Rant #2,464: Turn-Down Day

Today is another turn-down day for me, but I make the best of it, anyway.

What else am I supposed to do?

As the chorus on Facebook grows for me to simply retire--one person even called me "an old f--- " like he is--I just can't succumb to that temptation right now ... at least not until I feel I have done my full due diligence and can say that I have exhausted every possibility.

That kind of keeps me going strong, keeps my faith up, but if you like to bet, I would give you 60-40 right now that I am done working full time. You can bet on anything today, and if Las Vegas wants to put up those odds, take it, but if you wait, honestly, they are probably going to get better that I am done.

I see what is out there, and I have applied to larger companies--such as Marvel/Disney, Howard Rubenstein Associates, and yes, this New York Yankees fan has even applied to the New York Mets--but they apparently are not looking for a 62 year old to fill their spots.

I have also applied to much smaller concerns, but they ask the world, don't pay very much, and anyway, they aren't looking for someone like me, anyway.

I have had one phone interview in the past five weeks--that's one more than I had in the past several years of looking, mind you--and the interviewer said that they would contact me one way or the other related to the position. At this point, with the interview happening nearly three weeks ago, I haven't heard from them at all, and honestly, I don't expect to.

Most of my job applications have been filled out for positions in Manhattan, because that is where a bulk of the jobs are, probably 80 percent of them. I have also sent out my resume to firms on Long Island and in Queens, but the one thing that they all share is that they apparently are not interested.

I set up a nice profile on Linked In, have contacted dozens of people who know my name, have job prospected there, but like most everything on the Internet, it is a game, with its own rules, and I find the site very underwhelming. If this is the tool that people use to find jobs, then Linked In really isn't the sharpest tool in the shed as it is being made out to be. I take another Linked In class later in the month, and I guess I have to tell myself that it will be three hours well spent.

Thus far, unemployment has left me nowhere. It is not just me, it is other former fellow employers that I have spoken to, but unemployment has left us--and probably thousands of others--in the cold without snow shoes. I--and I do mean we--first applied when we lost our jobs on October 10, and then came a succession of queries about what our severance was, what our salary was, and what our actual last date of work was. We were all told that because of the severance we received--a pittance for all of us, all who devoted well more than 20 years to the company--we could not get unemployment right away, and would have to wait a couple of weeks, and we had to fully reapply.

I did that yesterday, went through the entire process again--it took me a good 45 minutes to once again fill out the application--and I received a message that everything was good, my application had been filled out correctly, and next, the email provided me a link to get the process really rolling.

I clicked on the link, and then clicked on one or two others, and finally reached my destination ... only to be told that my application was not yet processed, and to come back tomorrow, which is today.

I mean, when am I going to get some money, money I have been paying into for decades? Around Christmas? There is a waiting time to get unemployment, but my wait is now over five weeks, and with s few weeks added on, who knows when I will get some fresh money into my account.

Let's see what happens today, I dread even going into the unemployment site, ready to find more obstacles in my path to get something that I rightfully deserve.

I continue to look for work, and that eats up a good portion of the day. I drive my son back and forth to work, which breaks up the day, and with my wife and mother continuing ot not have their cars after being involved in accidents, it pretty much worked out well that I was home and could help out when it was needed.

I am doing several other things at home, so I do keep myself busy, and the day does move pretty quickly.

But all it amounts to is another turn-down day, putting me one step closer to the inevitable.

I get what others are saying to me, I appreciate their taking a moment to give me some advice, but as I well know--having previously being out of work in the past for about four months and the big one, my 18 month unemployment that I suffered through in the late 1980s into the early 1990s--if you have not ever been in my shoes, you have no idea what I am going through.

Again, I appreciate the advice, I appreciate what you are saying, but you have no idea what it feels like to be cast off to the wind like I have been.

I am not trying to be nasty or anything, but those who have never been in this position really don't get it.

But through it all, I keep a smile on my face, get into a routine and stay with it, and maybe, just maybe, all of this will work out for the better.

At this point--more than five weeks into this nonsense, and yes, that is what it is--I just don't know if that is how it will work out, but I am trying to make the best of it all.

But sometimes, it is difficult to keep that smile on your face.