Weekly Rituals

I wanted to complain about how slow the DET website was this morning. Every Sunday morning, I log-in and answer the questions properly. Yes, I looked for work. Yes, I was available for work. No, I did not work. It takes about 10 minutes, and they send you a check for $507 on Monday. The check usually arrives on Tuesday or Wednesday.

So, I can't really get too worked-up just because the pixels aren't movong fast enough. This new system is a far cry from the last time I was on unemployment, in 1991. In those days, you had to schlep down to the office every two weeks to get your measly check in person. Everything about unemployment seemed to be designed to make you stand in lines with all those other losers. I guess the philosophy was to shame anyone with a shred of dignity to make them go out and get a job - any job.

It worked on me. After several months of unsuccessful job hunting, I finally took a job at a Cambridge software company. It was a big pay cut. But I was happy to be working again, but the feeling was short-lived. Within six months my new company Index Technologies was merged/bought out and, without warning, the new company - Intersolv laid me and two thirds of the others off. Someone I did not know called me into a meeting whereupon I was informed that I would get two months severance, plus outplacement counseling.

The Bozos in charge had everything figured out, except that they weren't aware of the The Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification act of 1988. (Thank you Ted Kennedy.) This piece of legislation - AKA the "plant closing law" - says that employers who terminate more than one third of the workers at a given location are compelled to give said workers 60 days notice or compensation in lieu of notice on top of earned severance benefit. Thus, I ended up with four months severance after working only six months at the company! (I was also eligible for Unemployment again).

Luckily, I did not have to suffer the indignity of standing in line again. Out of the blue, I got a 6-week contract job as a systems analyst at a corporate division of a global High Tech firm that needed to integrate the customer databases of two smaller companies that had recently been acquired. That gig lasted fifteen months.

With 1 week left on my PO I found an employee situation at another big High Tech company. That job lasted 5 years. Luck happens when you keep your eyes open.