Welfare-Seriously

This new group has fourteen attendees. I start from scratch to day July 30, 2012 @ 9:00am.

 I was on time and never missed a day before I will do the same again this time, my name was not on the pre-printed list, I had to write it in and neither was my client ID # hmm…Here I am going over the same orientation spiel again, over again and expect different results…How come my name and id number are not printed on the sheet? I want to ask the question, but somehow I feel it will count against me if I open my mouth to protest about anything. This is a big deal, isn’t it?  My name is missing from the new list, how come? I wanted to know why, I did mention it and I was told, “oh, I’ll add it”, and of course the next time I saw the list it had not been added. I despise incompetence. I am feeling that everyone is crazy; they have decided to go with the crazy flow. I feel crazy for going along with crazy. 

Next, we took a test online at 41q.com in computer lab right before lunch, after lunch, back to the computer lab work on pulling out my skills by years from my work history, being sure to cover most recent 10 years. I decided to create a task list style resume, like a profile short bio, my name and number and email and then what tasks I’ve done over the years employed without listing any employers or positions titles.

I will make the introductory summary a short list of personality traits according to the 41q.com results like dynamic thinker, assertive and outspoken…then I list experiences by year 2000-2006, 2003-2007, 2007-20011, 2011-2012 with duties handled in jobs in those specific year spans. This is going to be different and unique and it may even get the interview. Besides the resume they created in the program stinks, I’ve been told that by a person who graduated with an MBA from Stamford and has worked in resume review and structuring for eleven years , she said I didn’t have a job yet because of the resume, it stinks. 

These people helping other people get employment are not helping me.  Next we leave the computer lab and go into a room to view a PowerPoint presentation about how we are looking. Not too much is going to be a problem and no one is going to be a problem without being rude and ridiculous a time waster for sure. We have never covered mock interviewing.

We have not begun to fully understand that respect for each other matters most. The idea that all of the attendees are women should make this entire episode pleasant, however that seems to be the largest obstacle. Already this morning some of the attendees have been called liars and all of the information is insulting. As far as the dress code enforcement goes, it is totally at the discretion of the person called the office manager. If you feel you are dressed appropriately the office manager may not, therefore you will have accumulated an X against you. Now, you may or may not be informed of the failure it is completely at the office manager’s discretion.

There are a few of us here, which have been here before. We are asked to complete the getting to know you sheets again. Waste of paper, they still have the information, it was approximately a week ago, why do they need it again, what did they do with it?  Why do we need to repeat the same things? Well you know what is said if you do the same thing over and over and expect different results.

CSC.com, go here, get this tip from women in group tips from PowerPoint don’t be bobble head, How to Be an active listener, and then another run down on trifling behavior, trash talking by the facilitator how when she was interviewing people she would humiliate and discuss a lot of negative stuff, but she says now she is focused on teaching young women how to be women, by cleaning house, how to sit etc. She also braids hair and does nails.

She talked about how when someone came for an interview wearing high heels they would intentionally walk them around campus knowing that their feet we going to hurt, and they would watch them enter from the parking lot and critique whether or not they were the one for the job or not. I don’t think more negative re-enforcement is necessary. We need to focus on positive re-enforcement. How much more can we stand to be inundated with negativity?

Day 2-late 15 minutes: went to vote before coming. Topic: Completing Job Applications-ten minutes conversation on skills. I mentioned how annoyed I get at errors, in the facilitator’s rating we were asked to complete at the end of the classroom sessions, with her own admissions of a defect, called dyslexia. I mentioned how reading things backward during her reading the PowerPoint presentations to us was not a good look.

I mentioned to her during one of her presentations  that she told us about her handicap and that it is a good example to show how some one even with that sort of defect can be accepted and given a task to do in a job that may highlight that defect, it was honorable but not quite realistic. Things like saying words out of the order, made me smile at how unprofessionally we were being handled and we were expected to imitate the real world? She immediately recalled a discussion from the last time I was there, the group was talking about being on welfare and she said, “She would never get welfare she would never”, and I said, “Never say never”.

She remembers that as me saying never say never and getting up and walking out, I laughed, as did the rest of the group because she actually performed the scene with flair of expression that made me appear characteristic of someone making an overly physical expression accompanied by words and walking away. I don’t recall it that way I recall being expressive in a warning type of way with what I said on my way to the bathroom, she made it seem buffoon like. 

Slightly, insulted I laughed along with the others at her performance, and added that we have such a negative look at welfare that it makes it difficult to be a willing participant and it does not help to make it so, if we did not need this money we would not be here.