Economics and Cold Showers

Well, it's official. I am unemployed, sorta. I mean, my employer can't afford the payroll and there aren't enough projects to go around. Seniority, etc. Which means, when new projects are released, if they ever are, I get one. Then, I'm not unemployed anymore. Confusing? It isn't when you file for unemployment benefits. By the time you get through the queue to simply input your social security number, any doubt that you're actually among the dispossessed citizenry has died. Based on my calculations in the small County office I went to, multiplied by several thousand offices like this one all over the country, January unemployment numbers are likely to be shocking. I must admit that the workers did a lot to help make the whole experience palatable. There are a lot of good resources available but my initial take in the job bank computers on available professional positions leaves me, once again in my storied life, wishing that I had stayed in school and followed my chums into law school. Hindsight is always 20/20, eh?

For a man, being unemployed is a little like getting a vasectomy. Not a great analogy, but both do make one feel like less of a man. What we do is who we are. What I find fascinating is the range of emotions one goes through upon discovering that there is no where to go the next morning. For a while, the flurry of activity that is advised for one not ready to retire keeps one busy. In the worst economy since the depression, it will take a lot of faith and positive thinking to prevent dusting off that old hand gun and cruising by the nearest convenience store. (Just kidding, really). If one builds houses or works in an automobile factory, one will need to recreate oneself or one will be watching a lot of Oprah.

There are 13 million un- and underemployed Americans. There are no where near that number of positions open, even if they all matched up perfectly with each applicant. So the answer is: reinvent oneself. Expand the scope of one's search to the entire country. Be willing to be re-trained or return to school if that's even possible. It is, of course, for those few who enjoy that lovely windfall known as "the severance package". The parachutes for most of us leaving the workplace are camouflaged, not golden.

Depressed? Not necessary. There is always opportunity in any sudden change in life. And after all, we still live in the greatest country in the world, at least for now.....