Give me a break, Denver Post. These people are NOT news!

The BBQ Pit
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Starting yesterday, the Denver Post has been reporting on the “Dot Com Layoffs” and how difficult they are for the people involved. This is the first of the series.

Give me a fuckin’ break! These people are NOT in serious need of help. The link above talks about one woman, laid off from Rhythms NetConnections. IIRC, she’s been looking for a job since January. OK, that sounds bad. I keep reading. Turns out that since January, she’s had not one, not two, but THREE job offers, all of which she turned down because “they weren’t the right fit.” WTF?!? This isn’t NEWS. She’s not starving to death, or losing her house, or unable to get needed medical attention! She’s turning down jobs because they just didn’t “feel” right to her!

I read the second article this morning. It’s about a guy who was laid off from (I think) US West. Oh, but wait! Turns out that before he was laid off, he’d accepted a job offer from a “small Boulder software company.” After taking 9 weeks off to chill between jobs, he started working there. He worked there for a couple months, then quit because he didn’t like the “corporate culture.” So now we have a guy who quit a job, and it’s taking a while to find another one. Oh wait! Turns out he estimates he has between 36 and 40 MONTHS to go before he’s out of money. He’s got a pile saved up. But he’s experiencing some hardship - he won’t ride his motorcycles (he has 3) because he no longer has Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance. Oh, the humanity! How can he survive?!?

Another laid-off person in the article is hurting because, after all, she has a kid she has to put through college. Oh no! The kid might have to break down and take out a student loan, or even, God help us, get a part-time job! How do people LIVE in these conditions?

I’m just so sick of hearing about these whiners. Yes, being laid off is difficult. But give me a break - all the people profiled so far have a roof over their heads, they’ve got enough money to feed themselves and any dependents, and they’ve all got health insurance due to COBRA. What about the wage-slaves who spend all day working at Wal*Mart, yet still don’t earn a decent wage? What about the unskilled waitress who is on her feet all day, and lives in a van parked behind the shopping mall? What about the millions of people out there who have no health insurance despite working more than full time? Fuck you, Denver Post. There is no crisis to report here. These are highly skilled professionals whose biggest problem is that they will eventually be forced to take a job where the “fit” isn’t exactly what they want. My heart goes out to them.

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I personally have a hard time finding pity for ANYONE from Rhythms that has not found a new job.

Myself, I found a new one within 8 hours. Work ain’t fun all the time, but it pays the bills.

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Heh. Catherine Hapka find a new gig yet?

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Yeah, cry me a river. Mr. S was downsized in February. Goodbye 2/3 of our income. But he got a “package” that paid him for a while, and when that ran out and unemployment kicked in, he found a factory temp job that paid less than half of his former wage, with sporadic hours – but it was work. It was hot, grueling, boring factory work with shitty hours, but it provided a paycheck. There’s always work. I have no sympathy for people who whine that they can’t find a job. 99% of the time, what they mean is that they can’t find the PERFECT job.

Sidebar: The good news is that Mr. S accepted an offer for a pretty good job last Friday. The bad news is that he’d already committed to 60 hours this week at the sucky temp job (4 am to 4 pm M-F), and being the honorable schmo that he is, he can’t start the new job until next week. But it’s still his!

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No fuckin’ kidding! I have no problem with people who have money saved up taking some time to find a job they really like. But that’s hardly a newsworthy issue, and it’s certainly not something to whine about. “Oh, poor you, you only have 6 months to find a job before your severance pay and savings run out! Boo hoo hoo! And when you do find a job, it’ll probably pay you more than enough to easily pay back any debt you got into! Call the media! This is a STORY!”

The Denver newspapers have been going downhill rapidly. A month or so ago, they had a front page story about some rich chick who was a huge philanthropist. I read it, thinking “Oh, is she someone who pulled herself up from poverty, started a company, worked hard, made out well, and is now giving money away? That’s pretty cool.”

But no. It turned out she had married a rich, old guy who died. What a success story! She inherited bazillions! Not only that, she found room to give some away, in between the bucks she paid for her horse ranch, private jet, wardrobe, etc. etc. What a role model!

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I do know I have to get out of Kmart before I go bugshit. It’s that bad, and I hate it so much.

But Jesus, I’m not going to QUIT until I have another job lined up. I may not like it, but I’m not going to be stupid to quit when I have no other means…

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Update: They had the last of the series today. The woman profiled had been laid off from US West, but once again, she had another job lined up that “wasn’t quite right” so she quit it. IIRC, this was in December. Seeing as her husband makes lots o’ bucks, she didn’t really even start looking for another job until February, and even then just posts her resume to a couple internet job sites. The extent of the hardship she’s had to go through is that they “don’t eat out as often.” She had a great severance package from US West, but they didn’t really need the money, so she rolled it into her 401K.

ARRRGGHHHH!!! Why am I reading about this? Where is the “crisis”?!? This chick’s targeted salary range is $130K to $180K. The name of this series should be “Whiney yuppies out of work” not some “job crisis” thing like they’re billing it.

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The real news should be that I and many other posters here should be getting the jobs that these whiners are declining. I guess never failing a project is not a good selling point anymore. <<sigh>>