T-minus two days and the count down continues

So the day before I'm to leave, I was told that I needed to train a third clerk to work on reports during 1st shift.  The printer at the workstation nearest mine doesn't work so all of the training was going fine right up to the point where the batch sheet had to be printed and then the clerk needed to move back to the work station they normally sit at.

And here's where the training goes sideways a bit. The clerk nearest her butted in while I was training. An action that no one needed and after I was done, I had to go talk to the supervisor about it. And the supervisor divulged that the clerk was already talked to one about their bullying behavior on the floor and their inability to focus on their work and not what everybody else was doing. Fun, fun.

So the rest of the day for me was just working on Joe's report which, you could say, had become obsolete with one sentence from the site manager, but it gave me something to do between working on the two other reports.

I'm really looking forward to my long three day weekend for starting my new job.

The countdown begins. T-minus three days and counting...

Posted on a friend's Facebook page on 03/17/2020 because he's a coder in WA who's been virus sequestered by his employer and is now working from home until further notice:

Greetings from California! 
It's all doom and gloom at the federal contractor job having to be reminded of COVID-19, the need for ritualistic hand washing and social distancing (and here society thought that we internet nerds got social isolation all wrong-now it's a positive thing and considered self-preserving, HA!) on CDC signs posted every 6 feet or so. Today, my employer issued a proclamation that we can take 10 consecutive days off from work if we or a family member gets sick with no pay and without losing our jobs. I don't know if I should be happy or sad about that, to be honest, but I don't care all that much because Thursday is my last day. I start the new job Monday. Three-day weekend - here I come!

---end.

I like this photo I found on the internet of the path through the forest and the sunshine shining through. It reminds me to look forward and to stay positive because something better is coming on my journey through life.

I previously told my bosses boss, "I'm not staying for this (working on reports for less than I was making before and on a temp contract with no union safety net like the other clerks.) That temp contract ends on 5/02/2020 and I was not going to be one to be laid off yet again. I did two years as a federal contractor as of March 15th and it looks like that's maybe the end of the road for me there because having so many with tenure there precludes me from being retained. Whatever. It's not the end of the world for me and I'll be happy not having to deal with 430-some odd peoples germies all in the same office space every day handling their paperwork. It's literally an incubator of sickness waiting to develop at a moment's notice. Even though not protected from the coronavirus, I'm so glad that this past year was the first year I got the flu vaccine in September and I haven't got sick yet.

Was training two more clerks to work on the reports on the PM shift and one more on the morning shift. Was joking with the reports analyst, "So it appears that it will take three clerks to replace me." Heh. 

I have a different opinion

https://www.zdnet.com/article/for-indian-it-the-h-1b-is-dying-long-live-the-h-1b/

The jobs not filled by H-1B Visa workers remain unfilled because the wages American workers demand are probably more than what are offered to a 1st year foreign workers.

Job Progress Report 3/16

I'm two weeks into a contractor position and I'm loving it. I'm back in to file room operations and supervision. The big project drops in another two weeks. It's what I was hired for and they allowed me to start early during to ramp up.

Earlier this year, a colleague reminded me that one of my goals was to become the county recorder. Isn't it interesting that others sometimes hold you more accountable than maybe you do yourself.

I'm O.K.

Reading this made me feel a little bit better about my decision to quit AAG back in March. 

Serious Boss Advice

I'm not an expert communicator, but I felt something was wrong and that I needed to move away from that feeling. I'm glad I left.

Job Progress Report 5/10

Today is May 10th and I'm 46 days into my resignation and things are looking up in the jobs department at Me.Inc.:

• I got a haircut
• I've brushed up my resume
• Updated my LinkedIn profile to include my notary commission as self employment
• Joined monster, careerbuilder, branded.me
• Multiple recruiters are in play 
• Hiring managers have requested my resume
• Recruiters are emailing/calling

I've tried to keep an open mind about what skills I have and how they can be applied to roles other than mortgage loan post closing. With that being said, I developed an administrative assistant resume with a role in mind with a large local employer. Also, I was contacted about a reports analyst job at a medical insurance company (which is attractive to me because everybody needs medical insurance but not everyone is in the position to obtain a home loan), so I'm brushing up on my Excel skills.

And even while I was typing up this blog post, I got a call from another recruiter asking me if I wanted to interview for a Correspondent Purchasing position. Now I understand why that company is the way it is if they are contacting people to interview for roles they need to fill with zero experience, hiring them at a lower salary because of that fact, and then when they go through their trial by fire and fail, bloop, they get canned and the role becomes open again shortly. I feel like I dodged a bullet.

It's also 8 days from my departure date to be with my family for my uncle's memorial. A decidedly somber event. I think we all agree that his passing was sad but also blessing having witnessed him living with Alzheimer's disease and watching his slow demise. 

1st Day

Today, August 10, 2015, I have started a new chapter in my career working back in Orange County again and closer to home. Today is my first day at American Advisors Group, the largest reverse mortgage originator in the U.S. and I'm the new Inventory Control Supervisor.

I'm not so perfect after all

To be honest I never was perfect. Nobody is. Perfect is subjective. At work, I have been auditing the data that goes into a database and it was hell as well as heart wrenching to find out that even with all my diligence, it's not right. I am but a conduit to the errors that come from other people in other departments. As my boss would say, "garbage in / garbage out". I suspected there was a problem. My mood was down-to-work and focused as much as I could bear without literary wanting to scream at the top of my lungs in order to release my frustration. Once it was turned in, I couldn't get it to signed off quick enough and then the client started calling me.

And then after I could clear my head of the most important self-audit I performed for work, then that's when I decided that there was no qualified candidate applying for the vacant supervisors position and dreading that I would have to either train a co-worker or someone from the outside who has had supervisor experience but that would be useless to the 'processors' in the department, I applied.

My interview was Thursday with HR. I left my competition in the dust. My resume is so linear and focused, pretty much any company who was looking for what I do would at least take a look at it. There is good and bad with any job that you do, but in this new role, I bring more knowledge, technique and experience than the sum of my competition. Besides, it would be easier to hire a business analyst to do what I do with that database  than clone me.

It could be considered mid to late January and now it finally feels like winter in Southern California. Supposedly, it's another "La Nina" year, so we are anticipating a lot of rain. Well, at least there were showers for the past two days.

2012 also has brought me a new role with the HOA... that of the Treasurer. Our past one just turned 90. 90! She was still making deposits of laundry money... rolls of quarters. If you don't do it once a week, that damn bag gets heavy. I have a canvas bag I sling over my shoulder for the task. Paying the bills are entirely another story. The president is a bore. Blah blah blah, no action, blah blah, rule breaker, blah blah blah. He doesn't do the walk throughs. He doesn't fix anything. The budget is screwed up because of the foreclosures. It's frustrating. I need to figure out ways to cut back because he surly isn't doing it.

More later.

Job? What job? Part 2

My son went to an interview at BevMo. So many people applied, they conducted a group interview outside their front door. There was 12 people. My son got a callback for the background check and drug screening at 5:30PM while he was at school. He returned home after the manager went home so he didn't get the info he needed. The next day he called in, he said there were no hours available to place him on the schedule. It seems the 11 other people may have called in. Grrr. Getting and education is tough if people don't have a cell phone. He gave his up a few weeks ago because he couldn't afford to pay for it anymore without having a job.

In Other News...

Read: ADAAA Notice

This is good news for people with Crohn's Disease. If it's an ADAAA approved disability, it must be taken seriously. I've never claimed to be affected until I worked for ResMAE and they were good to be about it. I always liked solitary work anyway, but I just wanted to sit by someone so being near the 30 day + collections team and REO was fine by me.

Job? What job?

So I get a call from a recruiter on Wednesday who tells me about a job and then Friday he calls to say an internal candidate is getting first dibs at the interview. Grrr.

Helen Keller

I once had a manager that gave me a placard for Christmas which read:

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows ... Helen Keller".

Basically, it says to stay positive.

It's been exactly two months since I was laid off. Yesterday, I received a phone call out of the blue from a recruiter about a FHA shipping position. Today, I found a VA shipping position online. It's not exactly the work I want, but it will allow me to pay my bills and get on with my career without having to move to Texas. I'm so over qualified for these jobs, but you never know...

6:1

I just heard there are 6 jobs seekers for every job posted.

It feels like it.

No positive responses, just auto generated "We received your resume" emails.

Hrmmm.

Are you qualified?

I found this and I had to laugh. I'm glad I'm not a waitress.

It's almost over

The contract job I'm on is almost over. I am being released on Friday, the 21st.

I won't miss:
-getting up at 4:45 AM every weekday
-driving to and from Simi Valley every day
-the time wasted sitting in rush hour traffic
-traveling through the Orange Crush and the East LA interchange twice a day with, I feel, some of the worst traffic bottlenecks in the state
-the parade at 10AM and 3PM of the people walking to and from the big vault
-the food in the cafe which made me sick most of the time
-the food in Simi Valley which was very 'hit or miss'
-not having a social life

I will miss:
-that 'hot mess' of a co-manager, LOL
-my manager because having one in Dallas instead of breathing down your neck is so much cooler
-obviously, the pay check

I'm not sad about it. It was a learning experience. I could write a book about race relations, but more on that, maybe, later.

We need those jobs here!

I read this article today:
US firm to close branch due to lack of employees

... and then I thought about all those mortgage companies that closed in Orange county over the past few years (such as the one I used to work at), and all those people who are still struggling to find a decent job because the unemployment rate in California is over 10%, and then I put two and two together and said to myself, "Why can't they move that branch office from North Dakota to my town?" We have ample people who need jobs and enough office space to house a branch off of Redhill Avenue. What can we do to bring this company to California?

And the answer is, "Not a damn thing." The governor has raised taxes again for businesses and employees alike making it unattractive to bring new companies into California from other states. If anything, call centers like the one described in the article that is closing in North Dakota would be located in remote areas like Lancaster where companies can keep the costs and wages low being located in generally depressed areas.

I like the fact the President Obama is throwing money at the problem of unemployment, but I wonder really how it's going to get to the tens of thousands of clerical office workers who need it. People who build roads won't hire me or my friends to do a man's job. People who build houses such as framers, drywall, tile, paint and plumbers, rarely want to take on concrete or asphalt work. And then there is the "We have a job for you *if* you have the experience". The golden question surrounding that is, "How do you get experience in a field you've never worked in before in order to get a good paying job?"

Sometimes, I think the free market economy we live in is highly over-rated.

The Next Job

What am I going to do about my employment situation? It's been almost a year since I took this contract and all bets are off that it's going to turn into a permanent position because of Bearingpoint's bankruptcy filing. At first, my manager said I'd go permanent and stay on the contract. Then the story changed to one of I'd go permanent and then go onto work on a different contract, but that never came into being. And now I'm getting a story that sounds something like when I can think up of more ways to extract money from this one company, then you will get on that contract. Don't get my wrong, I am grateful to be able to bring home a paycheck with still so many of my friends not working or underemployed, so if you think I'm badmouthing this position, you're wrong. I actually like the job, I just wish it was closer than 70+ miles away from my home. And I also have heard the statement, "Why don't you just move there?" Well, for one, I own a condo that has a mortgage payment that is cheaper than rent, so why move? Secondly, Simi Valley does not feel like home to me. It feels very similar to Fontana and I left there in 1992. I don't want to move to a place that brings back memories of the place I left years ago.

I'm looking for other opportunities, but I'm not finding anything that is a good fit for me. I'd like to find another MERS job, but those are hard to come by in California. I keep seeing those positions come up in Texas and other states I won't even consider living in due to their harsh weather. I'm tiny and I get cold so anyplace with snow is a 'no go'. I'm just going to have to keep looking until I find something or the opportunity to go back to school to become a bookkeeper/accountant presents itself again...

Thank you, Germany

To top off an already bad employment situation here in the U.S., Deutsche Post will close DHL effectively eliminating 9500 jobs. Merry f*cking Christmas.

Read: Deutsche Post to cut 9,500 jobs in US

The whole idea about existing in a free market society is to have competition and options. Since this one will be gone, you'll be stuck with FedEx or USPS. Pay thorough the nose or pay with your time. Not much if a choice now is it?

This, already on top of the grim news California is facing...

Read: California's Unemployment Rate Over 7.7% - a 14-year High

All I know is I'm happy I'm working and I don't know where I'd be now if I didn't take this contract position back in March. I know people that have been out of work for over a year now.

My Life - Rain Delayed in Dallas

I'm supposed to have an interview today with a lady who is flying out from Dallas to especially talk to *me*. Pretty fancy, huh. She woke me up from a dead sleep at 7:45 AM to tell me she's having to delay her flight because of weather. Oh, man. I'm glad she called to let me know because I would have if it were me who was the one who was flying. Maybe it's sign #3. One being 75 miles to the job site and two being they won't supply me a laptop for the gig. Hrmmm. Hrmmm and Hrmmm.

WFAA Dallas News link about the weather 9AM CST

Four months down

Thursday, March 6th, will be four months since I lost my job due to a company closure. As my local One-Stop counselor labeled me a "dislocated mortgage worker", and I think that I need some help is getting on with my life and finding a new career because the mortgage industry has pretty much dried up here in Orange County. I've got an appointment with WIA on Tuesday to see what that's all about. They offer re-training for people like me with no college degree who cannot find work in their normal industry due to lay-off ... etc ... etc ..., but I do not know the details of the program. I hope I can qualify for it.

Yes, I think I would like to take advantage of the program if I qualify because I have had 5 interviews within the 61 applications/resumes that I have filed with companies in both Orange and Los Angeles county for these past almost 4 months now. I'm afraid of running out of unemployment insurance funds and still not having a job and then running through my savings and losing my home in the end. I do not want that. I do not want to become part of the foreclosure statistics.