Mainstream II

Getting Paid

Just based on my experience... Results may vary.

So what did the education get me? Well, the guy who hired me for my first full time job told me he figured if I could earn a bachelor's degree, I could most likely be successful working for him. Yes, I worked for a pay day lending company. I did collections. I ran branches and I trained new employees. Not a bad gig but after getting robbed a gun point twice I decided to look for a safer career choice. I did a little time more or less self employed but the income was non existent to erratic for paying rent and car payments. I then spent a little time in call center purgatory (I had done this before going to work full time). That was truly awful, even worse then stick-up men. I fumbled around adrift and out of a job for a year or so. But I got by. At last I had a chance encounter.

I ran into an old hippie friend from college, Christine, one sunny summer afternoon. She told me she worked at the Employment Security Commission (unemployment office) and to come see her. I did. Right away she helped me find a part time job grading school papers. It was cool but I was not going to get rich. So I still came to see her every so often. She helped me get an interview where she worked for another part time job. Months went by and I had given up on it and found another job in customer service head set hell. I still needed to eat and the paper grading was seasonal. Then "Hire the Handicapped Week" rolled around. The Employment Security Commission called me in for another interview. Sure, why not? It was a short interview and when I got home there was a job offer on my voicemail. "Hire the Handicapped Week?" I'll take it! After a year or two I became a full time state employee, A Made Guy! That was almost twenty years ago.

It has been a good ride so far. Early on, I was instructed to put together job fairs with 15-20 employers once a month. It was kind of like head set hell all over but easier. It was making show time! That made it fun. My role has mostly been helping people find jobs. But I learned about Unemployment Benefits as well. I got a new role. One day my Supervisor told me, "Paul, go in that room full of random people and tell them all they need to know about Unemployment Insurance." I got over any fear of speaking in front of groups real fast. That's a good skill to have. Later on I took Unemployment claims; in state, interstate, federal and military. It was always changing. It seemed for every rule there was one odd exception. A few years ago they centralized Unemployment to one main location and I went back to mostly helping people find jobs. I could populate a book with characters (both customers and co-workers) I've met over the years. And I'm still there as of this writing.

I've got one more thing to discuss about having a disability and working. Self-employment. That will be the last in this series.