Rant #1,617: Out of Work; Out of Touch

When I have a few moments to kill, one of the things I usually do is go through my Yahoo home page to see if there is anything interesting there to write about here at Ranting and Raving.

Sometimes I find some interesting stuff, but most times, honestly, I don't find really anything much to talk about.

Lately, I have seen an increasing number of entries on my Yahoo home page that are related to work experiences, and one that pops up frequently contains links to stories about people who are out of work, who are actively looking for new jobs, and who are rebuffed for one reason or another.

Some of these people have been out of work six months, a year, two years, three years, even longer, and no one will hire them to do much of anything, whether in their field or outside of their field.

Many are 50 and older, and some are as young as in their 30s. They aren't counted in the monthly unemployment report, because they have completely fallen off the radar, don't get benefits anymore, and evidently, don't count, period, in some people's eyes.

They have been to interview after interview with no success, and their stories are finding their way onto various sites, and they are being picked up by Yahoo, finding their way to my home page.

I have found the most frequently asked question of those who have been out of work for an extended period of time is: "Why have you been out of work so long?"

While it is a question that really doesn't have a clear, 100 percent foolproof answer, it is a question that most people doing the hiring for their company ask, and yes, it is an annoying question.

What difference does it make how long one has been out of work? The person is interviewing with you, so that means that they are supposedly interested in your qualifications based on your background, so what difference does it make why the interviewee has been out of work for so long?

I have been unemployed for two extended times during my career--for about 18 months in the early 1990s and for three or four months at the end of 1995 and into the early spring of 1996.

Both times were really bad times for me to be out of work.

And I mean, really bad, in particular, the first instance.

The first time, I was going through my divorce, and being out of work probably held up the divorce for at least six months, as we were well on our way to getting this done when I lost my job due to the real estate nosedive in the late 1980s-early 1990s.

I came from real estate, and since that area was in what can be called a depression, people like me--with no connections at all--couldn't get arrested during that time. I had many interviews, sent out many resumes--I had to prove to the court that I was trying to find work, and sent out upwards of 800 resumes during that pre-Internet period--and I really did my my due diligence in trying to find work.

However, I was so linked up to real estate, that I was in something of a bind, because since that area was so dead at the time, well, so was I, at least in some people's minds.

I got interviewed for many jobs, but the question that I talked about before did dog me a bit: "Why have you been out of work so long," as the days became weeks and then became months.

My reply was pretty much a standard one: "It has to do with the current business environment. I was in real estate, and that market is not a good one right now," or something like that. And yes, I told them that I had some freelance jobs during that time off of regular work, didn't sit home twiddling my thumbs ...

I don't know if that was the correct response, or the right way to phrase it, but it was the truth.

It didn't ever get me a job--it probably hindered me--but I could not lie.

Sure, there were other factors, or so I was told--I was overqualified, they were going in a different direction (I particularly loved to hear that from them--if that was so, why did they interview me in the first place?), somebody else was chosen for the job (ditto what I just said), etc.

I know I was discriminated against for my age--I was in my 30s at the time, and in some quarters, that is considered old--and probably once or twice because of my race or gender.

But go prove that to anybody.

Anyway, I did get hired, eventually, did get fired, eventually, and was out of work right after my son was born, which was both good and bad. Good, because I got to bond with him in a way that I could not have if I had a job, and bad, because, well, I wasn't working.

It took a few months, but I was able to get back on my feet again with a new job, the one I have to this day, nearly 20 years later.

And since I was out about three of four months, give or take a few days, the question about "Why have you been out of work so long?" did not hinder me, because it was "only" three or four months; of course to me, it felt like an eternity.

Look, I know that potential employers are there not only to interview you, but to test you, test your quickness, and test your wits when they go through the interviewing process, and perhaps asking "Why have you been out of work so long?" is actually a subtle test, to see how you will respond to such a question.

But I know it is a question that I dreaded answering, because while there is no definitive answer, while there is no "right" or "wrong" answer, you can only hang yourself if you give a reply that the interviewer doesn't understand, doesn't get, and/or doesn't accept.

I know I had a lot of those, but I said the truth in my answers, so I felt if the potential employer was going to be so petty, this was probably a place that I didn't want to work for, anyway.

And I just love reading what the supposed "experts" have to say about that question.

You cannot be an expert on how to answer that question, and, for that matter, about the entire job of looking for a job, unless you, yourself, have been out of work.

Having "been there" and "done that" makes you an expert, not these phonies who, somehow, have been lucky enough to have been employed their entire working lives.

And to really understand what someone in this situation is going through, you have to have been out of work sometime in your life for an extended period of time, and I mean at least six months.

Being out of work for that amount of time plays on your ego, your self worth, how you evaluate your skills and what you can do, and it plays on your very being.

If you haven't had this experience, take it from me, it is as debilitating as it sounds.

I remember that I made finding a job my daily job, one that I got paid for with primarily a lot of headaches and aggravation.

It was demoralizing, it was strenuous, but I kept plodding on, and finally, I was hired, and seemingly didn't have to worry about such things happening anymore ... until it happened the next time.

And to be completely demoralized, and then have "Why have you been out of work for so long" thrown at you ... you might be out of work, but let me tell you, those interviewing you are so way out of touch with what is happening to keep you out of work that I really have to wonder who is better off being where they are, them or you?