Rant #2,428: The Air That I Breathe

Just when I thought that people have forgotten about people in my plight, I was reminded that ...

People have forgotten about people in my plight.

That is readily evident now, and it might be about the right time to throw in the towel on the whole ball of wax I have been going through for now eight months time, and really, even five years before that.

I am done. I am cooked. I am toast.

Let me tell you what has led me to this revelation, and let me prove to you that nobody cares about me and others who are going through what I am going through.

Doing the calculations, my time is running out on receiving unemployment insurance. I have been out of work since the afternoon of October 10, 2019, and I kind of predicted what was going to happen to me, based on what I saw in the previous five years of trying to find a job.

You reach a certain age, and nobody wants you--and I based that on sending out dozens and dozens and dozens of resumes, talking to people, and failing miserably at the game called Linked In, which I think is the biggest sham going right now in the world of professional careers.

So here I am, all these months later, and my unemployment benefits are set to run out.

Or are they?

When the federal government expanded benefits related to the coronavirus pandemic's great impact on employment, I was part of that roll, which saw those on unemployment receiving extra money each week to live their lives, and presumably, to give them the resources to amp up their job search. That last aspect is never spoken about, but having the extra money in your pocket gives one renewed confidence that perhaps things aren't as bad as they seem to be, and there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow after all.

Well, things didn't change for me, they kind of got worse.

Companies were not hiring, and really, still aren't hiring, in the fields that I am directed to. And if they are hiring, they are offering salaries that you really have to see to believe, because they are about half, maybe, of what I was making when I was employed, and many have no benefits are anything resembling what I think a real job is.

But I plundered on, thinking that maybe I could get lucky.

Well, my pot of gold never came, and I am no better off now than I was on October 10, 2019, probably worse off.

My unemployment insurance is running out, but maybe there is a glimmer of hope.

In addition to the uptick in payments, 13 weeks of additional payments were tacked onto unemployment, so even though the uncreased payments end in July, those still out of work can still collect the regular payment for an additional 13 weeks.

The question is this: do I qualify?

My unemployment happened several months before the pandemic hit us between the eyes. All of these upticks are a result of millions of people losing their jobs or being furloughed into oblivion.

For instance, my son was furloughed from his job two months ago, he received the money uptick, and he will be getting the additional 13 weeks tacked on if he needs it--hopefully not--because his period of inactivity is directly linked to the coronavirus and what it did to businesses like he works for.

Me, my unemployment began way before most of us knew what the word "coronavirus" means, so where do I stand with this?

1) Do I do nothing, and the extra 13 weeks will be tacked on? or,

2) Do I have to reapply for the extra 13 weeks?

That is the quagmire I am in now, and you know what? Nobody knows for sure what I have to do.

I have gone on the New York State Department of Labor web site, and there are mixed messages there about exactly what someone in my situation needs to do. It does not clearly address the procedure, and does it in such muddy terms that I feel like I am in quicksand when I try to figure out what is said there.

I have called the New York State Department of Labor on many occasions, and after you go through their menu and push a myriad of buttons to get to the Land of Oz, you are told, "We are sorry. Due to a high volume of calls, we cannot answer your question on the phone. Please call again."

I have called in the morning, during the day, and later than that, and I get the same exact recording. so I would get a better response if I took my phone and--

(Well, this is a family blog, so I won't get into that).

Since I can't get through to the New York State Department of Labor via the phone, I figured my next best step is to contact my local legislator, and maybe he has some insight into my situation.

I called on Wednesday after actually going to his storefront office, and of course, due to the coronavirus, he was not in and his office was closed. There was a sign on the door with a phone number if anyone needed to speak to his office, so I put it in my phone and called, getting a recorded message explaining my plight.

About two hours later the legislator's office called me, I explained the situation to the woman on the other end of the phone, and she told me that she would forward my infrommation to the New York State Department of Labor, who would call me back.

(And yes, I told her that the New York State Department of Labor isn't calling anyone back, and it was a waste of time based on my experience, but she said that was the way to go, so I obliged her, realizing that again, if I took my phone--

(Let's not get into that again.)

I waited for the phone call that I knew I would not receive, and of course, I never received it.

In the interim, I called and wrote an email to Nassau County Supervisor Laura Curran to address this problem. To this moment, I guess she and her office are more involved in reopening Nassau County than they are in addressing the concerns of a person in that county, and I have not heard back from her office at all.

I got so frustrated yesterday after calling the New York State Department of Labor again and receiving the same message to "please call again" that I called my local legislator's office again, pleading with them for help.

They did get back to me, and I spoke to the actual legislator this time.

He said to me that my name and information was put into a portal that has been set up for people who have unemployment questions, and that I would be called about my problem.

He said that normally, they would have a number and could get me direct action, but in these times, this was pretty much the best they could do.

And no, he had no idea when I would be contacted by the New York State Department of Labor, no idea at all. It could be today, it could me next week, it could be next month, heck, it could be next year for all I know.

And I am still sitting here not knowing what to do.

So what I did in the interim--and the legislator said in lieu of finding out what to do, it was the right thing to do--was that I reapplied for unemployment insurance.

Again, I have absolutely no idea if I had to actually do this, but I did it anyway.

Will my original account and my new account butt heads? I have no idea, none at all, but I can't just sit here and wait for someone to call me, because it simply ain't happening, or at least it isn't going to happen anytime soon.

And yes, I have thought about simply throwing in the towel, acknowledging that my level of expertise is not welcome by companies I have applied to at this time, and that maybe I should simply get it over with and take early retirement.

I just might have to do that, in particular if my unemployment benefits come to a halt.

But again, nobody can tell me what to do in this situation, so what do I do?

Plod on for now at least. Finish this blog entry for today, post it on Facebook, and then look for jobs, jobs at my ability level and jobs way below anything I ever thought I would even have to consider when this journey started all those months ago.

Senior Citizens Lives Matter, even if few seem to care about that now.

But I do, and I am the one gasping for air here.

Have a good weekend. Speak to you again on Monday.