(Thanks for all the responses to this post yesterday. Still looking for unemployed people—especially, but not limited to, former Starbucks and Microsoft workers—so the post is getting another ride on the Slog today.)

ce20/1233250532-great_depression_unemployment_line.jpgThe layoffs keep coming. Anxiety keeps rising. Jobs are tough to find.

What I haven’t heard enough of, though, is what it’s like to sit there, laid off, looking for work, watching your bank account drain of savings and making contingency plans (or actual plans) that a year ago seemed ridiculous to even consider.

So I’m putting out a call. Think of it as a request for resumes—as long as your resume currently shows you as unemployed.

Send me an email with the subject line “Jobless in Seattle” (or “Jobless in…” whatever city you happen to be jobless in). Tell me when you were laid off / fired, what you used to do to earn a living, and, briefly, how you’re feeling about the whole experience. Loving life on the dole? Wracked with panic? In possession of amazing substances that make it all go away? I want to hear about it. Used to work at Microsoft, Starbucks, WaMu, or Boeing, and don’t know what to do now that you’ve been caught up in the mass layoff spree? I definitely want to hear about it.

My plan is to select a few people to follow on Slog, mostly using their own words, as they try to pass the unemployed days and, hopefully, figure out ways to land new work. So if you’re interested, please also tell me whether you’d be willing to have your real name and photo posted on Slog as part of this project. (Real names and photos are not a requirement. If you’d need to be anonymous, I’d still like to hear from you. But it will help me to know in advance.)

Again, here’s my e-mail address. If you’re unemployed and want to share, or know someone who is and would, please get in touch.

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...

31 replies on “Notes from the Unemployment Line”

  3. FYI, Boeing isn’t planning on sending out any pink slips until 2/20. If they are Boeing direct it’s 60 days notice, if they are a contractor it can be as little as one day notice. Here’s hoping I don’t contact you 4/13.

  4. One thing I’d like to suggest is this:

    Enroll for college night courses right now. And financial aid and admission.

    If you’re unemployed, you’ll feel a lot better if you’re learning new things, and it will look a lot better on your resume.

    And then spend your days looking for work.

  6. To support what Will in Seattle said, the UW’s Evening Degree program is still open for transfers and new admissions for the spring quarter. This despite the UW’s day program halting all new admissions and transfers.

  9. @6,

    To clarify, UW’s night degree program lets you take Communication, English, multidisciplinary Humanities, multidisciplinary Social Sciences, or Health Informatics and Health Information Management. If that floats someone’s boat, go ahead, but most of those subjects are pretty fucking useless, especially in this economy.

  10. Nice idea, Eli. I *was* unemployed most of 2007 so won’t bother to send an email as there’s nothing to follow currently, but in summary it’s a pretty sucky existence. I lost a good job that I’d had for 10 years. It took nine months to land my current position; six of it on unemployment and 3 of it temping, which was dreadful. The first week was like a vacation, but the rest of it was a slow-moving blur of boredom, loneliness, counting every penny, filling out dozens and dozens and dozens of resumes and applications, interviews and the sickening feeling of opening an email from a potential employer afterwards, knowing that you’re getting a polite rejection, the dejection, and general feeling of being cast adrift. I distinctly remember one day about six months in, waiting to hear back on a potential job, and just breaking down and sobbing for an entire weekend. I was fortunate at least that I have a partner that is awesome and supporting and who made enough to cover us both, but money was still much tighter without my added income. I had a pretty hard time landing a job at my salary and experience level in ’07, and that was before there were tens and hundreds of thousands of people suddenly out of work. I really feel for everyone going through this.

  11. @10, I know exactly how that feels. I have been sending out COUNTLESS resumes over the last 5 months, and I usually get no response or an automated response. If I did manage to get an interview, it was either really far away from home aka not worth driving, or they just interviewed me and never call me back. I had a customer service position interview that I was really depending on, and he didn’t even e-mail me back even though he said he would. I had to contact HIM, and then he was like “Sorry, I was on vacay.” THANKS BUDDY! I’ve had a couple interviews with agencies as well… where they’re all like “We’ll find you work” and then they never get back to me after the interview. WTF.

    Someone help a bitch out, please?

  14. You can probably fill your space without including freelancers, but: all my freelance jobs since October ’08 don’t add up to a full week’s work. It’s worse than after 9/11. On the other hand, am still enjoying the time off after working too much for ten years.

  16. I was unemployed this past summer following my graduation from college. It was nice a for a while, but eventually there was a two week long span right around when I moved to Seattle when I was sending out 7-10 resumes a day. I landed a few interviews, but usually a lack of truly relevant work experience sunk me for most jobs. Now I have an administrative assistant job, and while it’s extremely boring and unfulfilling, it’s still a job. I’m worried those new to the job market. Who do you take? Person you’ll have to dump a bunch of time into for training, a person who has several years experience doing a comprable job?

  18. I was part of a company merge at Macy’s, ie laid off. I left with the dreaded VP titled, so last summer I was ‘over qualified’ for everything. Now the same jobs I applied for last summer want a MBA and I’m not qualified!

  23. I lost my job yesterday, but was already in night classes to fulfill requirements for a Master’s program. I’m feeling good because of this, but otherwise I think I’d be totally freaking out.

  24. Let my experience serve as a warning. I was fired from a job once and I went to the unemployment office. There they told me I qualified for unemployment. I collected a condiderable sum over the next few months while I looked for a job. Then one day I received a notice saying my old employer was contesting my unemployment payments. I had a hearing at which the old boss lied. Since it was being recorded, I gathered up the evidence he lied after I was told I lost the case and would have to pay back the money immediately. But when I tried to contest the ruling based on my evidence, the judge said she lost the tape so I couldn’t contest her ruling. I believe she was paid off. I lost my place to live and had to move into my car because of this and now had a giant bill from the state to pay.

  25. Add one more. I just got laid off yesterday. Last day is next Friday.

    I’m not freaking out, I’ve been laid off before. Plus, I have a decent severance package.

    Sigh.

  27. @21,

    That offended by my insulting your liberal arts degree, huh? If it makes you feel better, I have a degree in one of those useless subjects, so I do know from experience how useless a liberal arts degree is. Anyway, my point still stands. UW’s evening program sucks and is not useful for people who have been laid off.

  29. keshmeshi: It also depends on the school, where did you go? Yes, I’m curious because I’m in a similar program.

    at least we’ll HAVE degrees.

  30. I am planning on taking a certificate course through UW in the fall when the program starts back up again, either for Flash programming or web design with adobe products. OY Vey.

  31. There is one advantage to the “useless” liberal arts degree, though. All those jobs that require a college degree for no functional reason are then open to you, which is nice.

    I remember about 10 or 15 years ago, there was a restaurant on the Ave that had a sign in the window: “Hiring restaurant staff. College degree required.” WTF. I fail to see how a degree is necessary for that.

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