Back on the air!

Oh good, my blog is back!  I couldn't get on for some strange reason...... but I'm back!  Right now I am dealing with trying to find a job, fighting for unemployment, and trying to get benefits from the county.  Let me tell you a little about what it's like to deal with the county.  First of all, there are those workers who care about their clients and who are concerned about helping them as quickly as possible.  However, in my experience, there aren't many of those.  Most of them just seem not to care.  I filed for emergency assistance to help pay my rent this month on the 19th of March.  Applications for emergency assistance are supposed to be processed within 5 days.  I provided the county with every proof they needed (to try and speed up and ease the process), and yet, despite 2 phone calls to my "worker"  explaining that I applied for emergency assistance with my application, that it's for my rent, and could we please hurry the telephone interview so this can be completed.  I received no call back (which is no surprise), and got a letter stating that my "phone interview" would be on April 5th.  Okay, so by the 5th of the month, without the rent being paid, I am assessed a $50 late charge.  In addition to this, she informs me during the phone interview that the "rules have changed," and I now need to send a form to my school and have them fill it out before I can get food support.  I faxed the form to the college, and asked them to fill it out right away, to which they replied that it takes 24 to 48 hours to process and return.  Okay, great.  Now I'm still going to have an empty refrigerator.....through Easter.....and beyond.  Now, there are those of you who would say....Well, you ARE going to get help, so what are you complaining about?  First of all, I still don't know if they are going to help me with my rent or not, and even if they do, I will have to pay a $50 late fee, because the county sure isn't going to pay it - even though they had my information in plenty of time to make a decision about it.  Second, and more important is the irony that when it comes to customer service, we all expect to be "served" as a customer with the utmost attention to our concern.  However, when it comes to needing and asking for help, we can expect nothing of the sort.  In fact, we should just be grateful that the help is available at all, and we have no right to complain.  I would venture to say that those of you who feel this way have never been unable to put food in your home.  First of all, I lost my job on February 13th, and I was only earning $10.50 an hour.  If it isn't apparent by those two facts alone I'll make it clear.  For nearly two months, I have been unable to buy any groceries - ANY groceries.  If my friends hadn't fed me during this time, I would have been in serious trouble.  Furthermore, I was only earning  j-u-s-t  e-n-o-u-g-h to put me over the limit for help, but not enough to live on.  Apparently, had I made about $100 less per month, they would have considered my rent payment in determining food support.  But, because I "made too much," they wouldn't account for my rent, so I was ineligible for help.  As a result, it has been a loooong time since I've been able to go into a grocery store, and just shop for what I need.  Never in my life did I expect to ever be in this position.  I couldn't even have imagined it 10 years ago.  Yet, I've been living like this since 2006.  Six years of being unable to buy food.  Just because I am asking for help does not mean that I should be expected to "take what I can get," and that I should accept bad service from my the county. I don't understand what it is with these employees, but I've seen it over and over again.  The first time I was ignored cost me a place to live.  It has cost me that twice, plus the loss of health insurance twice.  However, over the years, as I have had to request help on and off, I have found that it's useless to complain, and it's useless to expect any better from these people. This time, I simply realize that I have one of those workers who doesn't give two hoots about their clients' needs, and I'll just deal with it.  It's taken a long time to get to this place, and, believe me, I've been so angry at the county in the past that I even called a lawyer once to see if I could sue them!  Now, the job search is a job search.  It sucks, hopes are risen and then dashed, etc., just like anybody else who is looking for work, so I won't go into that.   Those of you who have been unemployed (and that includes at least 8% of you), know what it's like to find a job.  Unemployment, on the other hand, is a different matter; especially when the employer wants to fight the claim.  I filed my claim on February 14th, and, after a back and forth scenario with the State and my employer, I was found eligible for benefits, and received my first payment on March 14th.  It took a month.  Since my last paycheck came on the 17th of February, that was another time period during which I did not have any income.  Now my employer has filed an appeal.  If you could see me, you'd see me rolling my eyes at this news.  I am not surprised.  I worked for somebody who provided only what he was forced to as far as his employees are concerned, and, as a result, has a revolving door when it comes to employee retention.  Fortunately for me, I still get paid during the process, because I was found eligible.  Unfortunately for my employer, I know unemployment law.  I worked in a service firm that offered a service to employers to help them keep their unemployment tax rates down, and I did it for 13 years.  I went to hearings, taught policies and practices, answered claims, and tracked tax data, making recommendations to keep the tax rate down.  Because of this, I know that an employer can't just hand out warnings like candy, and expect to win unemployment claims.  They probably have, but because the employees didn't know how to fight.  Well, I do, and I know what misconduct is, and what misconduct isn't, and I was NOT fired for misconduct (despite what they say), so, despite their filing of the appeal, I'm not afraid.  I should be, because if I lose I will be cut off, and I will have to pay back what I've been paid.  However, the hearing isn't until the 23rd, and following that the Judge has 30 days to make a decision (which they usually take), so I feel pretty safe for right now.  Hopefully, I'll have a job by then, because if I don't get one soon I won't be able to pay May's rent, and emergency assistance will only help with April.  $223/week doesn't go very far when you have a $687 rent payment. However, it's very important to me to be able to fulfill my obligations to my lease.  I do not want to be evicted, and I do not want to move.  What I really want is to find a job that pays me enough to live on.  Is that too much to ask?