who needs a job?

[falsfire3401]

Interesting...

I know in these hard economic times people get let go from their jobs and times can be tough. I also know quite a few people who are jobless and have been jobless for an extended period of time. 2+ months. I have a nice job, chair and AC so I cant complain. However I do know that if I got fired or let go, the first thing I would do is walk across the street and get a job at good old Burger King the same day. I don't have to like it, but working there and pulling in min wage while I look for my next job is better than what I see most jobless doing by passing up jobs because they are beneath them.

I had this same discussion (read fight) with my ex-wife. While we were together I found myself unemployed and she didn't understand why I wouldn't just go get a McJob. The way the math worked out assuming I worked a 40 hour a week job at McDonalds getting a GOOD wage (say $8.50) I'd be losing about $8.50/hour worked over my unemployment insurance. I'd also spend all my time at work so I couldn't properly research positions with other companies and prepare for interviews.

In my career I've had several points when I was unemployed, and each time I've immediately filed for unemployment and fired up the job-finding-engine known as beating the streets/phonebook/interwebs.

There is no shame in it, it's insurance that you pay for - and by not using it you are only shorting yourself.

It's a little different here in Canada. Unemployment Insurance kicks in after about 4 weeks (backdated to 2 weeks after you were let go), and works out to more than minimum wage. Whenever I've been unemployed I figured rather than spend 8 hours a day earning less than what I would earn on UI, I'll spend that 8 hours searching for work, and it's always paid off. The unfortunate thing is there's a maximum amount UI will pay and it's quite low, ridiculously low compared to what I earn, so much so that we couldn't get by on it for long at all. Fortunately the last time I was let go, I found my next job and started it 9 days later, and was still on the six weeks' severance and benefits from my last job (which they gave me in exchange for me agreeing to not file a wrongful dismissal grievance against them), so I was actually collecting two paycheques for five weeks. That was rather nice, but it hurt come tax time the next year, having that double-my-normal-income period of 5 weeks.