I hurt myself at the gym the other day. The exact moment is still fresh in my head. There I was, back flat against the weight bench, two 400-pound dumbbells poised above my head. Nickelback played through the speakers, angering me to the brink of insanity at the unfairness of life. My muscles twitched; sweat [...]
Category Archives: Feeling Sorry for Yourself
Here come the recruiters, hide your long-term unemployed
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Three recruiters contacted me last Thursday, all within about an hour of each other. The stars must have aligned just so, creating a world where my resume springs to the top of every job board search for “digital marketing professional.” Does this signal the end of the famine, or the beginning of the famine? I’ll [...]
Unemployment fan mail, because we’re all in this together
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Unemployment is an emotional roller coaster. One day (one hour even) I’m way up, and the next I’m way down. What triggers the peaks and valleys isn’t always obvious or logical. And even if it is, the level of emotion is rarely warranted. I used to be fairly even-tempered… strange and goofy, but even-tempered. So [...]
I will never temp again… ok, maybe just this once
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
I will never temp again. I will never temp again. I will never temp again. That’s been my mantra after every temp assignment, dating back 12 years. And that’s what would run through my head during yoga class, were I to take yoga, or even own one of those mats everyone carries around with a [...]
The holiday season job I didn’t want and didn’t get, part 3
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
[Read the holiday season job post, part 1 and part 2 so this post makes sense.]
Around 1:30, a full three hours after my arrival, an interviewer led me out of the horribly misnamed Turnover Room and into the interview room across the hall. Set up were two rows of five narrow tables, each with two [...]
The holiday season job I didn’t want and didn’t get, part 2
Sunday, November 29, 2009
[Read the holiday season job post, part 1 so this post makes sense.]
A security woman sat at the front desk – really more of a maitre d’ stand with a stool nestled in a corner – and glared at me. She seemed to want to rip my head off or fall asleep. I couldn’t tell [...]
The holiday season job I didn’t want and didn’t get, part 1
Saturday, November 28, 2009
What better time to find a job than the holidays? The whole retail industry staffs up to meet the demands of the year’s busiest shopping season. More eager shoppers require more overworked sales people to serve them while wishing they could just go home. It’s a holiday maxim, as accepted as Black Friday and mall [...]
Onward with the unemployment… my one-year anniversary
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Here I am riding another bus, trying do some work and trying not to get motion sickness. Working on the computer while traveling is a much better idea in theory than in practice. The bus ride gives me a solid block of time to concentrate and tick things off my list, or dive into a [...]
Entering a contest for a job… sound familiar?
Friday, October 23, 2009
A couple weeks back I clicked over to The Washington Post to read about the Redskins. This is my daily torture. The thinking is that news about the team can’t always be bad; this season has taught me that it can. My mouse missed the “Sports” pull-down menu and landed on the link for “America’s [...]
Unemployment gets a man off the subway platform for a change
Friday, October 16, 2009
Life used to be so easy when I had a job. Okay, maybe that’s overstating it a little. Subway travel was easy, or at least buying a fare card was. Life was hard then too, just in a different, more financially enriching way. And subway travel was and is always an adventure, like the flume [...]