Monday, May 02, 2005

Dance, Monkeyboy, dance!

What a waste of time. Since I had no choice, however, I went and danced for the NYS Department of Labor.

They sent me a notice that said, in essence, if I wanted to see unemployment insurance benefits, I would have to show up for a "Re-Employment Workshop". Granted, I'm unemployed, and it's not like I can snap my fingers and get a new job. Still, I really didn't think there was much they were going to be able to tell me about hunting for a new job.

I had no choice in the matter, so I went. Once there, I saw why people think so little of civil servants--because of guys like the one running this "workshop". I once was a civil servant, and I never cared for people making jokes, since the people I worked with were, for the most part, bright and hard working.

So what did he teach us? Nothing! He collected forms from us, ridiculed one woman who didn't fill out her forms in advance, and then he went into the navigation section of the class.

Navigation? Why, yes. One guy had a question--"I'm going to be working a temp position in Somelittletownin, Pennsylvania, so how should I handle that?" This got a half-assed answer, followed by the guy running the workshop asking, "Is that near Someotherlittletownin, Pennsylvania, because I have to go there on Friday? How would I get there?"

We then learned that if he goes over the Outerbridge Crossing, he'd find himself further south on the New Jersey Turnpike, thereby saving time, after which he could go to Exit 6 and head west into Pennsylvania.

Why, thank you, State of New York, now I know everything will be fine and I'll soon have a new, good job!

Anything else I need to tolerate before I get my checks?

Nice to see my tax dollars being so well spent!

3 comments:

Sam said...

If only we could be in charge of things! I'm sure if we were in charge the workshop would've been FABulous...!

Matt_Sweet said...

These things are a joke. Politicians want to be able to say that they don't just "give away tax dollars to the unemployed," so they make up these "How to find and keep a job" seminars. The seminars themselves are completely useless, because the people who go to them are either: 1) Long-time workers who are between jobs, and who don't need to be told "Wear a tie to an interview"; or 2) people who are either mentally or physically (although, usually mentally) completely incapable of holding down a job, and who need a lot more hand-holding than just "Arrive between 10 and 15 minutes early."

Jase said...

I went to one also, and it was such a joke... and I have authority in saying that because I worked at my college career center for 4 years!

(and if you must know, I did it for the money.)