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Community Corner

Unemployment: Looking For Answers from the Machine

A recollection of a bumpy road and long line from the inside

It was said sarcastically, but only slightly so. Everyone on this line outside of the office building knew it to be true here at 7:45 a.m., with the snow up to our ankles and the queue already 20 people deep.

It opened at 8:30, but woe to you if you chose to arrive at that last minute. For your laziness, you would likely be the thirtieth person to speak to the Unemployment Office representative. And each person before you had an issue that required at least a half-hour’s worth of investigation.

What I said was, "You know, there’d be less people unemployed if the Unemployment Office would hire some unemployed people. Then, they’d lessen the list of the unemployed and be able to help the remainder much faster." I thought it made sense.

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"It’s like going to the Department of Motor Vehicles but getting locked out because none of the employees arrived ‘cause none of them have valid drivers licenses!"

That one got a pretty good laugh out of the line; and, that temporarily took our minds off the fact we were standing in a snowstorm, at the plumber’s pantswaist of dawn, freezing our own off.

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This was, after all, one of the worst winters New Jersey had seen in a very long time – brutally cold temperatures, a blizzard on the day after Christmas, like the middle finger of old Saint Nick after the bad little children tricked him into delivering them toys anyhow.

It wasn’t the fault of the employees inside either. One by one, each of them helped in the best way they knew how, and most of the times were met with success. They realized those who were standing outside were frustrated, angry, uncomfortable and tired, and when the occasional nasty character acted out of their impatience and less generous nature, they tended to roll with it. To them, I think, all the credit in the world must be afforded.

The infrastructure, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired. We all know that New Jersey is still dealing with ridiculously high unemployment numbers. I attended a mass interview for an insurance company and each of us arrived with hopes of finally landing steady work for steady income. Most of us had sailed past the points of the lucrative lifestyle, praying mostly to just be able to anchor off the dockside of the Paying My Bills on Time port.

In this room of 25 people was the spectrum of career experience, from the high school graduate, to the blue collar guy, to the folks with diplomas who never thought they’d have to compete with high school graduates and blue collar guys. Some were humbled, but all had hopes that this time, finally, they could move past this phase of their lives.

When you have so many, from so many disciplines, flooding a system that wasn’t really intended to accommodate those numbers, there is bound to be stress on the structural integrity. As with most things, though, it’s how that stress showed that made things worse.

Most of the heavy-lifting was done by the state answering machines which, most often, put you on hold for up to an hour to speak to a human being — that is, if you were lucky. If you weren’t, you received the following tender love song: "Due to the high volume of calls, we cannot take your call at this time."

Click. The line goes dead. Shockingly, this message was received by your's truly at 7 a.m. on a frigid Monday morning, facilitating my need to go into Neptune. I’ve been hung up on by people before. Who hasn’t? But to be hung up on by Rosie the Stinking Robot? Jane, stop this crazy thing!

Here’s the thing. Eight out of every ten times where I had to deal with a human being in the Unemployment, whether it was the local office or the state operation, they helped to the best of their immediate capacities. Ten out of every 10 times where I had to rely on the machine, the machine failed. It either couldn’t satisfactorily answer the question, rectify the situation or just plain stopped.

It is endemic of the job market, and its perilously strained state, that the machines we think of as the great facilitators, the overseers of expedience, and the magistrates of efficiency are screwing things up royally. They make the jobs unnecessary (in some cases) and then further hobble those that have been put out.

To close, let us rid ourselves of the notion of the lowlife slacker dragging on the system for free money with no effort, and let it be so once and for all. I have heard the stories of so many and, time and again, they mirrored my own. The desire and the will to work are there, critics! The jobs are not!

It is not the well-polished speech of a man or woman who cries for employment so that the officials think they’re sincere; and then when the money kicks in, they spend it all on lottery tickets. The sincerity is true.

There is something terribly disheartening about wanting to earn your keep fairly and squarely, but being told time and time again that "it’s not you, it’s us."

Worse is when the dangling carrot of a promise reveals itself to be bug-riddled. The stories I’ve heard (and some of which I have covered) regarding employees set to lose their jobs, attempting to keep their mouths shut for those last couple guaranteed paychecks before the lights go out, but wanting to tell someone what’s happening to them, wanting to ask if it is fair or right, are wrenching.

Then to find out their former employers are actively trying to wash their hands of them, some after many years of service, reduces any act of loyalty to a grinding pain in the stomach, a poisonous thought in the brain, all in wondering if these were wasted years.

To them, I wish nothing but the best. I hope the new figures that indicate a healthier market are real. I hope that the corporate gears that are so readily kicking them to the curb rust up and break off. If this is how they treat their employees, what do they really think of their customers?

To the displaced workers of New Jersey I say, the flesh-and-blood associates of this state’s unemployment system will help you to the fullest of their capacities. May you have the ability to speak to a person each and every time you try.

And be thankful the winter is over because that line still seems so very long.

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