Last post I alluded to feeling cranky and anxious and there
IS a specific cause. It’s the
unemployment agency. For the second time
in my life I filed a claim. It used to
be in this valley that you could get a job faster than filing for unemployment
so I had never bothered, but that was a long time ago. Now it can take a while to pick up work, and since
I’ve paid into the system I’d kind of like that assistance to float me. As it is, I’m going on almost two months without
work already. This is not conducive to
the bills I have to pay.

Anyway, I called the hotline to ask some questions about
filling out the forms (because it had been a few years since I had done this)
and got this guy with total
attitude! He was very patronizing AND he
kept interrupting me!  Like every time I
opened my mouth he talked right over me. (And rudeness in general really pisses me off.) Then after he interrupted me he’d go off on
some assumption that was not what I had said. Example, I had asked if you could reschedule appointments and I mentioned my son was in preschool and
he turned that into “Well, it sounds like you have childcare issues so you may
not qualify…”

What the fuck?

The whole attitude was that I was trying to screw over the
EDD, and I felt just flat-out insulted. I’ve worked since I was a teen. I’ve put in more money into that organization than will ever be used (at
least by me). I’ve even given up
unemployment benefits to work freelance because
it was work. Because that’s what I
do. Even when I’m not working, I’m
working. You know?

So I had an in-person interview yesterday morning and I was
totally prepared to SHOW I was looking for work, and to present my resume, and
discuss childcare and my work qualifications, and yadda yadda yadda. Because this guy had pretty much psyched me
out to think it was going to be a witch hunt of unemployment disqualification
(which pretty much shot my week). I went
in there trying to be relaxed but wondering if it was going to be a big fight. 

And they were perfectly nice.  This was the place where they gave you all the
resources to look for work. I was told
on my interview that I was doing “everything right”. One of the ladies swooped in and said how
professional I looked and then gave me a whole list of leads. I ended up chatting with her and another
young man working there for about half an hour after my interview. (Side story: the lady who helped me looked
like a sweet grandma-type… turns out she used to do insurance fraud investigations
and check-up reports on parolees. How
kick ass is that? (She was encouraging
me to check out those fields myself, but I have to decline.))

I feel better now. Just getting that leg over and done
with. However, I’m still scheduled for two more phone interviews! Keen figures it’s one of those deals where
you get a whole lot of hassle in the beginning and then they forget about you. 

I hate bureaucracy.         – the weirdgirl