The Universe must have a perverted sense of humor. After an extensive three-year quest to find a job, I found one and was laid off two months later. Picking myself up again, I beat the odds and secured another job two months later. And now, ten months later, again I must pick myself up and start anew. At some point, the rollercoaster of unemployment has to end, or does it?
Imagine, I put my heart and soul into this last position with a nonprofit agency. I worked nights and weekends on an accreditation critical to the agency. I didn’t mind the extra work, because the effort was for the continued success of the agency. Aside from the mountain of documentation I revised, streamlined, generated and reviewed, I continued to seek ways to improve the quality system in place.
Having simply my extensive quality engineering/management experience, I had to quickly become a resource of answers to standards, contracts and requirements. Again, undaunted by a challenge, I studied and asked questions necessary to attain an understanding of a field in which I had no hands-on experience. Quickly I understood contractual requirements and provided input into whether current systems required changes.
After months of grueling work and constant travel, the survey took place over multiple sites. With 21 sites across the state, I was constantly on the road for weeks, educating, auditing and building relationships. I coordinated and lead the efforts. After three days, the survey concluded. The following week I was thanked by the agency’s President and the CEO.
Perhaps the final irony of final days of employment, I was presented an excellence award for performance for all I had achieved for the survey. Shocked, delighted and embarrassed I was given this honor by my peers and the good feeling was not meant to last. The following day, I was laid off, victim of the economy and the need to keep the agency in business. I am neither upset nor angry with the agency. My performance was not in question, but they had to make a tough business decision to eliminate my position and the positions of others.
Recently I learned my efforts had a fabulous outcome, as the agency received a three-year accreditation; a coveted award because the survey was the agency’s first attempt at accreditation and the accreditation has tenuous requirements. I am proud of my ability to take a project and see it through its successful conclusion. I work hard and have confidence in my ability for continued career success. I will continue to seek a permanent position in a time when nothing is secure, nothing is guaranteed.
I am disappointed by the failure of our current government to resolve the issues that affect the average American. I am disillusioned by the ability of a president to fulfill promises made to Americans such as myself. Unless someone has been in our predicament, no one can feel the stress, the fear, the uncertainty we feel unemployed. I cannot believe how tarnished the American dream has become in how we allowed jobs to be shipped out of America and how many continue to believe the empty rhetoric of a president who doesn’t the reality of being American and unemployed.