An observation from yesterday while reading the Sunday newspaper – I am having a hard time equating an article concerning the high unemployment rate with the large number of pages of places seeking employees. Somehow they just don’t match up. If there are so many places looking for employees how can it be possible that our unemployment rate is so high? It cannot be all just skill level and experience related issues, can it?
In a recent conversation with the general manager of our local Carmike movie theatre, Ryan said, “It is hard to find young or older employees who can speak in coherent sentences while looking the customers in the eye and intentionally engaging them in conversation.” The other issue he and his staff get tired of dealing with are the individuals who get hired, but then want to “play” around and not do what they have been hired to do.
I believe that the jobs are out there if the individuals who are looking for work are willing to start at minimum wage and only at a part-time seasonal level. You have to start someplace.
I am thinking of David B. who was a member of my Tampa church. While in high school he started working at Busch Gardens as a part-time parking lot attendant. Not much of a job, but it was still a job. He worked hard and after graduating from high school started to take advantage of their educational incentive program where you can work and go to college at their expense. He finally graduated from college and because of his faithfulness to his job they offered him a full time position. It was an entry-level position, but it was still a job. Well, the end of this story is that through long hours, tireless effort and a willingness to do everything that they asked him to do, David finally ended up as head of their human resource department for the entire organization. David was willing to pay the price – long hours, tireless effort and open to whatever he was asked to do even multiple moves to various cities throughout the country. It was hard and on a number of occasions he had contemplated leaving the company because it just seemed like it wasn’t going anywhere. Through it all he had a number of bosses that were extremely demanding and hard to work for, but he decided to stay with it to see where it would lead him.
I am also thinking of my youngest daughter who recently purchased a new townhouse and in order to rebuild her emergency savings account and get a little ahead on the mortgage she decided to take on a part-time job in addition to her full time job. She went on-line and filled out numerous applications and within a matter of just a couple of weeks she landed her part-time seasonal job at Lowe’s. The “seasonal” was soon dropped as she became a permanent part-timer. Many weeks this little part-time job has her working 32 hours a week in addition to her full-time job.
The point I’m trying to make is that I believe that the jobs are out there if a person is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make them work, put in the effort, go the second mile and start at the bottom. In other words – reinvent themselves.
Related to this topic is the horrible catch-22 situation with our welfare government program. Let me share two stories:
Story #1 is about a young man hired at the Tampa church to be our custodian. He had a horrible employment history, but we decided to take a chance on him. It wasn’t too long before we realized that he needed a lot of direction, but was a hard worker, willing to do anything we asked of him and went out of his way to help the members of the church. So, we decided to begin to increase his salary once a quarter. Going into his second year I was thrilled at the opportunity that I was provided to offer him a substantial raise in salary, but was stunned by his reaction upon receiving what I thought was great news. “Pastor Jim,” he said, “I’m sorry, but I cannot accept the increase in salary. I appreciate what the church is trying to do for me and my family, but you see I receive HUD housing assistance and food stamps and while what the church is offering sounds great it will take me beyond the government’s financial assistance threshold for these two programs and will force me to finding other housing and pay for all of our food without help. We would not be able to find affordable housing nor continue to feed our son a good balance meal on the salary that you are offering. We need the government’s help which would end if I accept your new salary for me.” He left my office sad and I was angry at our government for creating assistant programs with so little flexibility that they actually keep people in a state of poverty and dependency.
Story #2 is about an ethnic minority father of three young children. He was unemployed. I engaged him in a conversation at a free health clinic for the homeless and needy. Based on the information that he provided I said, “I know that the local Burger King was hiring individuals. Would you be interested?” “Normally,” he responded, “I would jump at the chance to be employed, but I have a family to provided for. The Burger King job, which I was hired to do, would pay me less then what I am presently making on unemployment, so I had to turn down their job offer. If I wanted to leave my family to fend for themselves then okay I could take that job, but I want to be a good husband and father. They have to come first, so thanks, but no thanks.”
Sometimes our “system” gets in the way … we really do need to find a better way to get to a different end where everyone can have a feeling of self-worth and our government assistance programs become a step up instead of a keep down process. We’ve got to find a better way.
Quote for today: A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun. ~Thomas Carlyle
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