And we need gossi… I mean updates.
I know some people who have worked in fast food. Usually the shift leaders and managers at fast food joints get free food. It is true that the entry level people don’t get free food usually - at most maybe a discount (but I wouldn’t count on even that)
They do sometimes have older workers there, but in this economy, I wouldn’t assume that even fast food jobs are easy to get. It is definitely possible to put in a lot of apps and not get much of a response unfortunately.
I work with many Ph.D’s.
The luster of soemone having a PhD has worn off on me many years ago. Met too many idjits.
That’s right - we need lots of juicy updates.
Nothing new to report. She’s still doing Mechanical Turk and some other similar low paying on-line tasks and hoping her last interview pans out.
Is she mentally ill by chance? Seriously.
I like the idea of you becoming her financial guardian. What would happen if she claimed bankruptcy ?
Also, any chance you seek contact with other victims of this scam online, jointly hire a lawyer, and try to get some of it back? Stocks are more then gambling, quite likely some untrue claims have been made that individuals can’t fight, but a joint lawyer can.
We had something similar in the Netherlands a couple years ago. Thousands of people invested in those high-risk contructions where they lent money to invest in stocks. And predictably lost it all when the stocks crashed, only a debt remained. While the victims undoubtely signed all sorts of documents freeing the investors company of responsibility, they did sucessfully sue the company and got some of the money back. The affair is known as the aandelen lease affare, I don’t know the English translation, will look it up if a lawyer would be interested.
So many people have asked me that, that I’m starting to wonder myself. If she were, I don’t think she would be willing to do anything about it. I know she’s worried, anxious, and depressed about her situation and of course, wouldn’t be able to afford to do anything about it like see a doctor or get a prescription. No insurance. No cash.
My opinion is that she’s not trying hard enough to find a job that supports herself. Her opinion is that I don’t appreciate how hard she has been trying and how her unique difficulties prevent her from doing..whatever. It just sounds like excuses to me. I feel like her days of having a high paying job are over and she needs to focus on any job. Sometimes, your circumstances in life change and you can’t go back to the old way. She said she’s ‘researching alternatives’ to regular employment. Interestingly, her ongoing area of interest is ‘sustainable livelihoods’. She has suggested that because I’m an employee, I just don’t understand employment in her field- consultancy and project work. I do understand having to pay bills.
I don’t know why she is so focused on these little Mechanical Turk type jobs when she could support herself with just about any job. She seems to be focused on pennies, when she needs dollars. I’m a little suspicious that she doesn’t like to leave the house/computer, but she said she went to some kind of ‘jury focus group’ and made 50 bucks this week.
I also wonder, if as Crafter_Man suggested, she’s just used to this lifestyle of scraping by and not working.
Because I’m apparently stupid, I offered to get her car fixed this week- tire, alignment, oil change. (This is Houston. You just cannot function well here without a vehicle.) I told her I needed to do it this week while I have the time and the money. I’m trying to both sell and buy a house- money magically disappears when you do that. She has put me off all week. I don’t know why I bother, except I care and feel that she’s falling apart piece by little piece. And if she magically did happen to stumble upon a paying job, doing it on my schedule would spare me the next emergency phone call of need.
Update:
I did fix her car last month (Feb 2012- I took the car to the various shops rather than give her any cash) and give her money to cover her rent. At that time, I pointed out that February was a short month and advised her to get a fast food or secretarial job. I recommended temp agencies. She said she was too old and too over educated (again). She was still doing ‘Mechanical Turk’ and lightly fishing for a “real”, M-F, 8-5 type job. She had one interview in her field a week or two ago that did not go well. I avoided her from late Feb till now figuring rent would be due. She called late Feb to tell me how hard she is trying, may have an interview and is “Mechanical Turking” like a mofo. I’m felt this call was to prep me for a loan in light of my policy of “I’ll help you if I see your are trying to help yourself”.
Today she called asking for $300.00 to cover a bounced check for rent, saying she has money coming from Mechanical Turk ‘soon’. She claims to have earned around $500.00, but that she thinks some won’t pay and that she expects to get around $300.00, but she’s not sure when. I told her I was sorry but I don’t have three hundred bucks to spare.
I really appreciate the advice I’ve gotten here. I’ve been torn between being a crappy sister that can’t come up with 2 or 3 hundred dollars for a sister in need (who now seems to be perpetually in need), and being pissed that she seems unable or unwilling to take care of herself. When she’s upset, she does have a real problem getting organized and setting goals- something anyone with a turbulent life would experience, and I understand and appreciate that. I’ve felt that way myself on occasion. But, I am having a real problem accepting that she cannot find some way to support herself if she really tired.
Also, this thread has helped me keep some dates straight and keep a timeline of how long this has been going on.
Also, she is not stock trading- no money, but still watches the boards.
In the end, come down to it, you need to decide how much you value your own mental health, and that of your family.
Either it’s worth protecting, or it’s not.
For the sake of the people who love you and need you, I pray you will highly value and protect yourself, through all of this. I hope you will do everything possible to insulate yourself, and those you love, from whatever follows in the ensuing downward spiral that seems to await.
I’m sorry you’re stuck with a family member who constantly demands money and ‘guilts’ you into giving it.
Earlier in this thread, you sensibly asked her to look at how much money she’d ‘invested’ in crap stocks and what return she’d got (presumably none.)
Why don’t you sit down (perhaps with other family who also give her money) and work out how much you’ve ‘loaned’ her over the years.
And how much she’s paid you back…
I think her Mechanical Turking is avoidance behavior.
If your sister is having trouble getting her money away from Mechanical Turk - (i.e., she’s attached her mTurk account to her bank account which is overdrawn, and therefore can’t withdraw any of her Turk money without surrendering it immediately to the bank)… you might suggest that she look into the Walmart Money Card. Those are refillable gift certificates that can be used basically as an anonymous checking account.
From what I’ve been told, a goodly number of Mechanical Turk workers are “off the grid” for whatever reason (they’re on disability or Welfare or don’t have the right to legally work in the States) and this is one of the workarounds I have heard of people using, in order to use Mechanical Turk earnings to pay bills.
I’m sorry, Ca3799, that you’re stuck in this situation. You love your sister and want her to do well. You want to do the right thing, and I appreciate that. I’d echo those who ask if she might be mentally ill. I also suspect that, as long as you keep paying bills for her and doing things for her that she really could do for herself if she only tried, you will remain stuck in this situation.
If ever a person had to “be cruel to be kind,” it’s probably you.
I have someone like this in my family.
I assure you that there is absolutely nothing you can say or do that will ever, ever dissuade this woman from the belief that she can shortcut here way to financial security. She will be like this forever. There is no point in talking to her about it; she will not listen, will not believe, will not understand, will not be swayed.
The only smart thing to do is to refuse to be involved.
That seems to be true RickJay. She’s looking for a ‘new paradigm’ or some kind of ‘off the grid’ type of work- life that doesn’t involve actually working for someone. It is not and has not been working, but she cannot accept that. My helping her get by is not helping her at all.
What she needs is the name of some temp agencies.
It’s been awhile since I pottered with the Mechanical Turk. So I checked to see if there were Straight Dope threads on it, and there were. The latest one is here. It sounds about like what I remembered and I’m afraid it doesn’t sound promising.
As far as ‘soon’ goes, MT pays weekly, not ‘soon’. If it’s been more than a week, she knows exactly which entries were accepted and which were denied. She can pull up a tracking page that shows how many HITs from the past week are pending/accepted/denied. And if she actually is submitting $500 worth of HITs a week, she’s putting in significant time and effort. But if she’s entering $500 worth and getting $50 worth accepted, that’s not a very productive use of her time.
Sorry that you’ve been put in this position, Ca3799.
I’m a Mechanical Turk worker myself for the last 3 years, albeit only for pocket money - I’d never try and make a real living from it. My best day ever on Turk was a whopping $112, and I’d bet that most MT workers have never seen anything close to that, especially on any kind of regular basis.
I average about $100 a week, and made just under $5,000 last year at it. Also, working in my favor is that I have several of the most desirable qualifications, such as Product Listings, Intelius, and CrowdSource eCommerce writing, among others, so I can say with certainty that your sister is NOT going to be able to pay her bills on MT - it’s a nice little side-gig. Suitable for pocket money, saving up for Christmas gifts or a vacation fund maybe, but not a living wage.
Anyone who’s dreaming of the big score there is fooling themselves.
Another zombie reanimation and…now with a good news follow up!
My sis found a good job! In her field! One that she goes to M-F and they, in return, send her a check every 2 weeks! Plus health insurance soon! And she’s not on the stock trading boards. No posts at all for the month of June.
She is far behind on all her bills but managed to work out some kind of deal with everyone so she’s not booted from her apartment and still has her car. She had qualified for 3 (6?) months of food assistance and had one month left, so she’s not starving.
I did help her one more time: She told me she had had been hired and was starting in a few days, but had no proper clothes to wear. So, I took her shopping and got her just enough stuff to get by for a while. This was money I didn’t mind spending…but I was a little suspicious that it was too good to be true. But, it wasn’t!
I am so relieved! And so is she!
Good news. And may I say unexpected.