The Panda Bear is not at all surprised that the Democrats lost
control of Congress. The Democrats were defending in the position of
defending a poor economy. The Panda Bear would consider herself to be a
progressive but she thinks the American Right has been more accurate recently about
the state of the economy. There is high unemployment and the lower
nine-five percent’s income has dropped drastically in recent years.
People who have jobs are stressed out and feel discouraged by the lack of
opportunity. Probably many employees feel like indentured servants
rather than free labor.
The Panda Bear knows first-hand about the
high unemployment rate. On October 10, she lost her job. She went
to several unemployment agencies where the staff said the unemployment rate was
high in Massachusetts and people were having a hard time getting jobs (despite
the Democrats asserting things were getting better). However, the Panda
Bear has heard Massachusetts is not as bad as other parts of the country.
The Panda Bear's period of unemployment
will be short lived. On November 17, the Panda Bear will starting and
new a better job. The Panda Bear will learning some new skills and
earning more money in her new position. (The Panda Bear thinks it is a major
problem for both employed workers who are getting stale in the jobs and for the
unemployed who can’t get jobs that employers no longer want to train
workers. She can understand that
training workers is a major expense for companies but lack of company training
is creating problems for Americans).
Of course, the Panda Bear would not have
gotten a job so quickly if she had not been involved in an intensive job hunt
since July 2013, when her old office banned plants at work. In took the
Panda Bear several years for her to work on her resume and she paid for a
professional resume consultation. (In the modern economy with jobs being
so unstable the Panda Bear thinks everyone should be able to quickly produce a
good resume. Once when the Panda Bear was laid off very suddenly and
unexpectedly, it slowed to her hob hunting process a lot that it took several
months for her to develop a good working resume.)
For the jobs the Panda Bear's field of
work, the internet is the prime source of jobs. How, the job hunting
world has changed from when the Panda Bear started in the working world!!
She remembers buying the Sunday paper (for the help wanted ads) and sending in
resume and cover letter via snail mail. However, even, the best job
hunting web sites change. In 2013, the Panda Bear was told that Monster
and CareerBuilder were no longer the top job hunting websites; the best website
to look for jobs was Indeed(in fact, this web site was where the Panda Bear
found her new job). However, in 2014, the Panda Bear heard that
companies no longer liked Indeed but were recruiting from LinkedIn. In
fact, several employment counselors told the Panda Bear that companies were
telling the State of Massachusetts that they wanted all employees on LinkedIn.
The hiring process can take a long time nowadays.
The Panda Bear applied for her job in as soon as it was advertised in
July and she was offered the job on November 4. Therefore, the Panda
Bear thinks a person can be easily on unemployment for a year and be actively
job hunting.
Of course, the Panda Bear getting her
dream job and going to job heaven means that she will no longer be blogging
about her current job. The Panda Bear blogged about her old job more
than was prudent but jobs are a big part of one's life and if one is unhappy
with one’s job one can be unhappy with life.
Instead, the Panda Bear Blog will more focus
on the problems of the world. The Panda Bear recently read the
Autobiography of John Stuart Mill, the famous nineteenth century philosopher.
She was inspired by John Stuart Mill's statement that his being an
office worker contributed to his understanding of the world and enabled him to
come up with ideas for critiquing and reforming the major institutions of his
time. He was also for expanding the power base of his time for which the
Panda Bear admires him.
In the spirit of John Stuart Mill, the
Panda Bear will continue to blog; a blog of an office worker who wants to
improve the world and advocate for the lower 95 percent.
