What is Your Employment Situation?

[RNguy]

Is there an option to click that I work too much and want to win the powerball or mega millions ???? Ill click that option gladly

[morningstar55]

...need a job ??? ......
check out my last post .. and give cathy a call

[free-to-be]

I've been employed at my full-time job for over a dozen years but recently the atmosphere has changed. I feel as though they're trying to make me quit. After this long, though, I'm going to have to be fired so I can use my unemployment! My bosses are very Republican and the idea of a *gasp* gay employee has become too much for them to bear.

I also work part-time to make ends meet which means I haven't had a day off in a very long time. I remind myself a LOT to be happy I am employed at all

[~baby~doll~]

i am retired due to disability. i have been in this situation for over twenty years. There are three others in the family two are retired only one is on Social Security and the other sold her business recently. The fourth person works full time as a clerk in a grocery store. She found it difficult in the job search.

[MysticOceansFL]

I'm a Student........................................... ........

[Luv]

Working one job 32 hour's a week and looking for a new job..hate where I work and the. Company

[CherylNYC]

Self employed sculptor/scenic artist, but I get my work through my union. I do a lot of overtime when there is work, so I can comfortably pay my bills on as little as 36ish weeks of work a year if I have to.

I'm well respected in my industry and good at my job. I usually like the work, but there are times like last night when I supervised a sandblasting project until 12:30 at night, when I think about doing something clean, quiet, and stress free, like operating a jackhammer on a construction site.

[Kätzchen]

SoOoOoo, since earning an MA in May of 2011, I have been laid off 5 times, on jobs not related at all to my former career experience or in a field of interest where I can utilize skills sets I have earned since May of 2011.

For me, my worksearch each day is not an ordinary exercise I commit my time and energy too. It's difficult finding paid work and in particular, because I'm on a last round of emergency-tiered unemployment benefits (which are painfully small - it's less than my basic monthly cost of living), I've taken to developing field notes - ethnographic accounts - of the particular barriers I face while competing to be hired for a job.

Here's a "snapshot" of a identifiers and driving influences associated with use of a particular item identified. A sample of items I record:

age related practices, class practices, sex & gender based practices, company culture (-/+), power structure: Culture of Obedience (top down) or if the company employs bottom-up practices, etc., to items pertaining to whether a company fosters collaborative efforts in a community-based ways to items related to the what the company feels constitutes Green or Sustainability industry standards (if there's any trend to note on social responsibility, toward that end). I also look at how long it takes to complete a company's work application and mechanistic features that drive the application process.

I do this for myself because it's a feasible way for me to develop a record of barriers I face and there have been a few times I have taken my notebook with me to mandantory appts at the employment office, because agents are frustrated with how it is that I can't find a job, and I show them my matrix. The look on each person's face is priceless.

[Scots_On_The_Rocks]

I have been in the same line of work for 15 years despite that time having been spent with two different districts. I love working in education, however I hate that the government still ranks education on the lowest of priorities and as a result I can barely make ends meet half the year.

[MsTinkerbelly]

Sitting at home on my ass feeling sorry for myself...wondering if i will be allowed to go back to work, or will i start the fight for disability.

[Nat]

I work full-time - sometimes more. I love my job.

[*Anya*]

Originally Posted by *Anya*

August, 2012

I am so fortunate that I am an RN. It has served me so well through thick and thin.

Right now I am struggling with whether or not to accept a job offer I just got yesterday. It is for way more money but also way more work. It is a management position. I am so torn. My current job has less stress, is closer to my home but there is no opportunity for advancement. I was willing to settle.

Did I mention, a ton more work? I swore I would never get back into management again! The politics make me cringe but there is no escaping politics anywhere these days, in any organization.

I should have read my own post 10 times before accepting the job I wrote about here.

It has turned out to be exactly the red flags that I ignored.

Can't say I have ever disliked a job more or had a more stressful job.

I just accepted an offer to do outpatient counseling again which has always been my first love.

Pay less? Check. Less responsibility? Check. 10 minutes on no freeways from my girl-friend's house (where I basically live now)? Check.

I have never stayed at a job for just a little over a year before but I know that it is the right choice for me. If I stay at my current job, I will lose it. Yes, it is that bad.

I gave notice yesterday and will take a week off before I start my new job.

I know how lucky I am that I had a choice

[Okiebug61]

Still hanging in as commission only sales. Red is only 6yrs from being able to retire from teaching. We are looking at moving to the coast soon after that.

[PoeticSilence]

Recently disabled after working nineteen years at a job I LOVED. Despite their "stay in the closet" attitude for gays, and the high levels of stress, and the impossible expectations.

If you boil it down, I was doing collections work. Asset Recovery. But I loved the job, and my company despite its flaws and many of the peoples attitudes. The fact that my company was willing to work with my disabilities to keep me, and I do mean work, because they would have had to make a lot of exceptions, was something that nearly broke my heart. After everything I'd been through and experienced there, all the bad and the good. They changed me in a lot of ways, and I know I changed many of them. Four months later and I still get managers that email me to see how I'm doing. In the nineteen years I worked there, when I left, there was only one person in my whole area that had been there as long as I had, we went through over eighty people in that time because of different reasons, but mainly because the place is stressful.

I wish I could do it all over again, or better yet, be well enough to go on. I love a good challenge and that job challenged me nearly every day. Maybe I thrived on the stress, but doubtful, since a lot of my illness has to do with stress-related illnesses. I feared losing my job (a realistic concern) almost every day but I was so happy when Monday came along so that I could go back to work.

Being disabled is so much more difficult than working, I'm going to have to learn how to not be at work. I identify with work as being a sign of respect and reliability...

[not2shygrrl]

I work full time M-F with an early start time! 40 hours and I am done with no opportunity for overtime. I am lucky and fortunate to be working.

[Martina]

I work full time as a teacher. I start at 7:30am and leave at 2pm. I would have grading to do at home except my caseload is small right now. I do still have prep sometimes, and I am required to take two five-week online classes a year for three years. They are time-consuming. I am in year two, just starting. Because I am in alternative ed and an Special Education SDC teacher, I teach every subject. No Child Left Behind requires that I be "highly qualified" in all four core subjects (English, Math, Social Science, and Science). I have degrees in English, so that's covered. I did the math classes last year. Science this year, and Social Science next year. It will be very valuable to be NCLB compliant in all four subject areas.

My job is easy in some ways. I work one on one with students, so there are no discipline problems. That means the job is a LOT less stressful than a conventional classroom teaching job. However, these students have some serious issues and hardships. So it is not uncomplex. Plus it can be worrisome. I worry a lot, actually.

In many ways, it is an easy gig. But it's still a huge amount of responsibility and (sometimes) stress.

It also pays well for teaching because it is a high paying district and I have a pile of degrees. But I live somewhere that is super expensive, so I don't benefit from the relatively high pay (for a teacher). That makes me grumbly.

It is also located in the Bay Area, which I am ready to leave. I love Central California (the coast) and Sonoma. I would love to move to one of those areas. What is stopping me from moving is the excellent job and the ties to friends and loved ones.

[peachy]

I'm a designer. My paid work is in theatre. This is my hobby. My main work is being a mother and a step mother. This is unpaid and is the love of my life.

[TIMBERWOLF]

After working in the medical field for over 19 yrs I am now retired on Disability and COBRA Living with my oldest son and watching my grandkids grow. I go to dialysis 3 time a week for 3 1/2 hrs and pretty tired afterwards so Im actually glad Im not working. Im enjoying the New England weather instead of the Texas heat.

[Kätzchen]

Thought I would share briefly today that over the month of October, I was participating heavily in a prehiring process with a local tri-county agency. I was competing for a work placement that felt like it would be a good fit (for me). I didn't quite make it past the panel interview process and at first, before I got home, I thought I was going to be hired. But something interesting happened after I read their email which told me I wasn't hired: Within a short span of time, the same agency sent another work opportunity to me. So, once again, I'm going to scale the hiring process. Maybe the newest opportunity will prove to fit me better - at least I am hoping so.

For the record: I still don't have a job. I'm getting closer to finding a good job; so maybe by the end of November I'll be hired and find myself employed again.

[not2shygrrl]

On Thursday I was laid off. I had not been there long, but the work and the contracts never produced what they thought. So here I am, looking over availabilities for job openings and expanding my search to Pennsylvania (central near Harrisburg). The relocating thoughts coincide with needing to change my living status. I am not just wanting my own space but needing it. I am applying for a non profit organization that offers benefits, as well as vacation and the pay allows me to have my own!! It is exciting to me!!! The non profit has been around for many many years and is not limited to Penna. Kinda funny how as I get older my thoughts of what I can do and what I can actually do don't always line up!! I am ready and willing for this and it may take a month or so of adjustment and such.....its all cool!