09-05-22: i'm listening to the fox news while i'm writing... right now they are talking about the difficulty that many employers are having filling open positions, and that unemployment rate is increasing... the fox crew is talking about the notion that there is some sort of government incentive for folks to not work, which is a big contributor to 'the problem'... i could approach the 'problem' from many perspectives and use all sorts of variables to give a logical analysis--but i'm not going to do that---i'm only going to approach it from my perspective, a fifty-something year old american-born citizen that's worked since i was kid--another important factor, i've been mostly 'unemployed' and somewhat 'self-employed' since the onset of the covid-bug in the USA... i've gone through some periods of unemployment, mostly in the last ten years or so, but never longer than a few months (to my recollection)... this time it's different, this time the regular self-contractor gig that i was doing severed around the new year of 2020... i was doing some pretty physical work, it was interesting and had some unconventional but decent benefits, the pay wasn't terrible, but it certainly was good enough considering the abuse that the job put on my 50-year old frame, and it certainly wasn't worth the aggravation of the commuter-traffic that i sat in, sometimes as much as fifteen to twenty hours per week of time that i'll never get back, time that i breathed in the exhaust of thousands of cars around me, as the slow-moving distracted-drivers spending more time looking at their devices and not the road or others around them for a minimum of an hour each shot, ten times per week... i miss absolutely none of that, not one fvcking second of it, actually... i also really Really REALLY don't do office settings/environments very well, there are far too many distractions in an office environment, even when i was in my own office you still get regular phone calls, and folks coming in for information or direction... i've been accused of not being a good 'team player' once or twice, i just work far better on my own in a less distracting environment... i started to become more social oriented and less productive when i worked in large office settings, i would have been at least twice more productive if they gave me a closet in the basement, or gave me the remote 'work from home' option, and it would have saved me hours per day commuting when i would have been 'polluting the air' with all the other commuters... some professions require regular human interaction, and the personality types that do well with it--i like people, and helping people, and working along side others, but if you want me to be really productive you're better to leave me by myself in a quiet environment and give me access to the knowledge and resources that i might need form time-to-time... i guess that labels me a bit introverted maybe, but really it's because i'm easily distracted and can loose focus and become ADD when exposed to large degrees of stimuli, it's wears on my noggin after varying lengths of time, and can lead to anxiety, especially with insomnia... drinking lot's of coffee isn't a good solution to that mess either, it's delicious, and the caffeine is nice sometimes, but it can put the anxiety closer to a mania... anyways, back to the labor shortage problem that some employers are complaining enough that it makes it on the news...
here are some of the points that i took-away from this latest bout with unemployment...
... commuting sucks, period
... some personality types are better working remotely
... the combination of driving in heavy traffic and going to a job full of distracting stimuli isn't healthy/sustainable for me
... i don't have the physical capacity to work certain jobs anymore, my frame is getting a bit gimpy
... insomnia exasperates the negative aspects of the first four points
... family needs are more important than employer's needs, government lock-downs and remote-learning for school aged kids that required more parental support showed me that, you have be a father before being someone's 'employee'
... vaccine requirements prevent me from considering many employers, i won't work for those idiots that enforce them, and the one's that 'no longer' enforce them have to tell me why they enforced them in the first place, i have to know that they learned their lesson, period
... face-masks are OK for a short period of time, but i don't wear them more than an hour, period
... you have the NIH and the CDC and the idiots that jumped on their band-wagon to thank for your so called 'hiring problem', those folks killed your labor force, it's close-minded to just say that unemployed folks are lazy and unmotivated
... but i think my biggest take-away from this last spell of unemployment is that i was not working in a very logical or sustainable job for me when covid restrictions began destroying people's jobs and livelihoods... i've learned that much, i should have been doing something else that was easier on my body, and didn't require an unhealthy commute
... i also learned that i don't live in a healthy environment, for multiple reasons, but we need to move soon, period
... growing and raising physiological needs (food) make more sense than commuting into a busy venue five days per week, but you need property to do so
... and, after fifty-something years i learned that i enjoy writing, practice increases skill, and there is earning potential, maybe a good job to transition into since my aging body requires change
... there are other things that i could mention, but that's good enough for now -- ct
09-05-22 later: two of the strangest papers that i've held in both hands, the birth certificate, and death certificate of a loved-one... the story in between them is ours to remember -- ct
09-05-22 more later:
the substack post on 'trauma' seems to be getting some decent views, i haven' pushed it much, so that's cool, but no one comments, some folks hate my poor use of grammar, i get it... the post speaks to God a bit, so that aspect alone will trouble some folks too... it doesn't matter, reality is reality whether we choose to recognize it or not, so it's better to write truthfully and it's acceptance will fall where it may, not all ground is granite, there is some soil out there... anyways... it's been a rainy labor day, not complaints from me, we need the water, plus it keeps some of the noise-maker motorcycles riding passed the house, the rain cuts-down on the window-shaking from insensitive idiots that don't give a fvck about their surroundings or other people, so i appreciate the rain -- ct