Mixed Messages
January 31, 2008
Last post I alluded to feeling cranky and anxious and there IS a specific cause. It’s the unemployment agency. For the second time in my life I filed a claim. It used to be in this valley that you could get a job faster than filing for unemployment so I had never bothered, but that was a long time ago. Now it can take a while to pick up work, and since I’ve paid into the system I’d kind of like that assistance to float me. As it is, I’m going on almost two months without work already. This is not conducive to the bills I have to pay.
Anyway, I called the hotline to ask some questions about filling out the forms (because it had been a few years since I had done this) and got this guy with total attitude! He was very patronizing AND he kept interrupting me! Like every time I opened my mouth he talked right over me. (And rudeness in general really pisses me off.) Then after he interrupted me he’d go off on some assumption that was not what I had said. Example, I had asked if you could reschedule appointments and I mentioned my son was in preschool and he turned that into “Well, it sounds like you have childcare issues so you may not qualify…”
What the fuck?
The whole attitude was that I was trying to screw over the EDD, and I felt just flat-out insulted. I’ve worked since I was a teen. I’ve put in more money into that organization than will ever be used (at least by me). I’ve even given up unemployment benefits to work freelance because it was work. Because that’s what I do. Even when I’m not working, I’m working. You know?
So I had an in-person interview yesterday morning and I was totally prepared to SHOW I was looking for work, and to present my resume, and discuss childcare and my work qualifications, and yadda yadda yadda. Because this guy had pretty much psyched me out to think it was going to be a witch hunt of unemployment disqualification (which pretty much shot my week). I went in there trying to be relaxed but wondering if it was going to be a big fight.
And they were perfectly nice. This was the place where they gave you all the resources to look for work. I was told on my interview that I was doing “everything right”. One of the ladies swooped in and said how professional I looked and then gave me a whole list of leads. I ended up chatting with her and another young man working there for about half an hour after my interview. (Side story: the lady who helped me looked like a sweet grandma-type… turns out she used to do insurance fraud investigations and check-up reports on parolees. How kick ass is that? (She was encouraging me to check out those fields myself, but I have to decline.))
I feel better now. Just getting that leg over and done
with. However, I’m still scheduled for two more phone interviews! Keen figures it’s one of those deals where
you get a whole lot of hassle in the beginning and then they forget about you.
I hate bureaucracy. – the weirdgirl