UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AN AFFRONT TO WORKERS and WORKFORCE

This afternoon I'm writing another "blog on demand".  I asked my peeps on Facebook what really get's em hot under the collar right now - and several of them responded quickly about both unemployment AND employment. 

When I think about unemployment, I think that working today leaves employees both insulated and exposed.   Sometimes a nasty cocktail of naivete and negativity too.

Consider the current unemployment rate - and cynic that I am, I'm talking about the REAL unemployment rate. According to the fed website, the big bad Bureau of Labor & Statistics defines the current 10.2% unemployment figure as "the people in the work force who are looking for a job but cannot find one".  Gulp, that's 1 out of every 10 workers.  But wait...

As Mark Twain so aptly put, "Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable." You, my valued and insightful reader must see the conundrum - what about the under-employed?  What about the scores of unemployed who are now so disillusioned and disheartened that they have stopped looking?  Many estimates including the vaulted WSJ put the REAL number at 17.5%.  Good god!

And even though 17.5% unemployment is damn bad, that number doesn't include the self-employed like so many of my consultant, freelance and independent friends. 

And the news just gets better and better.  NOT.  The Bureau of Labor and Stats says that the number of 'discouraged workers' rose to 2.4 million in September. I wonder how they count that?  I don't disagree with the finding, but do they really survey unemployed people about this?

I have visions of a "friendly" federal employee who calls right at dinner time (naturally) to query: "say Mr. Jones, we were just wondering if you've had so many doors slammed in your face,  had so many job app emails disappear into the ether, and seen so many jobs eliminated that you've just freakin' given up?" Not a pretty picture.

My friend Maddy in Omaha wonders if some of those discouraged non-workers are being way too picky...refusing to apply because the salary is too low or it isn't the dream job.  Must be nice.

But the whole discouraged worker label is also where we find that insulated naivete.   Probably true in all biz, and certainly the one in which I labor away all day long.  My old buddy Dave from a tv station in Detroit mentioned this yesterday, "I get annoyed by people who are gainfully employed in this economy and still whine about their jobs."

Sure we are working harder for less, all of us.  We have less employees than we used to, and our salary is lower than it was a year ago.  In my shop, the only thing we are buying is duct tape,and that's just to hold the old stuff together.  That's the reality. That's November 2009.

But I'm amazed at the questions I OFTEN get about "staffing up again" and "raises soon?"  Seriously?  Have you heard a newscast, seen a headline lately?  Of course I'm even more chagrined because we are in the news business.  It is our job to know what's going on and even (dare I say it) understand the current realities of unemployment.  And so to those bastions of negativity, the low morale morass of the gainfully employed, I'd suggest O. Wilde's words, "The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one."


So for now, I'm not going to delve into why we are in this mess because you already have your own ideas.  And lord knows the answers are complex and long-term.  But in the meantime, let's try this:

• if you have a job you don't like, remember that there are at least 10 people who would happily take it off your hands 
• if you think an available job is beneath you, see the above
  
• if you need a job then commit right now that you won't be among those 2.4 million discouraged workers.  Keep trying.  Yes, it IS difficult and frustrating, but you are 100% guaranteed not to find employment if you stop looking

Funny, I used to think that television was an incredibly difficult career - a need to be creative and smart and focused and driven.  Right now we are certainly some of the lucky ones, and we should hold that thought.  If you aren't quite that lucky right now, remember what we used to say to each other when the going got particularly tough:  "Never ever let the bastards grind ya down!"

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10 DAYS OF GRATITUDE AND ATTITUDE

Some people online are using the month of November to post 30 things they are thankful for.  In my usual fashion I over thought the concept until November 17th and then boldly decided to weigh in with 10 things that I personally am thankful for.  Pretty damn bold, dontcha think?  Kidding, but even 10 days have proven a little more challenging than it sounds.

I have a ton of things that I truly am thankful for but articulation of those things on Facebook and Twitter begs a reaction from others, so I think carefully before I write.  I'm 9 days in, and here is my attitude of gratitude so far:

1. I'm grateful to have a job I love that makes me laugh out loud nearly every day.

2. I'm grateful for Facebook, seriously! Scoff if you must, but FB has spanned the limitations of time, space and age to reconnect with friends lost long ago. I truly enjoy every one of you and am thankful not to have missed this part of the ride. Okay I do enjoy some of you more than others, it is me after all:-)

3. I am thankful that I am the age I am. This feels like the perfect age... I'm old enough for "been there, done that, got the t-shirt" but young enough to have a helluva good time every day! In the words of Johnny Nash, "I can see clearly now" and I'm lovin' what I see.

4. I am thankful for high school football. There's nothing better than sitting in the stands on Fri. night, watching young men hit the gridiron with all of their heart. An all-American lesson in teamwork, leadership and passion. It took six kids but we finally have one who loves it, excels at it and is playing in his first ever championship game tonight. Go Hornets, Go Trev. T-G-I-F-Football

5. 6. & 7: (skipped the weekend!) I'm thankful for 3 amazing children: Hilary, Megan and Trevor. All interesting, beautiful, talented and hugely unique people that I'm very proud of. Each one has made my life much more full. It's not always been easy, but rewarding and joyful nonetheless. To my peeps: Hili, Meg & T - I love you guys


8.  I'm thankful that my life has not turned out like I planned. Often wonderful, occasionally horrendous but never, ever boring. If it had turned out like I planned I would surely be missing a helluva ride!

9.  I am thankful to be younger than Oprah, there I said it!  I don't even like nor watch Oprah and have always found her to be self indulgent.  But for some reason I was honestly just thrilled last week to learn that she is older than I am.  I may win the award for "shallow" today, but a girl has gotta do what a girl has gotta do...

As a personal and self-indulgent aside I'm also thankful to have the time, energy and ostensibly talent to pursue my passion for writing.  This blog, Elance, Technorati: ZRNQWEBMPP7M, the press releases, the ad copy, the first 10,000 words of a novel, the grant writing, the local magazine...writing, writers, the written word is THE BEST.

URBAN OUTFITTERS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES

Oh come on Urban Outfitters, are you serious? Really?  Your newest holiday "limited edition" sweater for young women proudly features a red mitten strategically placed over each breast...as though Santa himself is molesting my teenage daughter.  What's wrong with this picture?

My good friend Maryann emailed me the pic last night and told me how lucky I am that my daughters aren't teenagers anymore. I am not normally the grinch who stole Christmas, but this is just wrong. 

Urban Outfitters is a well-known and successful retailer that markets itself to "young women and men" and there's the rub as far as I'm concerned.  Anyone who has ever had the unmitigated joy of parenting a teenage girl knows that if it lives in Urban Outfitters, teens WILL find it hip, clever and fun.

On the Urban Outfitters website right now, nearly 100 customers find this trashy cardigan "adorable".  Oh please, there is nothing adorable about this. I think the customer who described it as "mitten-tits" is closer to the truth and that this particular customer is of the male persuasion.  Ya think?  That my friends, really makes my point.

I'm not a side-splitting yuckster but I like to think that I have a decent sense of humor.  And the concept for the sweater could be mildly amusing, in the right place.  But what contemporary and reasonable adult women do NOT find funny or adorable is that this is being showcased in stores that specifically target young women.  YOUNG women.  Extremely impressionable 10 - 14 year olds who already think that their parents are incredibly uncool will clamor for this sweater, put it on their girlish Christmas lists, or god-forbid ask their pubescent boyfriends to purchase it.  Ugh.

I don't normally use the word objectify, although it might be perfectly suited for this bit of Christmas finery.  The message is wrong for this audience.  Young women ought to be delighting in themselves and developing a sense of respect for their own bodies.  And young men should be learning what respect means when it is applied to girls.  Mittens on breasts is not any of these things.

Funny thing, Urban Outfitters is smarter than this.  Ten days ago CEO Glen Senk reported record earnings for the third quarter and a solid 19% operating margin. (http:money.cnn.com/news/newfeeds/articles/globenewswire/178234.htm) and they can't be running such a successful company by making many amatuerish mistakes.  But this $78 "Grey Antics Mrs.Claus Sweater" limited edition cardigan is exactly that.  Oh sure the sweaters may sell, they may even sell out, but that doesn't change the fact that this design should be outlawed in my house and yours.

The solution of course is crystal clear:  vote with your pocketbook, because that's where the rubber meets the road. Let's just say no to such a poorly conceived piece of clothing. Don't buy it, don't laugh at it, and don't let your daughters wear it.  We don't have to go nuts and picket Urban Outfitters - because between crazy jobs, prepping the Thanksgiving bird and readying for Black Friday battle, who has the time or the energy?  Just say no, as simple as that.

Although now I have a picture in my head of middle-aged moms with real mittens pinned to their matronly bossoms, proudly marching on malls across America holding signs that read:
MOTHERS AGAINST MITTENS and  DOES YOUR MOTHER KNOW WHERE YOU PUT THOSE HANDS?

Lemme know if you and your sign decide to take a stand.

USPS "you're fired"

According to the Associated Press this afternoon: "The U.S. Post Service did not escape the effects of the economic meltdown (http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing) and suffered a net loss of $3.8 billion for fiscal 2009. After $6 billion in cost savings and $4 billion in reduced payments for retiree health benefits, the agency still employs more than 712,000 people."

What clear headed individual would think that the Postal Service SHOULD escape the meltdown?  When George Washington established the Postal Department in 1792 I wonder if he actually envisioned it as the second largest civilian employer in the good old U. S. of A.  Yep, only Wal-Mart employs more people than our beloved postal service.  And maybe, just maybe Wal-Mart is a tiny bit more strategic and thus actually profitable.  Hmmm, carry the goods that customers want, treat those same customers as though they matter to you, marginalize the competition by beating them on price and selection.  What a concept!

Or you could go with the USPS model: "career" employees who behave as though every customer is a pain-in-the-butt to be sneered at or ignored, prices continuing to rise unabated while the so-called service declines, hours of operation designed by the union bosses with disregard to customer preference.  But if my job was described as "career employee" perhaps I'd be inclined to ignore the people who pay my salary too.  Oh okay, probably not.

Today's news about the United States Postal Service cannot come as a surprise if you've given it even a whit of thought. Aside from the tedious issue of a quasi-government job, don't get me started on either privatization or technology.  And yes, I'm sure the next step will be the elimination of Saturday delivery  http://blog.uspsoig.gov/   which comes on the heels of the current steady removal of the trusty blue drop off mailboxes.

Hellooooooo, anybody home?  When was the last time you wrote & snail-mailed a letter?  And god knows I am as change averse as the next baby boomer but I managed to leave the stone age and start paying bills on-line.  We really need to ask ourselves if we still need a United States Postal Service.  Do we?  Really?  Hasn't technology all but eliminated the need for it?   And if not now, then surely soon.  The framers of the consitution used the pony express and the telegraph too, but like the covered wagon some services simply outlive their usefulness.

If though, we need to look at the postal service as a contestant on Survivor, and give it a fighting chance to make it through to the next reality round,  the configuration must change.  Competitor Fed Ex has also had a tough year (http://news.fedex.com/) and has responded with a plan to save another billion dollars in 2010 by reducing personnel and work hours, streamlining technology and finding greater economies of scale.  In their own words, "We remain focused on providing outstanding service, and will ensure that our actions do not impede our industry-leading customer experience.”  Service and customers...sounds slightly like WalMart meets mailing and shipping!  Could it be?


As far as I'm concerned, we are rapidly approaching the lightening round for the USPS.  Either the union bends, technology is embraced, and customers are valued or it should go away.  The United States Postal Service may be a memory as fond as milk-men, gas station attendants and drive-in movies. 

CALL ME CRAZY...

I've decided to participate in NANOWRIMO - which is proving to be utter insanity!  Why? Because NANOWRIMO is the acronym for National  Novel Writing Month.  Basically a competition of sorts to write a 50,000 word novel from start to finish during the month of November.  The "prize" is really only the creative satisfaction of being able to say that you did it, so technically you are competing with a hundred thousand other people but mainly with yourself.  Naturally for someone as fiercely competitive as yours truly, there is nothing like a deadline and a challenge to get me fired up!

Insanity though - I have a good but fierce full time gig, I have a teenage son & a husband who both deserve some of my time, and of course I still have the broken foot!  Hmmmmmmm, yup utter insanity.  Kinda cool though and simultaneously mentally draining.  But what would "SandiLand" be without a new sense of drama?!?

So far the novel is a behind-the-scenes look at something near and dear to my heart.  Perhaps excerpts will be posted here, but only if time allows.  As of this writing I still have 47,000 more words to go so I wouldn't be holding my breath if I were you.  Gotta go, the story waits for no man...




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NY thru new eyes

You had never seen a taxi line so long. But you'd only been in taxi's twice before and weren't particularly schooled in the ways of big cities. Pregnant, bloated and waist long hair did NOT paint you as a big city sophisticate.

You were alone again, naturally. As you had been for every adventure. Not alone by choice but by chance. And it was suddenly critically important that you not look like the country-bumpkin that you secretly suspected you were.

Lesson number one, taxi drivers do not speak much English, do not seem helpful to clueless pregnant woman and apparently never clean their cabs. But look at the skyline! The names on the signs sound like those you've grown up with watching on TV, the Brooklyn Bridge, Greenwich, Harlem, Times Square. And you find yourself watching the people, staring really inside the relative safety of the steaming, grimy, speeding taxi.

You've never seen that much black clothing, well except for funerals back home – but not clothes like that, or shoes, or makeup. The cacophony of sounds was thrilling, horns beeping like so many motorized sheep, pedestrians yelling with arms outstretched and police whistles that never pause for a moment of quiet. You step out of your yellow car and into the arms of the jostling, impatient, uniformed doorman.

But after only 30 minutes of watching you already know to the bottom of your unsophisticated heart that your best suitcase is shabby and dated. The dress that seemed so nouveau in Phoenix hangs shapelessly out of style, almost embarrassed in it's own right. But you straighten your shoulders, baby bump out in front and from some unknown well deep within your psyche you begin to mirror the haughtiness you see all around you. "It's a cheap little bag" you murmur confidently to the valet "but the silly airline has lost my Louis Vuitton and I'd love it if you could take it for me".

The person formerly known as YOU was about to be buried deep within.



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