Irony

For the past 13 years I have been working as an Employment Social Worker. What exactly is that? Well, simply put, I help people find employment. For the majority of my employment life, I worked with those hard-to-serve clients, the ones collecting welfare. Don't get me wrong; just because someone is on welfare doesn't make them hard to serve. The population base is called that because: 1- Welfare. Hello. If you are on welfare, it's mandatory to sit in my job search class for 4 hours a day. 2- Welfare. And they know all your business, and if they don't, they will. 3- Child Welfare. Yeap, if you indicate at all you are not Martha Stewart I can walk across the building and talk to a case manager. 4- Multi-barriers. Not all people on welfare have barriers such as felonies, poor work history, poor credit, mental health issues, drug & alcohol issues but most people lack money to have some of the basics of life such as a car or car insurance or even a bra. (I suppose that's another story for another day.) And finally, 5-most people didn't want to work with a resistant population rather, they prefer to work with people who seek out employment services. I did learn plenty in the years I worked at DHS (Department of Human Services) and found this population a pleasure to work with.

For the past three years, I've been working serving people in our community who got downsized, layoff, the boot because the company closed or sold. I would present our services on site, and then would set up a computer lab and help people get ready for Unemployment. I had plenty of work in my local area to keep me busy.

And then last week, the irony. The notice came. Yes, I received my layoff notice. I understand, I do that the Federal Government has a budget to balance but now who is going to serve those and help those looking for work. Unemployment remains at 10%. No small figure. And July 1st, I will be one of those fish swimming up stream against the current looking for employment.

I wonder, who will be my coach? I am hoping this blog will serve as my mentor along the way and help me navigate the rolls of unemployment.