Attention, All Current & Potentially Unemployed DUers

[LC EFA]

elehhhhna  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-16-09 04:47 PM
Original message
Attention, All Current & Potentially Unemployed DUers - Do this asap!
   
Edited on Mon Mar-16-09 04:51 PM by elehhhhna
Register with a temp staffing company. We can argue the merits of temp staffing some other time, please. Here's the skinny --

There are temp staffing companies who serve virtually every market/skillset you can imagine. Employers (our customers) are bottoming out, layoff-wise. In general, they've shed enough people and are becoming aware that they'd better hang on to the employees they have. The work doesn't always go away, so they use "contract' or "temporary" staff to fill in where needed. They're going to delay direct/permanent hiring for as long as possible, btw. This means temp will BOOM. Then comes "temp-to-hire" (like auditioning on their payroll), and finally direct-hire (headhunters, etc.). Keep in mind that there will be incredible pent-up demand for staff once we hit the elusive turning point. I think, as my customers do, that the turning point is looking close...Q3 is the most common guesstimate.

Anyway, temp will skyrocket, thousands of temps will convert to full-time corporate employment and then -- wait for it -- the folks who avoided being laid off in the first place will all play musical chairs! Most EVERYONE has a bad taste in their mouth about work after the last 12 months, right? People who want to make a move aren't budging right now due to fear. Once the cycle's hit bottom it will move up very quickly.

Here's my advice: register with any and all temp companies you can. Depending on your skills & the size of your town or city, there may be, literally, hundreds of them. Do some homework and select those that are specifically temporary/contract staffing companies -- not headhunters who also do temp on the side. The temp vendors have pricing advantages and they simply do more volume. The national companies are only concerned with top line growth right now, so they'll give their services away at a discount, but can't cheap-out on the pay rates -- you can't keep good temps with bad pay rates.

Call for an appointment. If you need a bit of a makeover, do it. Get that hair cut & colored, find a smart cheap resale BUSINESS outfit, and use the whitestrips. Ask the staffing manager for advice about your resume. How can you improve it? Do it. The exception on the resume rule is unskilled labor. You don't need one, and yes, there are tons of temp companies who provide exactly that. It's not about shoveling and climbing, btw. Unskilled labor often means assembly work, and their clients seem to prefer women and mature candidates.

Be flexible. Will you accept a same-day assignment? Weird hours? Let them know. Then follow up. Not stalking, just squeaky wheel.

The pay is not fabulous but it IS competitive. The boost in self esteem is dramatic. The potential to land a dream job is strong -- seriously! I've been blessed to be a part of that miracle for many, many people. That's another thread.

I'm back in temp staffing (business development) and working my pumps off...that's why no Elehhhhna on DU lately. I love this business. We help people. Once in awhile a miracle happens. I want those miracles for my DU friends.

Been meaning to write this for ages, sorry it's so off-the-top and random.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5267500

You seem to be missing the point that if your fellow unemployed DU'ers had any intention of doing something productive they wouldn't be unemployed.

That they are incapable of producing anything with value is a different issue.

MADem  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-16-09 04:51 PM
Response to Original message
1. It depends on the individual, really. Some people want to
   
hang with Mister Unemployment Compensation for awhile, and rethink their priorities. They don't want to risk losing their unemployment benefits on part-time or occasional work.

You take a temp job, that lasts a day, a week, whatever, it ****s up your unemployment benefits and can put one's elegibility at risk. Temping is an option when those benefits are exhausted, IMO.

Excuses aplenty - "I don't want no steenking JOB, when I can sit on my ass and "rethink my priorities" at the expense of the taxpayers.

MADem  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-16-09 05:07 PM
Response to Reply #5
13. The key word there is "generally." I think anyone who takes temp work and eschews unemployment
   
insurance is taking a HUGE gamble. HUGE. Frankly, if I were advising anyone, I'd tell them **** NO--don't do it. Sit at home and think about your life for a bit. Take the whole mess as a forced vacation. Think about economizing to stretch that check. Reevaluate your priorities. Figure out what you NEED, and what you simply WANT.

Think about what you want to do for the rest of your life. Don't rush into ANYTHING.

With state agencies getting more and more strapped by the burden of unemployment approaching double digits, they're going to start looking for REASONS to disqualify people. If I were an "intrepid" unemployment department wage slave who had been ordered to cut the rolls, I'd say that after a few temp jobs, that the applicant had, in effect, "changed his occupation" from full time cubicle whore to "temp worker," and consequentially, is no longer entitled to benefits. Does that sound mean? It sure does. It also sounds VERY plausible to me.

I've got three members of my family out of work. Two of them had to fight like HELL--and that included going to court--to GET their benefits. See, companies are trying to avoid having to pay out, so they'll lay people off, and then tell the court it was "for cause." Even when it wasn't, and the employees had been given raises and awards over the course of a decade or more.

FWIW, both relatives got their money, but it wasn't a day at the beach.

If your family members who are out of work would dedicate the same effort they did to get their unemployment - they wouldn't still be unemployed.

And of course taking a job that doesn't have benefits (other than pay) is just not acceptable.

Fumesucker  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Mon Mar-16-09 04:56 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. Umm.. how does that make them all that different than the great majority of employers..
   
"Temp agencies SUCK. They USE people, and then toss them away. "

I'm serious, that is the standard business plan in the USA and has been for quite a while now.

The concept of temporary seems to have eluded them.

[The Village Idiot]

a lot of companies will be going with temps and replacing them every 90 days or so to avoid new regulations and taxes from the O

[USA4ME]

MADem

The key word there is "generally." I think anyone who takes temp work and eschews unemployment insurance is taking a HUGE gamble. HUGE. Frankly, if I were advising anyone, I'd tell them **** NO--don't do it. Sit at home and think about your life for a bit. Take the whole mess as a forced vacation. Think about economizing to stretch that check. Reevaluate your priorities. Figure out what you NEED, and what you simply WANT.

Think about what you want to do for the rest of your life. Don't rush into ANYTHING.

For a group who constantly insist that conservatives are the one's who only think of themselves and not others, this post alone demonstrates just how self-centered they really are.

.

[Mike220]

Lets see, I've been unemployed 4 times

Once between HS graduation and boot camp
Once when I got out of the Coast Guard
Once between jobs with the union
Once when I moved back to Texas.

Never once did I consider going on the dole. I took temp jobs and "endangered" those benefits but I'd rather work than live like a welfare slob.

[Vagabond]

I had a one month period of "unemployment" back in 2005.  That was the longest time I've had in my life without a paying job.  We had saved so I didn't need the UI.  I had to wait for my first day at my new job at my old employer.

I decided I wanted to spend some time with my toddler aged daughter, and do some work on the house.  I was ready to go back to work when I started back.

Before I knew that I had the job, but would have to wait.

This was me applying for every job I could.....

[AllosaursRus]

a lot of companies will be going with temps and replacing them every 90 days or so to avoid new regulations and taxes from the O

YEP! The Home DEpot is now only hiring at 90 day intervals. They hire you for 90 days, at the end, you are GONE!

This is also a good thing, if these idiots think of it. If you quit or are fired, it's almost impossible to collect the gov's unemployment. However, if you are laid-off, you can collect.

I work part time with full bennie's because that is what I am worth. Something the DUmb DIpSHits find appalling! But I am also in under the new rules, heh, heh!