss - I've given up on that idea as the lost cause it is), and being a writer, or even just an editor or reviewer of other people's work, would be perfect.

I can so relate to giving up on the idea of working for a boss as a lost cause...because I'm pretty much in the same boat...I just had yet another argument with my mother about that...she insists that if I go looking hard enough, and beg hard enough, that somebody'll take a chance and hire me, even with the piss-poor track record (fired from every job I've ever held, mostly for performance reasons of one form or another)...too bad that with employers in the U.S. basically having the proverbial "pick of the litter" in regards to job applicants (they can pick and choose, since there are so many out of work), I can pretty much guarantee that employers are going to pick people with the better track records, no matter how much begging I do.


But, as far as writing is concerned, I feel kinda like George McFly in the first Back To the Future movie: I just don't think I could take that kind of rejection!!

 

[King_Oni]

I've been unemployed now since October of last year, when I told the manager I worked for that the company would not be in such a mess if the people who ran the joint actually knew what they were doing and weren't so incompetent. I'm just like that, I simply will not tolerate idiots, and I don't care who they are.

That sounds so familiar; I managed to keep tolerating it until they actually had to let me go cause of laws and regulations (was hired through a temp agency, after 18 months they have to hire you directly or fire you).. happy I was let go though... was really pushing my envelope to sit the full "term" there.

Eventually I realized what was going on with the company. Mismanagement was actually a carefully set-up thing. It was a way for management to legally have extra hours and extra pay... the worst of it all was, pretty much all my coworkers found overtime in weekends (worked from monday through friday) a treat, since they got extra pay and most of them flat out told me "I don't have anything else to do in my spare time anyway".

That makes the entire clusterf*ck of social dynamics within a workplace even more weird... I clearly did not share their ideals, goals and motivation...

I can so relate to giving up on the idea of working for a boss as a lost cause...because I'm pretty much in the same boat...I just had yet another argument with my mother about that...she insists that if I go looking hard enough, and beg hard enough, that somebody'll take a chance and hire me, even with the piss-poor track record (fired from every job I've ever held, mostly for performance reasons of one form or another)...too bad that with employers in the U.S. basically having the proverbial "pick of the litter" in regards to job applicants (they can pick and choose, since there are so many out of work), I can pretty much guarantee that employers are going to pick people with the better track records, no matter how much begging I do.

That is so true... your employment history in fact is really important. The worst thing about it is, there's a lot of things that can tarnish your track record.

Being fired for underperformance is one, irregardless of the reason why you underperformed. But being unemployed for the long run is an equally bad thing for your track record.

Also the entire situation with a lot of unemployed people and having to pick the litter is so true, and having a flawed track record pretty much makes employers not taking any chances.

Even in your case, there are some things that technically could help you in terms of employment, but that's the kind of options, governments are most likely are cutting back on to start with. Quite sure it'll take years for that to sink in and for them to realize... perhaps we should've spent more resources on support to get the long term unemployed employed again.

 

[Peter A.]

Peter,

Here ya go:

Book Publishers Accepting Submissions by Category | MY PERFECT PITCH

Like I said, if I can find the courage, maybe I'll write enough of the book I'm working on (an alternate-history fiction novel set during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962) to actually start submitting.

Don't worry, or even think about having the courage to do this, just start typing away. Your first attempt will almost certainly not be the best, but that doesn't matter because you can experiment with the idea. Alternative history is one of the many interests of mine that I have, and one of the best (if not THE best) writer in this regard is Harry Turtledove. I started reading one of his alternative history sets, the one that begins with the novel 'How Few Remain' (in this reality, the Confederacy did not lose the U.S. Civil War).

I'll investigate the link you have provided here, but I really do need to push myself more to actually get going with this idea. The good news is that people tend to be really impressed with my writing style and the ideas I come up with. That sounds immodest, but I've already had three professional writers at the LinkedIn website ask me without any encouragement on my part to check their work for them, and I only just joined about two months ago.