Unemployed Again

For the second time in three years, I am unemployed as of 3/4/2011. I work as a contractor (fancy term for temp worker) in Info Technology (Production/Application Support) for the banking and investment industry. This is my second contract since being downsized in late 2008. I was able to stretch this assignment to 15 months after a previous 6 month assignment. My replacement will be someone shipped in from India as it seems Americans are discriminated against. At least... that's what it appears to be from the way I see it as there are about 20 Indian folks for every American in these types of positions.

So, among the gazillions of questions I can muster, my biggest is why citizens of America, with attributable communication, technical and intra-personal skills, are being pushed out in favor of throngs from a world 12,000 miles away. Don't answer... I already know the answer. Upper management better take notice though, because if they think their jobs are secure, just wait until they get a dose of reality. I make a hell of a lot less than some manager in the hefty six digit range and their "contribution" and "skill set" can easily be replaced by... I don't know... maybe... someone from India? THEN, you will see a revolt but by then, it will be too late.

After being out of work for six months last year, I took a telephone interviewer position at a downtown Philadelphia market research firm. They do telephone surveys for the Federal government. I have been there since last August, but this is my third layoff from there.

The first layoff was from the middle of October until November 15. We went back on November 15 and worked until December 7 (Pearl Harbor Day). We were then off the rest of December, and we went back on January 3.

A week later (on Tuesday, January 11), they cut the day shift and staff due to budgetary and production reasons. They had work at night and on the weekends. I was going to work at night from 5 to 9, but I then realized that I'd be getting home way too late. I am not going to walk the streets of Philadelphia, or anywhere, late at night. (I even quit one of my previous market research jobs because most of the work there was at night. They had very little daytime calling.)

I did work there on Saturday, January 15 and Saturday, January 22. (January 22 was my last day there.) They finished up a project the next day (Sunday, January 23), but now, they won't have any work until this summer. Due to the nature of this company's business, which is market research, this happens from time to time. We only work when the work is there, and that's the bottom line.

I re-entered the job market back in late September. I've only had two interviews so far. I'm still looking for work in the call centers, but I'm trying to find something that's a little bit steadier. If I don't find anything else by then and they call me back; by all means, I'll go back there. But if I do, I may just end up leaving. I can guarantee that a lot of the other people there won't be going back there as well. But yet, I can't speak for them. I can only speak for myself.

In the meantime, I am going to keep on keeping on.