Hey, did you hear about "Joe"?
So I’m up early this fine Sunday morning because I couldn’t go back to sleep after the cats’ 6am feeding (the headache I had didn’t help) and I decide to do some blog updating. I also checked in on some of the blogs that I regularly read since I haven’t done so in a long time due to current circumstances. One of the blogs I just came from was Jobless and Less and I read an entry there that raised my blood pressure and got bile shooting through my fingers onto my keyboard. No, it wasn’t a post that Norm, the proprietor of Jobless for Less, wrote, it was a response to one of his posts and then that person’s counter-response.
The response was to a post entitled The recession is over, but high unemployment remains. In that post, Norm describes what he believes the job market is going to be like in the coming months, and I have to agree with him.
I’m not even convinced that the job market will be back in any significant way. Worker productivity rose by 6.6% in the second quarter of 2009, the biggest jump since the summer of 2003. Wages remained stagnant, as they have for years. People are doing more work for the same money, and companies are reaping the benefits. Corporate profits are expected to surge; bullish estimates see 12% growth in both 2010 and 2011. That jump in productivity can be viewed as a loss of jobs. Why hire or re-hire someone to perform a task that’s already getting done? Just turn up the heat on the minions. Future innovation may lead to new types of jobs, though no one can say exactly what those jobs will be and to what extent they’ll offset recession job losses.
I agree with him and I will take it one step further…I believe that the “jobless recovery” that we are about to see will not be a recovery of any kind. In fact I see it as being more of the same thing that we are seeing today with certain industries doing most of the hiring (Health Care, Education and Transportation) eliminating a majority of the workforce that is either inexperienced or untrained to work in those industries. Meanwhile the industries that are considered to be “entry level” jobs (Retail, Food Service and Construction) will continue to experience a reversal of fortunes since no one will be spending any money because they are too worried about losing the jobs that they have. In other words we are going to continue to see what is happening now, but we will be seeing it for a long time to come.
Unfortunately, “Joe” doesn’t happen to agree with Norm’s take on the situation. In fact “Joe” took issue with not only Norm’s post, but also his entire blog. Here’s what “Joe” had to say in response:
your blog disgusts me plain and simple. Settling for less than you deserve? This is a smaller step. I’m now applying for positions beneath my pay grade and skill level, even entry-level if the company is in a strong growth field? Who do you think you are. I have an MBA myself from Sloan, yes MIT Sloan, and it’s laughable to think we are entitled to 200K annually because of a piece of paper. I used to make $400K/yr in NYC at a boutique investment firm, but was laid off a year ago.I was unemployed but settled for $80K annually in Dallas,Tx with an oil and gas firm with room to grow. Your blog is hilarious I think bc it shows your true colors. You’re a snot of an MBA like everyone else, and no you are not entitled to anything…..yes, no job is beneath you Norm.
I think that “Joe” was having a bad day when he responded to that post – at least I thought so until he responded to Norm’s response. Norm responded with a post entitled Unemployed blogger called out for his sins that I thought pegged not only “Joe” to the wall, but also expressed what I think a lot of us are going through in this job market:
As Joe delicately points out, I’m not entitled to anything. I agree. I’m not, aside from certain inalienable rights that I came up with in another previous life. Today’s world reminds me over and over, all day, everyday that nothing comes easy, lest I forget. It’s up to me to make it happen. This is part of what makes unemployment so hard to take. I feel like a skilled and capable worker who can offer value. I’m qualified for the positions I seek. My experience, education and skill set support that, but my continued unemployment refutes it. So “I’m now applying for positions beneath my pay grade and skill level, even entry-level if the company is in a strong growth field.” There’s no shame in this, though I am over-qualified.
I, like others of you out there, wished that HR Managers felt that there was no shame in applying for something that we are over-qualified for as well. Unfortunately they do not. Apparently, “Joe” seems to share that same sentiment amongst many others:
You’re spinning things the wrong way. I never said you were worthless, but you said an awful lot like alot of my old MBA colleagues who won’t settle for anything under 6 figures because that’s what they’re used to earning. I know the feeling of being laid off, you don’t think I want to keep making high 6 figures? Of course I’d love to, but it’s not available right now so I took a job in Texas where the taxes and standard of living are much lower. The money I make here goes quite far actually, I’ve been here 5 months with no complaints. The thing I get mad about reading your blog is the fact you seem to have some entitlement that you won’t take jobs that don’t seem to interest you. Well I hate to break it to you but there’s approximately 6.5 applicants for every job available today, so you can’t be too picky. I think you’re a smart guy and definitely not worthless, I just think you have an ego issue which nearly all my MBA friends have too. I’m not going to act like I’m some blue collar kinda guy, but I could have easily sat in Manhattan, unemployed, and doing the whole Peter Luger steaks with money I don’t have thing like alot of other I-bankers I know. Instead I sucked up my pride and moved to a city where I know nobody, for a job that is well beneath my skill level. I just hope to use this as a stepping stone into whatever venture I go into next! Good luck to you Norm and God Bless
Now to me, “Joe” sounds a lot like those know-it-alls out there who are critical of us who are unemployed or underutilized as if we were “lazy, good-for-nothing deadbeats” who simply want to “sit around collecting unemployment all day” and wants “the government to take care” of us. “Joe’s” response got me going and I just had to put my own two cents in. In doing so, I decided that the best way to go about this was to give “Joe” a taste of his own medicine.
Now Norm, if you are reading this I haveto say that if you choose not to approve my comment I will understand completely. Seriously, I get it. My post may be a little over the top for the situation and it may only serve to add fuel to the fire. If you want to avoid a “flame war”, I completely understand, I have no problem with that. That’s why I am about to re-post my response to “Joe” over here at my site. I feel that “Joe” is wrong in his assessment of you, your blog, and by extension – your readers and fellow bloggers and that an attack on one is an attack on all. It’s kind of like if you are a Yankee fan, you can criticize the team for it’s mis-steps all you want – but God help any Red Sox fan who might do the same thing. Smacking your own is fine and dandy – but if somebody else does it, it’s not so fine. Yes we are open to criticisms and critiques, but there are some lines that should not be crossed.
Having said that, here was my response to “Joe”:
Joe,
I have to tell you that you sound like a lot of people out there who criticize those of us who are still out of work, yet treat jobs as if they were handouts to bums on the street. It is easy for someone who has a job to criticize someone who is still trying to get a job, and it also smacks of hypocracy. Norm is not one of your old MBA buddies and it is wrong of you to compare him to them.
I hate to break it to you Joe, but it is not about being picky. It is about going after the job(s) that you know you have the qualifications for to increase your chances of landing said job. To just apply for anything and everything is not only demoralizing but also, in some cases, a complete waste of time and energy that can be better utilized elsewhere. There are times when a laser-like focus can work to your advantage, and this job market is one of them. It makes no sense for an MBA to apply for work operating a forklift when they have neither the training or experiance. The employer will consider that applicant to be wasting their time – trust me, I know whereof I speak!!!
Psychologists define “Projection” as “accusing someone of exhibiting behavior that you yourself engage in.” I would say Joe that you are projecting your own ego onto Norm and are trying to make him responsible for your feelings. Don’t pretend that you are better than Norm or anyone else out here just because you “sucked up your pride” for a job that is “well beneath your skill level.” Hey, congratulations, you are one of the lucky ones – at least you have a job!!! Now that you have said job you might want to consider pulling your head out of your ass!!!
By the way, Norm wasn’t spinning things the wrong way – he was spinning them his way. Just because it is wrong for you doesn’t mean that it is wrong for everybody else. I think that your original post shows your true colors, and I know that this will probably fall of deaf ears, but here’s some advice…
GROW UP!!!!!!
As bloggers we all have our critics who would like nothing better than to poke holes in our posts, our logic, and basically tell us to shut up, go away and stop wasting their time with our incessant whining. I myself have had critics tell me that I was whining, that I have “talked myself out of jobs”, and for the most part they all seem to have one thing in common…THEY ALREADY HAVE JOBS THEMSELVES!!!!! Like I said to “Joe”, it is easy for someone who has a job to criticize someone who is still trying to get a joband we see and hear about it all the time!!! That is why some of us post these blogs – because we are looking for people who are in the same boat as we are that we can commiserate with without being chastised for feeling a certain way or expressing an opinion. Opinions are like belly buttons – everybody has one, it’s just that some of them have more lint in them than others. (Yes I know, ick – but you get the idea.)
What we all have in common, whether we are bloggers, posters or readers is this: most of us are still out here trying to get someone to see that we are worth something, and that we still have a contribution to make to this economy and to this society. We are trying to find that one person or that one company who will see that we have worth, that we can make a contribution, and that we are capable of performing a task that they need done and are willing to pay us some kind of compensation for it, so that we may keep our families fed, warm and safe from predators. That is not something that deserves derision, scorn, ridicule, nor is it to be considered a “handout”.
That Ladies and Gentlemen is called a “Job”. It has been an honorable thing to possess for millennia, and it still means something even in this topsy-turvy economy.
I guess people like “Joe” consider themselves to be more “honorable” than others because clearly “Brutus is an honorable man.”
