Rant #1,944: I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

I hope you had a good weekend.

I had some time to reflect, shake my head, and move on.

Please let me explain.

As you know, I am in a very bad work situation.

My place is going down the tubes, whether it is today, tomorrow, this month, next month, or next year.

I haven't spoken that much about my work situation here lately, and the reason is that nothing has changed.

I continue to apply for jobs, but I have not had an interview of any kind in about six months or so.

I do feel that there are several factors working against me, and that I am hitting my head against the wall, time and time again.

To prove my point, let me tell you what happened this past Friday.

Continuing to search for a new job and sending in my resumes each day for jobs that I think I would be a good fit for, I sent in a resume a week or two ago to a firm looking for a copywriter.

Lo and behold, early last week, I received an email saying that a particular firm on Long Island wanted to speak to me about filling this position.

The email included a link to the company's calendar, and I was to choose one of the open spots on their calendar, put my name in and some other information that they asked for, and I would be set.

I chose a 6 p.m. appointment this past Friday, as this would be right after work--I work until 5:30 p.m.--and the location was close to my work address, literally five minutes away.

The email said that there were some prerequisites to the interview.

First, I could not come in formal attire. They were "turned off" by such attire, as they didn't dress up in their office.

Second, I had to call five minutes before I was to arrive in their office.

After the drudgery of work on Friday--we were hit with another nickel and dime thing, as we were told as we received our paychecks that we would be paying for the Family and Medical Leave Act each and every week through our paychecks--I got in my car and drove to the address.

I had a little bit of a tough time locating the address. I thought it was in an office building, and I drove around a bit, but I found the exact address--it was a bridal shop.

Yes, you read right, a bridal shop.

Becoming more skeptical by the minute, I parked in the back of the building housing this shop, went back to my email through my phone, and yes, that was the address.

Becoming a bit perplexed, I decided to call the place, even though it was at least 10 minutes before my scheduled appointment.

I called, and here is the conversation.

"Hello, I am scheduled to have an appointment with you at 6 p.m., and I don't know if I have the right location."

"Who are you?"

"This is Larry Lapka, and I have the 6 p.m. appointment for the copywriter's position."

"You were supposed to be here at 2 p.m. Why are you coming here now? There is no one here to speak to you."

"Look, I just checked again, and my appointment was for 6 p.m. Why would I make it for 2 p.m.? That would be right in the middle of my work day. It was 6 p.m."

"Well, there is no one to speak to you now."

"I see."

Click.

Absolutely furious, I once again checked the schedule, and no, I was not crazy, it was 6 pm.

I called the number back, and got an answering machine.

I said I would be willing to come in next week, and I was available any day of the week for an interview.

I got off the phone, and I had a change of thought.

I called yet again, said that I thought this was a scam (yes, something smelled quite fishy here), and that if I did not receive a call back, I was going to report the "company" to Indeed, the job site that I got the listing from.

Yes, I received a call back real quick from the person I spoke to a few minutes earlier. I spoke to him as I drove home.

He appeared to be in his late teens or early 20s.

The conversation went like this.

"Look, check your schedule. It clearly says 6 p.m. Why would I choose 2 p.m.? That is in the middle of my workday. Nothing adds up here, and I think this is a scam."

"You are mistaken. It was at 2 p.m."

"Look, to me, nothing adds up here, and I think this is a scam, there is no job and no company."

"You are mistaken. I don't think that this was anyone's fault."

"If you don't think that this was anyone's fault, why not give me another appointment, and do it over the phone in not such a high tech way, because electronics can be funny, and your schedule shows that."

"No, I don't think that this is a good fit."

At that, I became enraged even further.

"Baloney. I is not a good fit because you guys completely fouled up."

"No, we did not."

"Look, this is obviously a scam. You now have my information. Even if you are legitimate, you can now say that you had the job open for anyone, even someone like me, a 60-year old person with a ton of experience."

"It is not a scam. It was not your fault or our fault."

"Then why can't you give me another appointment?"

"Because it is not a good fit."

"Let me explain my situation: I work for a company that is going out of business. I am 60 years old. I have been looking for a new position for many months. I have not had an interview in at least six months. When I saw your email, it gave me some hope. I got excited. I prepped for this interview. And then to come to a bridal shop and hear this nonsense from you ... this is a scam, and you know it too. You now have my information."

This went back and forth for a few minutes, and then the call ended.

I came home, filled my wife in about what happened, and later that night, I went onto the schedule again, to make sure I was not crazy.

And if you look at the photo attached to this entry, you can see that I am far from nuts.

Look, the "company," or whatever it is, has a website, but heck, anyone can put up a website.

Now that they have my name, address, phone number, email address, and cell phone number, they have a lot of information, information that is valuable and can be sold.

Heck, if they got 100 people in the same situation, they have 100 sets of the same information, from which they can springboard to even more valuable information, like my social security number, debit card numbers, etc.

This was clearly a scam, and yes, I did report them to Indeed.

I will monitor that site as I continue to look for a job, and if I see their job entry again, I will let Indeed know about it.

Yes, I am extremely frustrated, but I have to push on.

At work, we just lost our dedicated salesman, and he said upon leaving that based on what he knows, we cannot last past the fall.

So I guess I have to continue to bang my head against the wall, and maybe it will make a dent somewhere.

Right now, I have had it up to here, and I just don't know what else to do.

The one thing I do know is that I am better than this, better than all of this.

I guess sometimes you have to suffer.