Here’s why I live in New York and not Dubai: NYC responds to high numbers of layoffs with an Unemployment Olympics; Dubai responds to the same issue by organizing a physical fitness boot camp. One involves running around a park in the East Village playing games, one involves being awake and active at 10 AM. No-brainer.
Inspiration came to the 26-year-old Alex Light when he lost his job. But the voice in the back of his head did not tell him to create a masterpiece of modern art or a seminal album, but to try to help others in his predicament. He is the man behind Bad Times Boot Camp, which takes place at Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach at 10.00am three times a week. It is free to anyone who wants to get fit, but as the operating hours suggest, it is aimed at the unemployed.
I know exercise is supposed to boost your serotonin and make you happy or whatever, but the way this Alex Light person talks he sounds like an aspiring Tony Robbins who convinces you that your unemployed state is the result of your own physical and mental weaknesses, not the result of, say, your company losing money. I’m glad he found a positive way to improve his outlook, but his message is a bit preachy for me. That said, aspiring assistants in Dubai should not lose hope. Take heart in the story of one young assistant named Brie:
Brie Lakeman, a 26-year-old personal assistant, left her native Australia last month to look for work in Dubai. “It appears that I’m OK,” she says. “There seems to be a plethora of personal assistant jobs out here. There are not as many as there used to be, but quite a few and they are still hiring.” She also plans to pass on contacts to her boot camp alumni after securing work.
You hear that, everyone? Pack your bags and get to the UAE! I’d come, but I have some really important couch-sitting to do later.
The only thing shittier than getting laid off would have to be getting laid off in public. So, of course, now you have a chance to do exactly that.
A new reality show called Someone’s Gotta Go is currently in production. The show (which will air, obviously, on Fox) “enters real businesses across the country and gives employees the power to decide which one of them will be terminated.” Here’s more on the show from Variety:
Each episode will revolve around a different small business — usually one with 15-20 employees — that has been forced to make staff reductions because of the sour economy.
The company’s books will be opened up to the employees, who will learn what everyone makes and what’s in their human resources files. Employees will also get a chance to say, face to face, what they really think of one another.
Ultimately, the employees will vote on who should be terminated. That person will likely receive a small severance, but that’s it.
Talk about a great opportunity for a layoff narrative, huh? And who the hell are they going to get to host this thing?
Have you ever thought “man, I wish I didn’t have a day job so that I could get that crazy neck tattoo/chin piercing/mohawk I always wanted?” Well, once you get laid off, the roadblock suddenly disappears. Matthew Saccoman, 31, works as a schoolteacher and sports a healthy-looking beard. He organizes the annual New York City Beard and Mustache Championship, which this year featured a new category: “recession beard.” The winner of that category was Nate Stahura of Rochester, who spent five months growing his beard after he was laid off from his job in banking.
Sadly, the only category open to women is one where you make your own beard out of any products or fabrics you want. It’s fun and crafty, but not quite the same. Maybe I should organize my own Yoga Pants Championship.
My friend, the photographer Nick McGlynn, took some awesome photos from yesterday’s unemployment Olympics.
Check out his photo gallery here.
If you were recently laid off, one of your biggest concerns is probably figuring out what to do about health insurance. Well, Walgreen’s has just announced a plan to provide some free services to their customers who no longer have health insurance. Their in-store Take Care clinics (check online to see if there’s a clinic in your area, as not every city has one) will offer free clinics for allergies, respiratory problems, skin conditions, and more.
Free services will be offered only from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Walgreens said it will not offer free checkups, vaccinations or other injections because it is focusing on providing services patients might otherwise get at an urgent-care center or even an emergency room.
Patients must present proof they are unemployed, including a federal or state unemployment determination letter and an unemployment check stub. They will have to sign a form at the clinic saying they have lost their jobs and health benefits. If they find a new job or get new health insurance, they will no longer be eligible for free care.
Spouses and children are also eligible for free services if they don’t have insurance of their own.
Points to Walgreen’s for recognizing a need in their community and trying to address it. While the program is currently just an “experiment,” let’s hope that they decide to keep it going for awhile. There’s no clinic in New York yet, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. You can check out the store directory here.
I’ve just cleared my entire schedule for tomorrow (although, when you’re unemployed, you don’t have much of a schedule to speak of beyond “wake up” and “halfheartedly look at online job ads”), because I simply must attend The Unemployment Olympics. Held in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, events for the Olympics include the Fax Machine Toss, the “You’re Fired!” Race, and – my personal favorite – Pin the Blame on the Boss. If you, like me, live in New York and want to participate, you must bring proof of unemployment with you – your state unemployment card, a letter from your former employer, or a stub from an unemployment check will all be accepted.
Seriously, I cannot decide whether to be thrilled this exists or pissed that I didn’t think of it first.
I’ve heard about workers allegedly being fired for being a vegetarian or wearing too much perfume, but a man in Queens, New York may have them all beat – he was allegedly fired because of a tuna sandwich. Ralph Reese, 57, was working in the deli section of the enormous Whole Foods outpost in Union Square. He was fired from his job after he allegedly grabbed an uneaten, still-wrapped tuna sandwich out of the trash at the store. Reese claims that he set the sandwich aside for himself, but that his supervisor threw it away. Whole Foods claims that their store policy is that employees do not get free food – they get a 20 percent store discount, and they’re allowed to try free samples as long as they check with their supervisor and the amount they eat is logged. (Seriously?) Now, the story is hitting the big time as Reese tries to sue his former employer for unemployment benefits.
Elizabeth A. Shollenberger, director of government benefits and consumer law for Queens Legal Services, said that in the last six months her office had seen an uptick of cases like Mr. Reese’s, in which unemployment claims were being challenged. It is a phenomenon happening not only in New York, but also across the country. “A lot more people are getting fired for very minor reasons,” said Ms. Shollenberger, who represented Mr. Reese.
“What we are seeing is that they are firing people for ‘misconduct’ when what they are really doing is downsizing and it’s an attempt to not pay benefits,” she said.
Last year, she said, her office was seeing three or four such cases a week. Now she estimated that they are seeing 15 to 20 cases a week, 80 percent of which she says have merit. (Nationwide, employees win in two-thirds of the cases.)
Jessica Simpson confuses tuna with chicken and becomes a TV star. This guy tries to set aside a tuna sandwich for himself and gets fired? Were they afraid of him getting “mercury poisoning” a la Jeremy Piven?
There are a lot of ways that being laid off is awesome: you have free time to sleep late and watch Judge Judy reruns, for example. But there are a lot of ways that being laid off sucks, and one of them is figuring out how to find a new job and dance around explaining that you left your last job because you were laid off. Here are some tips for networking while you’re unemployed:
- Update your social networking pages – and your blog if you have one – to look professional or at least not embarrassing. Remove the lolcats and the pictures of you shotgunning beers with your friends. You want people who might Google you to find things that make them want to hire you.
- Remember that there is a world of difference between being laid off and being fired. Being laid off is not your fault – it’s a company’s financial decision and almost always has nothing to do with your job performance. Don’t forget that.
- Have a backup plan. When someone asks what you’re doing now, you should be honest and admit that you were laid off. However, you should also be able to say you’re working part time, volunteering somewhere, going back to school, finally writing your novel, or something else. You want to have something else to talk about besides your layoff, and you’ll show that you have lots of other things going on in your life besides working – or lying on the couch watching TV.
- Use your twitter, blog, or other public social networking site to talk about your skills and your job search. Be subtle about it – avoid talking about how much of an expert you are or how much companies are begging to work with you.
Continue reading ‘tips for networking while laid off’
People have started coming up with creative ways to get hired – whether it’s a billboard, taking out ads in the newspaper, or whatever else. Although starting a website isn’t the most original thing in the world, one site is taking a new spin on it. A woman in San Francisco started a website trying to get her husband a job. From the homepage:
This site was born out of frustration with the job market. My husband graduated in 2008 with an MBA from Georgetown. After Mike finished his MBA, we moved back to California to be closer to family. We both had high expectations for his career and our life after business school. However, those expectations quickly changed as we were faced with this horrible economy. After almost ten months of watching my wonderful husband work tirelessly to find a job, I decided to take matters into my own hands and help him stand out in a sea of unemployed.
I can’t decide how I feel about this site. On one hand, I think people should be willing to do something unconventional in order to stand out, but there’s something about this site that kind of weirds me out. While I think it’s sweet that a wife believes so strongly in her husband that she wants him to find a job and is willing to do what she can in order to help him, it just feels strange that the whole thing talks about him in the third person. What does her husband think about the site? Does he find it romantic … or emasculating? Will he be happy at a job that is found for him by his wife or will he resent it because he couldn’t get the job himself? And… is she working? If so, what else is she doing besides creating a website? In a recent CNN article about the site, Robin (the wife) “declined to discuss her job because she wants to focus on her husband’s job search.” Uh huh.
Also, because I’m a grammar nerd and I had to say something, the last sentence of that paragraph makes me crazy. There needs to be another word at the end of that. “Stand out in a sea of unemployed what“?
Being unemployed has many upsides – free money from the government, sleeping late, People’s Court reruns – but it has major downsides as well. When you’re broke and hitting a brick wall with your job search, the last thing you want to do is rehash all the humiliation. However, you are most likely not an island. Your friends love you. So here’s a guide for talking to them about your unemployment:
