The New Normal

My husband and I have settled into a new sort of life.  We are both working – he at his part time job at the library and me at my two jobs substitute teaching and care giving.  We both like what we are doing but, having been cut off at the knees, are making far less money than we were before we lost our jobs. 

Our contract with the realtor will expire in the beginning of July.  People are still looking at our house (three this week) but no takers.  The real estate market has nosedived even since we put our house on the market in September of last year.  We are tired of vacating the house and having people traipse through only to get negative or disinterested comments.   What the market will hold next year is anyone’s guess.   We are not sure what we are going to do about the house, but we do need to move at some point in the near future.  I would like to sell the house to someone we know without a realtor, but don’t know of anyone at this time. 

We are still in a holding pattern for the time being but subsisting.  As I talk with people I am meeting through my work, I am finding that many (young and older) are working at least two jobs to pay their bills.  Recent college graduates are finding the competition very stiff in the workforce with as many as 1,400 applications for one job.  Frankly, I don’t see any improvement in the economy thus far.   Get down in the trenches with real people trying to make a living and see what is really happening right now in this country.

Anyone who thought the world was going to end on May 21 didn’t’ get an easy out and the beat goes on.

Among the Trenches

Since I have started substitute teaching I have met a number of different people.   One woman who is divorced is working three jobs sometimes logging 80 hours a week.  Once a week she does an overnighter in a home for the mentally ill.  Despite the long hours she is working, she has an upbeat demeanor.  I have met people who have been subbing for years, some finally landing a permanent position as a teacher’s aide or paraprofessional.   Each school has its own environment, e.g dress code and rules.   Most everyone has been helpful and friendly.  My sister-in-law has worked in this district for over 20 years so I have an instant familiarity with people who know her.  It makes me feel not so strange.  I am finding my way through, asking questions and getting to know the secretaries.

My care giving job is a little more isolating.  I visit people with whom I am on a one to one basis.  One evening my neighbor’s mother who lives in a facility I have been assigned to was having an art exhibit.  I saw her family there on my way out one evening.  All in all, I have been getting out and meeting all sorts of people everywhere I go.

Between the two jobs, some days I am out the door at 8:00 a.m. and finish the day at 8:00 p.m.   It’s a completely different life.

Update

How is everyone out there in blogger land?  I have entered a new phase in the workforce.  Between substitute teaching and care giving I have returned to part time employment.  This is quite a departure from sitting behind a desk all day.

The house is still for sale but our realistic expectations are that it will probably not sell until next year.  We may have to take it off the market for awhile.  In the meantime, we are on a tight budget in a holding pattern.  My friends check in with me periodically for which I am grateful and life goes on.

Spring Has Popped

The weather has warmed up (finally!!!).   I have started working, subbing for two days so far.   I had two very different days in the schools; one day with a difficult class (noisy second graders) and another day with good classes (first and third graders) and room assistants.    I have also visited clients in an independent /assisted living facility five minutes from my house .  The caregiving clients I have been assigned to are men in their eighties, also very different from each other.  One is in assisted living, quiet, polite and very low key.  The other is in independent living, a former engineer, and quite exact as to what he wants.  So far, so good.

Every week someone else looks at our house but the only offer we have had is from an investment company which really amounts to no offer.  Below are pictures of the lower and upper front yards.

.  



No Age Discrimination

During the last month, in addition to applying for office positions, I have been actively pursuing substitute teaching and caregiver jobs.  I have been given low pressure interviews and readily accepted for hiring without question  (after background and reference checks).   I believe  the reason is because people are needed in these jobs.   Substitution teaching has become saturated, but this week I have been called a few times by one district immediately after being approved by the Board of Education.  I have also been contacted several times by one other district.  So far, I have applied to four school districts.

Next week I will be training for a caregiver job.  My objective is to earn a living between the two jobs, by balancing both.  This is unchartered territory for me and a new direction to pursue.

 

The Unemployables

On April 3 the CBS Sunday Morning Show featured a segment on ageism in the workplace.  These are the statistics.  The chances of finding a job within a year if you are over age 50 is 24%.  If you are over 60 you have an 18% chance.  Experience is less valuable when younger people will do the job for less.  To test the hiring market, 4,000 fictitious resumes including graduation dates were sent to various want ads.  The results were predictable.  Companies were 40% more likely to hire the younger applicants.  Because of this, older workers are involuntarily working part time or dropping out altogether.  There are many who will not find jobs again. 

What must also be taken into account is that health insurance is, more often than not, lost in the process.  Consequently, people over the age of 50 will become a burden on society.  

An auto salesman was interviewed who eventually found a part time job in his profession.  To see the full report and video click on the link below.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/sunday/main3445.shtml

 

Real Life Outcomes

At this time last year, I was taking a computer course program to update my skills offered by a tri-county employment and training service.   It was a small class and recently I contacted a few of the people I met to find out how they had fared.   One of them had interviews but not as many as he thought he would and said that his own field of expertise was rejecting him.   He will take a part time job but ultimately wants to work full time.  Another classmate, after submitting numerous applications, making resume revisions, going on interviews, and being consistently rejected, finally accepted a part time job with a retail store.  Both suspected ageism was a factor but, unfortunately could not prove it.  We were all in that class to upgrade our skills and improve our chances of obtaining gainful employment.  

As for me, I am still applying to administrative jobs, including temp work.  The only interviews I have had since last year were for substitute teaching and caregiving.   My husband, as described in one of my previous posts (see February, Henry Beemis Gets a Job at the Library), took a part time job after almost two years.  This is a small but realistic sampling of what has been happening to people who have been displaced from their jobs.  Those in their 50s and 60s have been put out to pasture well before their productive working years have ended.   There is also the stigma of being chronically unemployed and worth less.  If companies are given monetary incentive to hire the long term unemployed, placing them in a protected class such as the disabled, they would be getting jobs because their bottom line would be worth more.  The 99ers are not being protected.  Even so, first, there must be jobs to fill.  But are there really?  And, if so, exactly where?

Underemployed or Unemployed