Rant #2,497: Fun, Fun, Fun

My time off from regular work hit a milestone yesterday.

January 2 marked three months since I have been employed.

Three months is really nothing, when you look at it.

It is less than 100 days.

It is just one-quarter of a year.

And based on my prior experiences--once being off for four months, and the other time, being out of work for 18 months--three months is nothing.

But it is three months, 12 weeks of drudgery.

Yesterday, I continued to do what I have been doing since Day One, meaning that I got up early, looked at all the job notices, and actually over the course of the day, applied for four or five positions.

I also went on to Linked In, which I have found to be a major part of the drudgery.

If you have ever used Linked In, there is a clear divide in people who love it, and people who hate it.

Count me in the latter group. I think it is a big heap of nothing, a professional Facebook, and if you want to sit there and try to connect with as many people as possible, please, be my guest.

But it is the "go-to" point for professionals today, so you almost have to be on it, in particular if you are looking for work.

In fact, most applications that I have filled out ask me for my Linked In address, to my dismay, as if my profile there is even more important than my resume or my cover letter.

I guess that in today's world, the profile is golden.

Anyway, I decided to have some fun with Linked In yesterday,

People post all the time about their achivements in the workplace, things like "Celebrating 30 years at my company" or "Celebrating reaching my sales goal at my company for the fifth year" or things like that, so I decided to turn the tables on that stuff, which reeks of the stuff you find on Facebook when people proclaim where they are and what they are doing (yes, I have done this myself).

So what I did is simply send out this message to all of my connections, which I thought was a fun way to accomplish several things:

"NOT celebrating three months of unemployment today."

Yes, I wanted to see who actually read these things, and how they would respond to his "negative" post, but there was a method to my madness, if that is what you want to call it.

Yes, I wanted to see if people actually read these announcements. I remember that when I changed my "position" in my profile to "Editor in Transition - Seeking New Job Opportunities" from what it had been "Associate Editor," I actually got congratulations from many people, who obviously simply didn't get it. I actually had people message me, "Congratulations on the new job."

Well this time, happily, I didn't get any of those--or at least as of about 9 p.m. last night, the last time I looked--and I did get a number of nice messages back, trying to give me some encouragement, and I appreciated each and every one of them. I even got some positive tips for using Linked In that I might soon employ.

But my reasons for putting up such a message were a bit more involved than they might appear to be on the surface.

Here is what I wrote back to those who responded to me with kind words:

"It is tough, but I am surviving. I sent the message for two reasons: 1) to keep current with my contacts, and 2) as a somewhat humorous swipe at some of the messages I receive on Linked In. People celebrate so many things here, and many don't read closely whatever messages they receive, so I wanted to see if anyone is going to blindly congratulate me. The third reason should be to help me find a job, but I have just about given up on that, on Linked In or wherever. It does not appear in the cards for me. No real surprise there, to be honest with you. Stuff like this keeps me occupied, I guess. Thanks for the good words!"

And I would tailor that basic message to the person I sent it to if necessary.

I don't think I shot myself in the foot for doing this, because I received dozens and dozens of positive messages as a result of my little joke.

Will I do it again when this nonsense reaches six months? No, because by that time, early retirement will be right before me, and I will be too busy preparing for that to get into such a thing again.

I won't have time for such nonsense, and that includes Linked In.

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.