If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I have been unemployed for some time, thanks to a disgraced, former administrator that had a God complex and a penchant for not only coddling criminals but engaging in acts that border on marital infidelity and criminal activity. Before karma lowered the boom on him, he re-hired someone who engaged in embezzlement whereas I was fired for misplacing a piece of paper. That's sadly...another blog for another time.
But I'm not bitter.
No really, I'm not.
But since the current yellow brick road of unemployment started, I have received surprisingly few rejection letters. That's right, I said FEW. Most of the time my applications and all related paperwork just apparently take a trans-dimensional one way trip into oblivion, or, for those not used to $20-$30 words, they vanish. It is the one thing that sticks in my craw worse than anything. My reaction to it has gone from apathy to near survivalist-paranoia. More than anything else, it's the utter frustration that nothing ever comes of it.
Today, for example I received a rejection letter from the Postal Service. Apparently I am ineligible to be a City Carrier Assistant. It's also the fifth time that I have actually received an answer on an application I had submitted. One of my friends pointed that out to me, and I agree that even a negative answer is an answer. To a degree, I am grateful but at the same time it bothers me. Yes it was an answer but it gave me no reason why. I am a male and I am data driven. Just declaring me ineligible tells me nothing.
Moreover, it smacks of being in the bunch of applications that were randomly selected for ineligibility as opposed to be read and understood by a human being. Of everything that has gone on in this forced exile from a paycheck the fact that the human element is completely removed from the job offer decision. As I have expressed previously, it used to be apply, interview, hired or not hired. If not hired, why. Now there's a computer intervening and removing the human element from the equation.
I guess some brainiac decided that an interview process would be too time consuming for the other drones to engage in. I mean it is the Post Office, what else do they have to do there except sort mail and jump at every sharp noise? It's bad enough that the mail service is on it death march thanks to the very medium you are reading this blog now, automation has taken over the decision making process when it comes to hiring people. And the worst part, if you subscribe to the SkyNet machines eliminating human theory, (which would be silly because the Terminator movies put the day that the machines attacked in 1997), instead of flipping nuclear weapons at us they are eliminating the need for humans through application attrition.
Think about it.
Kidding aside there is definitely a change I need to make here and it needs to happen quickly if I'm ever going to see a paycheck again. I'm obviously not doing something right here. I don't want to lower my standards but at the same time I don't want to compromise my principles. I feel after 25 years in the workforce I have earned the right to be a little selective in what I do and where I go. It seems to be a little arrogant to do that, but maybe that's one of the things that deserves a re-think.
So the storm rolls on...
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