The Great American Temper Tantrum.

Or how to look more of a fool to the rest of the world.

The election is over! One man won, a lot of others (not just Mr. Moneybags) lost. Time for life to get back to normal, or at least head in that direction, right?

Nope. Not right.

Now that the election is over and approximately (an ironic) 47% of people were on the losing side, it's time to show the world that we are populated by whiny ass crybabies who, when they lose, throw down their tools and holler "I Quit" while the world laughs.

This is, of course, the members of the moneybags teams doing this. The first rumbles of the secession story came from Texas and Louisiana. Now, what does Texas and Louisiana have that's so special?
Oh yeah! That's where the OIL is! And the oilmen! I suppose I should say oil barons, or perhaps oil profiteers, because MEN do not quit when they have a setback. They stand up, shake the dust off the seat of their pants and their hands, and get right back to work. (oh but these people don't get their hands dirty, and they can't reach the seat of their pants because their big fat wallets are in the way!)

And work there is for all of us. The NorthEast is still lights-out in many places -- they could use a whole lot more of that oil that Louisiana and Texas are wanting to hold hostage until they get their way. There are homes and no homes, food spoiling, damaged factories, stores, streets. There's work for each and every person who can get there to do it. There are many who would be doing it if they could get there. There is even work for leaders in the field, because the Corporate Chairs are fighting like preschool siblings over who is in charge of what, while friends and neighbors are opening their houses and cupboards to their neighbors. Some of them are even feeding people with no ID, no proof of address. "When I was hungry, You gave me food."
Not a ticket to go somewhere else and get it from someone else because that's just not your job.

It surprises me how many people are jumping onto this secession bandwagon. Yeah, we'd all like to be our own country, especially when we don't like public policies. Yeah, when we have to pay the piper in April, we wish we were our own realm.

Most of us outgrow this by the time we reach double digits. It's hard work making rules and enforcing them and trying to make other people abide by OUR rules because it's our country. If they don't like it, they can go make one of their own.

I have to wonder if these people have thought this through. Who will repair and maintain their roads? Their schools? I suppose with agreements like the once-famous NAFTA  they won't have to worry about tarrifs on foodstuffs, or factory-built parts. But who will pay the governing bodies? How?

There will still be taxes; there will still be public policies that displease individuals. There may be even fewer jobs if interstate commerce becomes international..

In the meantime, the public face of America is showing itself to be the "Ugly American" in truth.
The real Americans are in New Jersey, working.

Need Help? Hire Someone!

There's a lot of stuff on internet bulletin boards and in business magazines about how there really are jobs out there. There are scads of ads for schools to get you educated (and more in debt than ever) for jobs.

There are jobs out there, they insist. Companies are begging for workers.

Until you are ready to apply.

Then you are given the list of qualifications and conditions of employment. These terms usually involve higher education.

Companies are whining and crying -- and sometimes losing profits and shareholders -- because they can't fill the jobs.
Can't.
Applicants don't meet their standards.

If you ask me, it's their own faults. They have set their standards too high. If a job needs done, it needs done.   Pieces of paper accumulated don't make anyone more employable, yet companies are insisting that they "need" employees with more degrees, more education.

More education, at least to me, has made people less employable. They no longer know  (if they ever did) how to work as a team member. They can't follow orders. They won't follow a chain of command. They don't know how to ask subordinates for help; to get the job done; to be on their team.

Most of them don't know how to fill out a job application or write a personal resume -- they hire someone else, or order a before-mentioned subordinate to do it for them. And, by God, that person had better get it right!

Listen, people.
If you need help, you need help. Paper isn't going to help you -- people are.

If you want the work done, you need working people, not someone who has studied how "Star Trek Changed the World," and "Ghosts in the Bible." It doesn't matter how brilliant the essays or how deep the understanding of these topics. Unless you're exploring the final frontier or Ghost-busting haunted lands in the Middle East, those are not the skills that will move your product.

If there is special training needed, provide it yourself. That way your workers won't be distracted by how Jack and Joe do it, or what the professor told them was right or wrong. If you need specialised training: provide it.

Schools provide students.
Employers provide employees.

You need working people to do the work.

Forget the educated idiots. If that's your criteria, your product isn't a necessity. It's a luxury, and that is reason enough why your business is going down in troubled times.

If you desperately need workers -- hire some. We're out here.

What is a Cashier?

I've been trying to find work, like most of America. There are jobs out there, but the hoops we must jump through get stranger and stranger. More and more places are accepting online applications only , or online primarily. Translation: your paper in-store application and your written resume are dropped into the trash can as soon as you are out of sight.

It would be nice if there was some standard form or procedures for online applications. Or a way to copy your filled out application to multiple store locations, for places like McDonald's. For now, you have to fill out the same forms over and over again for jobs under the same corporate umbrella. Please, why can't we just CC the applications? Or better yet, why must we select one location only? Why not allow an applicant to apply at multiple stores with one application? Isn't that the sort of thing computerized applications are supposed to do for both employer and hopeful employee? Eliminate repetition and sort by keywords (keywords being the locations)?

Some sites you have to 'create an account' and log in and out of complete with password and your secret identity  Really? I just want a job, not an account. And you'll know who I am as soon as I start the application process. My name IS the first thing you'll ask for, isn't it?

Once we get to the application (if we're lucky) we'll be asked what position we'll be applying for.
 'Any' is not one of the options.
Do we want to be a BOU? A QST? A CRR? Aren't there any two or four initial jobs?  How about a store team member? Well, since I want to work at your store, I want to be a member of the store team. I'm pretty sure that's a minimum requirement.

What kind of team member? Which spoonful of alphabet soup would we like to be? The better sites have a what-is-this drop down menu that will explain what the initials are. Many won't. I always figure that if I don't know what the letters are, I'm probably not qualified for the job.

But wait -- that means these stores no longer use cashiers! No floor service people!
I'm pretty sure I am not going to shop there, with no one to help me find things.

After much searching and thinking I find a couple acronyms that may qualify as cashier: Customer Service Specialist and Customer Relations Representative. There's also Customer Service Representative.' Customer Relations' and 'Customer Service' seem to be ways to pretty up the job title. And everyone is expected to be a specialist -- or at least called one  -- these days. It supposedly makes them feel more appreciated. (Please and Thank You are an easier way to achieve that outcome.)

Who cares? Most people looking for cashier's jobs are looking for cashier's jobs. They don't want to be Representatives. They don't want to be specialists. They want to be EMPLOYED.

Online applications are Okay.
If I were an employer,  I'd rather do a walk in so I could see who I'm getting and gather important 'first impression' details, but I can see that online will eliminate a lot of personal prejudice eliminations.

But quit with the initials and the fancy sounding names for common positions! I want to come and help your customers find what they want to buy, and I want to help them buy it and get out so they will come back again. And I want a paycheck. Not an empty  title made of fancier words.

I want to be a cashier and shelf-stocker and coffee-maker. No Representing Specialist or Specialized representative.

I am a lifelong (although currently unemployed) cashier and proud of it. It is you who are missing a good employee because I don't know what you call me.


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What I Wanna Do

What I really want to do is what everyone (well, working everyone) really wants -- my own business. I could have a nice little niche business -- but it would work so much better (Translation: make more money, interest more people) if I lived somewhere else.
Not that I couldn't live here and commute, as so many, many people do, it's just that IF I'm going to have my own business, I'd expect to have it on my own terms.

Ideal terms would be to have a big ol' house, and the business could be in the front rooms. I'd have a big picture window for displays and for light inside, and inside there would be dimmer areas, for computer work and desk work and things of that nature.

My business is a "Writers World". For profit and pleasure, I'd sell office supplies -- papers, inks, pens, pencils, posterboards. For pleasure, I'd have Book Nooks and Reading Rooms, with coffee and maybe vending machine type snacks. I'd like to offer sandwiches and stuff, but that would be too much starting out. There are necessarily more complicated health and safety standards when selling made to order foods. So, I'd start out with packaged foods. People could pull up a chair, curl up on a couch with any Recycled book from the shelves, tables, or baskets.

Of course, they'll be able to buy the books if they want to. Or trade them. I expect the books to be the real draw for most of my customers.

I'll also have a 'business center' for people who want to work on computers, or draw at desks. Maybe a few phones -- probably not pay phones as I once envisioned -- for those who need to use a public phone of some sort. There are so few, and still a need for them for a few people. It wouldn't be difficult to include a few within an established business. It would be good for those needing this service to have a place to sit and a desk or table top where they could spread out their paperwork and write down their notes from the calls.

I'd have a children's section, and mats, and maybe a play area -- I'd have to check local laws on that. I won't be a babysitter at my business, but I love having kids around as long as someone else is responsible for them. I'd have books for them, and easels and crayons and miscellaneous creative stuff, because kids should have fun. I'd probably need "Not Responsible" signs, and maybe waivers, and would still need an exorbitant amount of liability insurance anyway. (Or I could 'take my chances'. That's usually not a good business option.)

And I'd have a selling section -- I'd sell handmade stuff and arts&crafts and self-published books and even secondhand stuff. I'd have to be careful there, because I could turn anyplace into a Hoarder's Haven with secondhand stuff. I hate throwing usable things away. I'd sell this stuff for a percentage, so I'd probably have a decent chance of making money -- or traffic -- with that aspect.

Lacking the big front rooms, I could rent a storefront. There are plenty of storefronts empty here in town, but they aren't for rent, and, at this time, I couldn't afford them. Doesn't stop me from looking and wanting and wishing, though. That blue house would be perfect. One window for books, baskets, and chairs, the other window for the best of the crafts and clothing.

That's what I ultimately would like to do.

For now, I would be happy to find a flea market close to home where I could sell my recycled books and 'stuff'. They are all too far away and possibly too expensive, especially after adding in gas and food and drink.

But that's what I want to do, and how I think I could start. Would you like to be my customer? I'd love to have you as one.

worth working ?

Today the local news is filled with a long wrap-around line of people hoping to work at the new Jungle Jim's that is opening in September. People are so hungry for jobs that they are waiting in summer heat -- and this summer's heat is especially brutal-- for hours. Jungle Jim's is looking for 300 to 400 people, from inexperienced to specialist. They've probably had about 3000 people turn out. That is my estimate from looking at photos and news coverage.

I've been looking for work, too, but that's a more troublesome proposition. If I start work, even just five or ten hours a week, my husband's spenddown for MedicAid will go up, by whatever amount of money I make. Probably the gross amount, not net, but I'm unsure about that. We'll also lose out food assistance, but that's not a deal breaker for just the two of us. But what if we still had children to nourish so they'll grow, and pay attention in school.

And I won't be at home to care for him. He doesn't need nursing or tending, but he can't stand at a stove -- or even a microwave -- long enough to cook for himself. So would he have to go without any time that I work at or through meal time? What if something were to go wrong? What if the electric goes out and he can't use his nebulizer or his oxygen? How will anyone know to help him? How would they help him? What if a water line breaks? He doesn't have the strength or the agility to shut off the water under the sink behind the jars and brushes.

But I still look for work -- I'm pretty sure it's better than not working. Better for us both in terms of community and personal sanity. I know this isolated life makes me edgy, cross, crabby, and mean-as-hell. So, if there's a local job I hear about, I try for it. In a year and a half, I've had two interviews. For the others (about a dozen) I don't make the cut. I'm not sure if it's the beauty check I fail or the background check. Not that it matters.

But I wonder, as I fill in yet another application, if I should get beyond the interview stage, will the job eventually won be worth it. Or will it cost me more -- in more ways -- than staying at home does?

I don't know, but I would like to have the chance to find out.