April fools indeed

I wanted to put a photo of the weather out my window but I'm just to lazy to drag out the digital video camera and cut a snipet to post but let me just say that it's snowing here. Snow is something we only get about once or twice a year here usually in December or the early part of the new year. I can't think of a time we've had it in April. I guess it goes along with the GOP budget and the computer worm set to go off today. We're April Fools indeed if we buy into the GOP budget which sounds like more of the same BS they've been feeding us for the last 8+ years. You know - taxes cuts for rich = good, spending for poor = evil.

In looking at all this I can only hope that many CEOs and CFOs and any other Cs out there get laid off and must experience the stresses and suffering that their underlings have been going through. How does it feel now Mr manager now that you're just one heart attack away from loosing your house since you won't have coverage. Gee and you thought you'd have an easy time sending Jr. to college but now that his favorite university just raised tuition and froze enrollment your spawn might just have to try for the Jr college but they too are squeezed and aren't taking new bodies. Oh and I'm sure Mr. Manager will just love dealing with his local unemployment office which was outsourced to some private company with a bunch of lackies. And the number of offices were cut to save money. Good luck filing a claim. The backlog was around 4 weeks last time I checked and you'll need to push hard should some info on your claim is misread or missing. You'll have just loads of fun either sitting on hold for hours and once you get through you get to talk to sombody who barely speaks English and doesn't understand what you're trying to tell him anyway. He might just tell you to call back next week but then you of course lose this weeks' check because you didn't file on time. But don't worry he told you they might have it all straightened out in the next couple of weeks so continue to file your claims (which you've been trying to do but can't because the system is so overwhelmed and keeps telling you to try again later). Hey but don't worry you can always sign up for the food bank but oh that's right you get too much money on unemployment to qualify for that even though you might not have received a dime in the last 4 or 6 weeks. But then it wouldn't really matter because because the food banks are almost empty and all you'll get is a couple of boxes of macaroni if you get there early enough.
So you do all those wonderful networking things and call all of your old associates or at least the ones you didn't stab in the back when you did those big deals in 2006 and 2007. You find that they too aren't hiring in fact they're worring about their position but they won't tell that to you but you know it. You find that they are now working 4 day weeks and thinking about going to 3. You just know that expense accounts are cut and even the free coffee is no longer purchased.
You look at your options which aren't looking that great. You're too young to retire and too old to retrain. Who'd want to hire somebody for 6 or 7 years when they can hire a twenty something with 30 or 40 years ahead of them. You look at the lowest of options only to find that even they are all gone. The only ones that might be out there are temporary "on call" positions but since those that are working are so afraid of being replaced they'll show up near dead just to get one more day's pay. Should you be lucky enough to get some temporary work it just does wonders for your unemployment. It works something like this. Work one day and there is no effect to your claim. Two days and there usually isn't much effect. Three or four days and you're screwed. At three days you can make too much to get even a reduced check but with normal taxes and deductions on the pay check you get less than unemployment.

In all of this I could hope the those at the top of corporate America would feel the pain but then I'd only be trying to fool myself. Those at the top have their golden paraschutes and severance packages that for the rest of us could easily retire to the tropics. Here I sit playing an exersize in wasted logic so just call me your April Fool.