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How Employers & Colleges Are Screwing Us
Well, it's good to be back here on this blog. Where have I been for the past number of months? Trying to find a better job than my current employment…and the job market isn't pretty; heck, it's downright deplorable. I'm not exactly talking about the amount of work out there…as the 24 hours propaganda news organizations have saying, places are looking for work..just looking for way too many specifics, unrealistic beginner expectations or simply exploiting workers so they can get their "foot in the door." Also, I'll get into what the hell the last blog post was about; t'was the last you all heard of me. What the hell is a "Curation Test"? Well, it has much to do about this post. Seems that the job market isn't what it seems post 2008 crash...
Why was I looking for a better job?
One might ask if they've known me long enough… "Why, Chuck are YOU looking for a better place to work? Aren't you working to live a life without a boss?" Agreed, since I created my anime site in 2002, joined Amway in 2004 and added a store to my anime site in 2007, I've proven to have been one who cares not for having a boss. Despite what I'll go into as my motive to finding a better job, my long term goal is still indeed get to the point where I'm my own boss. Working for someone is indeed still "below me" but sometimes you have to utilize a job to achieve your goals. A good example of what I mean is here in this book, Evil Plans: Having Fun on The Road to World Domination and others like it. No, I'm not looking to take over the world; such is the foolhardy of the intellectually weak and financially pampered. I'm looking to take over my world, do what I want to do during the day… not what some boss/manager says I need to do; a manager/boss who might not even have my caliber of education, just simply seniority based on time and/or nepotism.
So, why the change in plans? Why did I for the past 8 months do what I can to find a new job? Well, let's start with what happened 8 months ago, Hurricane Sandy. Actually, my trek to find a better day job started just before the storm hit, when a friend & customer of mine who works over at Arkadium Games thought he might be able to get me a position there. As some of you know, for the past 7 years since getting my undergrad honors degree in Computer Science, after getting my BS degree cut short by the horrible work conditions of working at Friendly's… I ended up working as an underpaid web developer at Berger-Bros Camera. Though only starting there at $15 an hour, a pay much less than other web devs, it was still a much, much better position than Friendly's, the position I had at Office Max inbetween & was something worth jumping to after my friend's Ebay Consignment business, Money Tree Auctions folded. Though the pay is low, though I drive 70 miles a workday doing tasks I can do from my home computer, though the owner at the job thinks web design is answering email inquiries on what BH Camera is selling products… it was a world's away from the utter hell working 12 hour shifts at Selden Friendly's was. No horrible customers, no getting chastised for being a minute late, and no staying at the job until 3 am only to have to come in at 7am a mere 4 hours later. So, though I am STILL only paid $15 an hour, 7 years later, it's not all doom and gloom and Berger-Bros gave me a platform to get back into my website. Such an opportunity working at Friendly's or any other typical low paid job and going to Amway meetings across Long Island, NYC, & New Jersey never could have done. I can thank Berger Bros. for giving me the freedom to actually perform the "Evil Plans" of moving away from working for a boss.
So, why in the past 8 months did I do a complete change of plans; hopelessly trying my hand at today's post-2008-crash job market…a job market I can now tell you all is wrongfully touted as "improving", "abundant" and, "full of opportunity and growth" by those paid handsomely on morning news shows? Well, for one, $15 an hour is abysmal pay for a Long Islander with the skills I have. Though a bit rusty from the non-webdesign/webdesign at Berger, I am at least worth the starting pay of $25-$30+ an hour in the industry. The very reason I got a Computer Science degree was to be a video game designer, despite CS professors back in the early 2000's erroneously degrading gaming. As we know, most of the CS work promoted in colleges then got outsourced to India while game programming blew up in popularity. Today almost every college has a "hip" game design course. I won't be surprised if you suddenly see one of those overly advertised "Full Sail" ads here or elsewhere (granted if you aren't use adBlock). Amazing how much money is put into game design courses in colleges now, a branch of Computer Science professors almost 10 years ago stated were only for "starry-eyed, hopeless" programmers. For the past almost 2 years, I've been on/off working on my own iOS video game, Tenshi-Oni, so the opportunity to work for a really cool game company like Arkadium ( a start-up-like company in NYC that gives a fun environment for their employees) was a no brainer. Issue was, I've trained myself in Objective-C / Cocos2D programming with my own game while Arkadium was making games for Windows systems in C#. Actually, they were one of the first to make games for the rather disputed Windows 8 operating system. My friend was on the team that created Taptiles and I would have loved to have been involved with a group & project like that.
So… I needed to study. The good thing about programming (something some employers don't get) is that once you know the basics of Object Oriented Design (Inheritance, Polymorphism, etc.), it only becomes a matter of knowing new syntax and understanding how a demo application / game executes to being able to work in another programming language. I then decided to halt most of my site's blogging to help my "image" to employers, halted a bit of my work on Tenshi-Oni to get fully into C#/ Windows dev and postponed HTML5/CSS3/mobile updates I wanted to do with this blog and my anime sites. It was going to be only temporary and if I didn't get the position, I was going to get everything back to speed, continue my anime figure business and work to not need Berger-Bros to pay the bills. Then, one week after I was told I was being forwarded to the HR department of Arkadium… Hurricane Sandy hit.
Hurricane Sandy wasn't the only storm we've dealt with here… you'd think Long Island & the Tri-state area would have learned it's lesson from Irene the year prior; the first Hurricane to hit the area since Bob in 1993. Well, this storm hit us at the worst angle and indeed was worse than Irene, albeit the damage here in Central Long Island was actually about the same as Irene in retrospect. I don't have to go over the chaos that ensued here on Long Island, the news reports went over it to the nth degree as they do with any event that others could have said "I told you so". The power outages and downed trees weren't the worst for us in central/eastern Long Island. As I stated, this was actually about the same here as Irene was. The worst aspect of the storm after it passed was the run for the gas pumps . This in my opinion for those not near the coast was the worst aftermath...especially since most hoarded the pumps when they had mostly full gas tanks. People would literally be waiting 4-5+hours, just to put $5 of gas in their cars to top it off… while people like me had to ride on fumes.
My work commute to Amityville was impossible most of the time. Didn't matter though since my boss at Berger-Bros decided to keep the business closed (even the online aspect) for most of the month. I lost a whole month's pay… pay that had to come from my anime figure business. My hopeful future job over at Arkadium was also put on hold as they were in the part of NYC that got flooded out by the storm. So, there in their HR office sat my newly redone resume, awaiting to be reviewed until the chaos subsided. To add insult to injury, mine and my fiancee's landlord, her grandmother, fell and broke her hip having to go into rehab from that point until just about the beginning of 2013. Oh, and my supplier for anime figures also didn't understand why I was cut off from communications for a number of weeks… apparently the news reports of Sandy weren't enough to remind them. A shipment I was suppose to get got truncated and customers who paid for pre-orders, didn't get them or I had to pay retail or more to fulfill their orders; furthering my financial strain.
So here I was, end of 2012, bleeding out money from the wound Sandy left, waiting for Arkadium to get back to me about the resume, my fiancee's grandmother with a broken hip, her mom as well also broke her wrist…and then here comes 35 inches of snow in one night. Yep, I live only blocks away from the spot photographed and seen across the world that had cars trapped in the snow on a busy NY highway. Trapped in the snow for a few days.. I yet again was given another setback to both my anime business and commute to my dayjob at Berger-Bros. This in addition to the migraines I've been suffering since 2006 led to less hours, more stress and lack of really any hope for a bright future. It then didn't help that Arkadium Games didn't even bother to have an interview with me after the dust settled from Sandy. Instead they said the typical statement those looking for a job even now rarely get.. that they were "looking for more senior" game programmers; ignoring my game in development and the fact I was one of the Flash animators and game dev of Newgrounds.com's early days in 2003. I don't want you all reading this to think I'm mad at Arkadium… I'm not, they probably are the nicest of the companies I've dealt with in the time since and if they ever come to me looking for a "junior" game dev, I'll probably take that offer. They are a really cool company started by a husband and wife team that doesn't go through the employee-abusing bull crap that other companies here in the US do… methods that I'll finally get into in a bit.
So, I had no choice but to search for better, higher paying work than Berger-Bros.. even if that meant commuting to NYC doing a programming/web job I could/should be doing from my home office. Actually for the past year or two I've been paying $15/month on flexjobs.com trying to find a job to replace Berger-Bros..but with the stipulation that it was a telecommuting job. Again, going with the grade school logic some companies don't get... that with technology the way it is, the "clock in physically at the office" gig is really not needed anymore. Employers who chose not to telecommute for positions that are easily telecommuted as basically wasteful in company resources, especially in the work I do, programming, web design, video/photo editing, animation, game design, web content, etc. Such work just needs the task at hand to be known, a computer & programs that can do the work, a deadline when the project is needed and for the developer to lock themselves up from the world until the tasks are done. Despite what companies like Yahoo say is the logic behind their retroactive departure from telecommuting…distractions in the office and setbacks from a needless commute can be more damning to a worker's efficiency.
Gone were those telecommuting-only restrictions I put in my career search as time is/was running out due to the financial mortal wound Sandy and the other set of setbacks did to me.
...
So here's what I learned in that time since, the companies I've ran into and the horrible tactics involved in today's job market. It's bad, demeaning and asinine in today's day and age and I thought this long rant after months of silence is needed to get the info out and rat out companies that do shit like this. Even more so, trying to explain to you all looking for work that the methods of some of these companies are NOT ok and they should NOT be accepted, no matter how we have been taught to accept them.
The Embarrassingly Out Of Date, "Resume Black Hole"
One thing anyone looking for a job today will notice, is what's known as the HR/resume "Black Hole". Send your resume in every way you can, be it email, the company's redundant internet form that makes you rewrite your resume (like in the meme image heading this post), or hell, send your resume/request for employment via out of date methods like fax & phone... and be prepared for no response. No matter how well written the now always needed "cover letter" is, no matter if you spent most of your free time writing what essentially is your price tag stapled to your ear… you most likely won't get a peep out of the company you sent it to. Employers, I understand, might get alot of resume. It can be daunting for somebody in HR to have to sift through tons of resume submissions… but it's 2013, not 1983. 30 years ago they could give the excuse that it'd be a waste of time and resources to let everyone know that the position has been filled… but that excuse is laughable now. Like I said, many places have you fill in redundant forms that hardly even take your resume into consideration. As a web designer, I know for a fact that every single person on that list came be emailed with a click of a button that. A blast email of "The Position has been filled." is not a hard thing to do, despite what some HR departments say.
Before people come to me and say, "Well Chuck, So-and-So Inc. shouldn't have to respond to everyone."… do note that most places can simply reply with a single two second click and the excuse that they "can't" is actually more of a "won't." In one of it's newsletters, flexjobs.com said that many employers are purposely taking the effort to not reply to candidates. In the effort it takes to sift out people they'd discriminate against based on an increaingly unrealistic preset of parameters, they could have easily sent a mass email stating that they found their needed candidate(s).
What some companies are even doing (mainly public ones who have shareholders to answer to), are actually having HR create fake job openings to make it seem like the company is expanding. A big company tells the news that they have openings but "can't find the right expertise" is in some cases really, "the company isn't expanding but we want to make it seem like the economy is growing so our stock prices don't drop." A number of companies I've applied to I later found out were indeed just doing the job offers as a gesture without really having positions needed to be filled (ie: Manhattan Media and a few other local places here on Long Island).
Looking For Too Many Specifics & Instant-Experts
In 2002, I created my own web site, Chuck's Anime Shrine, from scratch in my high school web design class. Since then it was one of the first places to view AMVs (anime music videos) before the advent of YouTube, was given a nod in Business Week and has had it's own blog and store added to it..solely by me. I never had a team of people working with me. Other than the talented team of artists voice actors and fans of my game, everything else on the site was the effort of me and my fiancee. I did all of the code, the developing, the maintenance, the calling up my web host when their data centers went down, etc. Granted, it's sorely in need of an HTML5/CSS3 overhaul since the last overhaul was in 2007, but I wasn't able to do that during this long and ridiculous search for a better day job.
I know how to make websites, reprogram a space shooter game in iOS, edit video in a number of different programs, edit photos in Photoshop, make games and animation in Flash, run an online business that at it's best did over $120,000 in sales for one year, have a growing social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.. and yet, here I am 8 months later with nothing but a handful of "nope, not qualified" replies after 100s of resume submissions to places that are asking for way too many specifics and instant experts right off the bat. I might know how to work Dreamweaver CS6 and the entire CS6 suite like the back of my hand.. but oh wait, I never had the need to use Drupal this entire time… "Disqualified!" My game dev skills are enough to start me at a $70K+ game dev job, yet most HR departments feel I don't even qualify for the lesser $30k+ web content jobs! Companies today are not only looking for experts in what should be entry level jobs; got to love the "5 years prior experience needed" to simply know how to cut and paste content into to a website.
This next bit of corporate retardation is one I feel anybody should laugh at... the "BS/BA needed to update our Facebook and Twitter accounts." Yes, you heard that right. Though companies are finally "getting it" that you do need somebody full time to man the company's image in social media…the geniuses at these places think that doing what my 13 year old sister has been able to do for years, updating Facebook statuses, requires a god damn college degree! What do I have to show degree-wise outside of the skills I mentioned?.. a humble Associates with Honors in Computer Science. I stood with only a hand-picked group in SCCC's 2005 graduating class, represented the college for a programming job at Este Lauder (that eventually got booted to Mumbai, India anyways), and was the college's VP in their Computer Science Club. Surely that and Chuck's Anime Shrine's Facebook fan page of 6200+ followers in addition to the degree (though an undergrad degree) in a highly technical field would make me more than worthy enough for a Facebook manager job at SumTotal, where their "Sum Total" of followers hasn't even met 2000 (~500 when I submitted for the position months ago). Or how about the position to update Facebook over at LocalBee? They don't even have 300 followers, surely somebody with 6200+ followers could help them in their Facebook endeavors. Nope, based on SumTotal…I "wasn't qualified" for the position and LocalBee did an about-face on the entire position… or so I was told.
Oh and here's where I get to tell you about what in the hell the prior post to this was, the so-called "Curation Test". A news site by the name of Upworthy.com had a job opening on flexjobs.com to do the very simple task of updating their site (along with others) based on current events. First off, the preliminary questioning made me write almost as much as I am here on this post. It took a good hour to get the forms and long drawn out preliminary questions done during what little time I had before the position was to be gobbled up. Then a few days later, I got what me and others might need 100 resume submissions to actually get, a freaken call back from the company. On the phone was this nice girl from Upworthy.com saying how she loved my submission, wanted to ask a few questions and then wanted me to do yet another series of blog related work. You guessed it, that "Curation Test".
The phone call was when I was still on the clock at my current job, so I couldn't speak long. The call was going great… that was until she asked me to summarize Upworthy.com. I'll admit, with my work I do during the day at Berger-Bros and the numerous resumes I send out daily, I only had a chance to quickly glance at the site. At first glance, Upworthy.com seemed like a (very orange) version of reddit.com; a site I know very well. Turns out it's not. It's actually more like a multi-headed twitter account that spews the current news from a number of different bloggers. So my initial answer that it was a democratically voted news site like reddit seemed to turn the conversation down the path of where she wanted to rudely get off the phone with me quickly.
She did send over the "curation Test" though. As you can see from the prior post, is this blog-like and seemingly silly thumbnail posts with quotes, etc. That "test" (more like "unpaid work") took my most of my work day when I had some downtime to maybe get this seemingly worthy position.
Sure enough, I never heard back from Upworthy.com. I went as far as showing their community on Facebook the day-long "test" I had to do in which I never got as much as a reply about. Just to rub it in their faces though. To me and other would-be employee's, the Resume Black Hole and these silly preliminary tests, are just an insult to our potential and our efforts. Recently Google admitted that their preliminary questions were really just meaningless dribble. Hell, the way current companies screen for these positions with their ridiculously specific expectations are probably preventing a whole bunch of talented people from blossoming for that company and as such, these HR departments are throwing away what might have been the next team that could have moved them forward. Doesn't matter if they at first had "only" 19 of the 20 specific skills asked for in a starting/entry level position.
Overpriced Tuition
The title of this blog post is "How the US Job Market & Colleges Are Screwing Us" so I can't go without bashing the current college system. I've spoken about this a number of times but let's face it, college is overpriced and any business owner looking at an investment offer/risk akin to how college is and how companies are looking for too much off the bat as I stated earlier… said business owners / investors would laugh at such a poor ROI and high risk.
I was lucky enough to have my grades pay for my degree. Again, it's a shame the job at Friendly's nearly killed me and prevented me from obtaining my BS in Computer Science at Stony Brook University… but to attempt that now would get me a "mortgage without a home", or what college has become for many. As of today, loan rates doubled, so to add insult to injury, we are not only making the requirements for entry level jobs on the level of ridiculous, but those who actually jump through all of these circus hoops are being burdened with enough debt to make the silly business mistakes I've made (and the acts of nature) still look like a drop in the bucket. What a wonderful way to burden our future and keep education and opportunity in the hands of those with a fat enough wallet. I say everyone with a student loan simultaneously stop paying those bills as to give the US government and these universities a trillion dollar problem that should all be on their shoulders as oppose to the shoulders of our youth and future workers & entrepreneurs.
The Unpaid Internship Problem
Speaking of keeping opportunity in the hands of those with a fat wallet…here's probably the most pathetic trend to fester it's way into the job market, the unpaid internship. Ok, as a business owner and somebody brought up into a more entrepreneurial mindset, I understand the power of apprenticeship. From what I stated in the "Looking For Too Many Specifics & Instant-Experts" bit, one could see that the current job market can care less about bringing new people up to speed; they just want instant experts where even if you know 19 out of 20 bullet points, you are still unqualified for even entry-level positions. Actually, companies don't use "Entry-level" much anymore, no, that'll upset the shareholders. Can't have too many new people on the company's dime without making majority shareholder Dingleberg and Friends question your possibility of surpassing financial analyst's unrealistic expectations for the next quarter. No, no, no… too "risky."
So, what has become the industry norm to get people into entry-level positions but without scaring investors? Well, pseduo-slavery of course! I'm sorry..I mean "unpaid internship". Promise the unpaid interns that they are "gaining experience" and they feel like the hours of unpaid work a week is worth it. Of course, anyone with a brain and bills to pay will see it for what it really is. Companies can promise "sunshine, rainbows and farts" to their unpaid interns and that'll hold the same weight as the supposed returns from hours of unrewarded (and sometimes degrading) work. Those who promote unpaid internships tend to be the ones who profit from it or have enough money to not care about the wasted time working for no money. People like recent college grads who probably didn't have to work a job while in college because mommy and daddy took care of all their bills. Of course they'll have no problem with unpaid internship… mommy and daddy are there to save the day. They go through the unpaid system and for being such good slaves, have a better chance to get a "real" job as oppose to someone like me or others who have to work to pay the bills and can't spend even 15-20 hours a week doing unpaid work.
I was of course glad to hear that lawsuits against companies doing this are on the raise. I hope it continues to be a trend. What's sad is that colleges now at their job fairs are putting students right into these terrible unpaid internships and stripping any chance for paid entry work for recent grads.
Pay your workers! It's a disgrace and insult to those who are looking for a better way of life!
Penalizing Employees for Having a Personal Life
A few months ago, I thought I found my newest job. A small blog called We Hate To Waste had a small facebook community that needed to be updated and so did their main blog. I inquired about the position and the owner of the site told me that she's not only going to get me the job updating the site remotely at the same pay as my current job at Berger-Bros, but will also work with her web programmer to see if I can join in on some freelance web projects that he's too busy to work with. The latter was uncertain but I was told for the prior that I "got the job". Excited about finally, finally getting something matching my pay a Berger-Bros that had the added benefit of not having to commute, I go and leave a complement to its owner on my personal facebook page saying "thank you" for helping me. I even linked back to their blog, in hopes I could create some positive recognition and help them gain some extra view and followers. Why not? I have 6000+ fans on my site's FaceBook page as of this post and over 500 friends when at the time they hardly had 500 followers. I wanted to get the ball rolling and show that I can help build her blog.
A week passes and I have yet to get the call I was suppose to get about the position, the time to start writing and the overall paperwork needed to sign me up. Not a pep from the woman who only a week prior was seeming doing much to help me out. Another week passes, I call her on her cell (the number I initially spoke to her on) kindly asking when I can start. Week 3... I then call her at the company's phone number after again getting no answer on her cell. Sure enough, she answers. I ask her what the status was and I soon hear her stumble over her words. Mind you, my years as an Amway IBO taught me to handle a phone call in my favor; making sure to ask questions since the person asking the questions is the one in charge of the conversation. Also, it's always good to ask questions you know the answer to because then you can get the truth out of those who are trying to brush you away. Fumbling in her words, she tells me that the person who did the work before me is not going to leave and that I can't get the job. I understand that sometimes old employees might come back but her reasoning for not telling me this prior came to light a few seconds later. She changes the subject to tell me that she "didn't like that I mentioned [her] in my facebook post." Mind you my post was all positive, thankful and simply linking back to her business… I gave her free advertisement and to her that was an issue. Actually, she didn't like anything I posted on my FB page(s) and online. Search "Chuck Gaffney" and I'm certain you'll find me. I've been somewhat of an online personality since my site gained popularity during the pre-youtube years. I'm very much a part of the internet and have been since the days having an AOL account made any sense.
My love for anime, video games and Japanese culture apparently "isn't good for job interviews." Hell, you don't see me post drunken party images, baby banners and pregnancy images all over Facebook and the internet like so many of my peers do… but even then, it shouldn't matter. It's a separate context. The very reason for Linkin.com was to create a professional profile for employers to look at. The lone owner of WeHateToWaste blog isn't the only one idiotically looking at people's personal online content and using that to discriminate potential employees. Many other employers are pulling this bull crap as well. Actually, it gets worse. Some employers are even requiring you give up your passwords and login info for your personal social media sites. Laws had to be made to prevent this. This practice is deplorable and so is thinking that a potential employee can be rated based on their personal Facebook posts. It's suppose to be their ability to do the job and more importantly, usually not seen until hired, their ability to learn and be persistent. Employers who violate a person's personal online boundaries should be heavily fined and even jailed for pulling such horse crap. Employers are no exception to the rule of password security breaches; no matter how they might try to rationalize it in an interview or after starting with them.
You're On Vacation, But…Not Really
One of the reasons I'm coming out of my hiatus and blasting the current job market in this post… is partially because I'm on a week vacation from my job at Berger-Bros. Full time workers get one week off per year there. Before I started working there it was 2 weeks and as of last year, nobody is allowed to compound their vacation. Sound familiar? Well, American workers are continuing to lose vacation time compared to workers in other developed countries. One of the reasons why I wanted (and still want) to join the ranks at Arkadium Games, was because, being owned by a couple not from the US, they still understand the importance of a meaningful and paid vacation. Seems the mantra has changed here in the states. Not only are companies doing everything they can to eat away from vacation time, they are doing everything they can to make you feel guilty with what little scraps of vacation time you have left at the end of the year. Just today on the oh so campy Today Show, they were talking about how more than 50% of workers on vacation are expected to read their emails. So, not only are employers here in the US killing vacation time, but they also want us to work during it. Basically canceling the very definition of a vacation. Starting to see why I still wish to pursue a boss-less stream of income? A vacation, is a vacation…period. I made sure my boss at Berger-Bros understands that and thankfully, it seems he is.
Another similar debauchery of employee rights can be seen in restaurant jobs, entry-level health care and other similar, low pay, high stress positions where employers are cutting hours just enough to prevent them from getting health care and paid vacations. Again, deplorable actions by an already deplorable US job market.
Getting Pay Via A Pre-Paid Card
Speaking of low paid, high stress jobs, let's say you've gone through college, searched high and low like me for months. Your resume submissions keep falling down the idiotic "Resume Black Hole" , all the jobs are looking for unrealistic expertise for entry-level jobs, you can't afford to pay your pointlessly high student loans that doubled in interest today and unpaid internships are out of the question… you need to be PAID for what you do. Well, you'll have to do what many others with a degree might ave to, settle back on the jobs that are almost always open, don't need any degrees for and will take you in.. provided you maybe pass a drug test or two. I'm of course talking about the jobs you were trying to get away from... the restaurant, retail, and low end service jobs where the customers are terrible, the pay is crap, the managers are way too happy about the company paying them $12/hr and if you are lucky, you can get a full time schedule that is somewhat predictable. Who am I kidding, most of these places are like my old job at Friendy's and later for a short period of time, OfficeMax... you don't know when you are working the following week until the day prior because the franchisees want to keep the stores so horribly understaffed, they play a game of "musical shifts" to fulfill their fake notion that preventing set schedules saves on labor.
Let me revisit a job like the one I had at Friendly's Icecream. I started it in 2001 at the min wage of $6.25/hr After a year working there I got what I was told was a "sizable raise" to $7.00/hr because I was now the "fountain manager". In short, it just meant I stayed there long enough to not quit. Problem was, I was also training new people who started more than me (ok, that's because the some were the District Manager's kids). Eventually I fought J&B Restaurants (the Long Island Friendly's / Taco Bell franchisee asshats who will make sure they are called first during a fire and not the fire department) to be paid equally with my trainees, at $8.00/hr. I soon became the shift manager… working from 3pm until 2am, closing the entire place… and being yelled at for even asking for $10.00. This, this kind of job is what many of my fellow college grads/post grads and undergrads have to move to when the current job market betrays us.
Except the betrayal doesn't end there. No, it gets worse. Just when you thought you were being treated like shit by moronic customers, overzealous managers, crap pay and mind numbing hours while having a degree (and the debt it brings), the wonderful "job creators" throw a new wrench in the slimy gears of their operation. Two weeks pass, you are excited about your paycheck. You are planning on telling the person in charge of accounting, which in these jobs is sometimes a fly-by-night temp, that you want to do a direct deposit. To your surprise, not only do you find that they don't want to do this, but instead of a paycheck, you are given a pre-paid Visa card with tons of restrictions and fees or a company gift card, good on only the company's goods. Sounds strange? Sounds absolutely ridiculous? Well, this dick move by employers in industries that likes to keep people poor and unhappy is exactly what happened to Natalie Gunshannon and other workers at a McDonald’s in Milwaukee. Thankfully, it seems she's fronting a class ation lawsuit against such actions. From the unpaid internship crap to this, employers seem to be doing everything they can to strip away what little rights American workers have left.
...
So, here's a bit of my story about the trail of crap the past number of months have been. I'll continue to try to search for a better job during my day time, but I think it's about time I move my focus to what I already have with my own sites and partnerships there. Seems with the horrible habits this job market has gained, the only way to really "make it" in this day and age is to brand yourself and use the power of the internet to do it. It's probably one of the many reasons why the US government hates the internet, it's freedoms, wishes to spy on us with PRISM and demonize those going after the real American dream, to be their own boss; to work outside the boundaries created by this job market. This job market that keeps getting propped up by the mouthpiece news organizations as "improving" & "opportunity plentiful" post 2008 crash, when the harsh reality is that the colleges and jobs are still trying to screw everyone over. The only thing to have changed since the 2008 crash is that the stock market is up. Those who had money in the right places either gained back what they "lost" or at this point gained more. The boundaries created by so-called "job creators" only continue to increase the plight of the American worker that has been going on even before 2008.
I've had enough of it, I'm tired of being politically correct and silent on my FB pages and on blog posts to "look good for the job" and I hope others can stand up against these policies by employers. They are not right and the American worker should not have to yield to these heinous practices.
Unpaid Internships
A company's best way to say they are hiring and improving the economy...when they are not.
Don't Shop and Don't Work on Thanksgiving
Do a favor to people wrongfully being forced to work tomorrow... DON'T SHOP until after midnight Black Friday.. stay out of the stores tomorrow, be with family like you are suppose to and show the desperate maniacs running these retail locations that holidays are suppose to be, well... holidays. Seeing friends being forced to work a stupid retail job because some brown-nosing asshat in marketing needs to show something of worth to a pathetically greedy business owner...is a crime.
Do everyone a favor and TAKE A DAY OFF. The stores and sales will still be there and the world won't come to an end if for one day...one day you don't step foot in a retail store. Eat turkey, watch some TV, browse the internet and let there be a true boundary between Black Friday and the holidays. That boundary needs to go back and companies like Walmart, Target, Toys-R-US, etc, need to be put in their place.
I'm a freaken small business owner and I'm saying this! Yes, you need sales as a business but these businesses are breaking a boundary that shouldn't be crossed. People across the world laugh at how little rights workers get in the US, the so-called, "Land of the free". Vacation, overtime and holidays for workers in the US is practically nonexistent and getting worse each year; particularly when you compare to other first world countries. Most workers being shoved into their job tomorrow are NOT being paid overtime as they should.
I'm all for a good work ethic, but we need to take a lesson from Europe... you work to live, not live to work.
MBA Hipsters
Sorry, having an MBA doesn't mean you know how to run a business.
E-Commerce Tax
I'm talking about the tired case of Quill vs. North Dakota, aka the e-commerce tax, or the "amazon tax." Looks as if two moronic politicians, Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Representative Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) want to try to unconstitutionally break a Supreme Court ruling that clearly states that you only pay sales tax if the business you purchase from is in the state you reside. I've already made my point clear and as of today, the great editors and staff at BusinessWeek.com put my comment on the front page for today.
Many Internet businesses have grown despite what the economy has thrown at them. My anime business has grown steadily as well despite me starting it in late 2006 and throughout this whole recession, my customer service has been creating a thriving company that hopefully soon I can create jobs with. New York already broke the laws of the land by having it where you have to pay the already inflated New York sales tax even if you don't live in NY!!
Because many rich scammers out there can't run their hedge funds anymore, the states are strapping for cash they once had from these legal Ponzi Schemes and that means your anime items, not just from me, but from every anime business or all products from all e-commerce businesses will cost more for you. Instead of doing the right thing, many states want to steal money from the average citizen by imposing this tax. Granted a very small universal tax should be a solution to accommodate the state's need and ours but...we all know that won't happen either because of states like New York who can't balance their budget even in an utopian society.
I know I'm sounding much like Code Geass's Lelouche but fighting this is a must for anyone who wants to see the economy continue to recover from such idiotic actions. Call your state representative or aid ebay.com and overstock.com in their fight against this. You can also add to the discussion on BusinessWeek.com along with me. Despite what naysayers think, many e-commerce sites, including my own already pay enough taxes to our state government. I cringe every time I have to impose the Suffolk County 8.625% sales tax on anime figures bought by my fellow New Yorkers. An besides, if my company grows and I add more employees, income tax comes into play and that's where the money should come from! Its a crime to begin with and there is no way this crime should be allowed to expand.
An Otaku on BusinessWeek
For the second time I once again grace the front page of BusinessWeek's website. This time, instead of poking fun at Secretary of Treasury Paulson, I got my own article up there. The article might not be anything of use for my fellow anime fans but in it I talk about how email is the number one form of communication between me and my customers, which is usually fellow otaku. Business has been getting rather busy but even so, I'm not answering phone calls like a maniac as seen in my day-job or in many other businesses. Granted, the anime fan demographic is that of people who are in this century and who would use email instead of a phone to answer simple questions.
Basically, we all know jobs could and should be kept here in the US (for those of us living in the US). I know many people, anime fans or not would love job opportunities to open up if major companies just keep their international staff internationally. Anyways, check up on the article if you'd like.
New Bailout Plan Passes
Looks like as of a few minutes ago, the House of Representatives passed the new, revised $700 Billion bailout plan 263-171. Though much better than the ridiculous plan proposed by Paulson and Bush, still I bet some people will be questioning if this will be a plan for them or just the 1% of the country that has more than $100,000 in the bank. I listened in to the hearing and I was glad to hear the house actually bashing Wall Street CEOs for their obvious mess ups (lets not forget the greedy Realtors who bumped up house prices beyond anyone's reach). I didn't get to read the entire new bill that I believe can be read at house.gov but stuff like pushing for more money into green businesses for new jobs, the hope of credit flow to small and private businesses (not just the idiots on Wall Street), tax breaks for business owners who keep jobs here, tax breaks for many homeowners, and renegotiations for homeowners in trouble seem to be what is needed. Thankfully they claimed that this will erase those CEO "golden parachutes" but we'll see about that in the coming months. The FDIC limit increase I feel is not really necessary since again, only 1% of Americans even reach the old $100,000 mark in the bank, but at least the horrible bottle-feeding, trickle down economics plans of Bush and Paulson was somewhat stopped. This maybe shows that this country is not a communist/socialist country as of yet but it sure is coming close to with the minority rich still having too much of a say over everyone else. I'll admit I got a bit of worries about this but I was about to pack my bags for Japan if the first bill passed. If McCain comes into office or if Obama blows it...I'll have to rethink that plan again.
-State your feelings of the whole economy, your story or what ever below.
-Images above copyright Russmo and Scott Adams, www.russmo.com, www.dilbert.com
Chuck Gaffney (Me) on BusinessWeek.com
Looks like my comments about the US economy got me on the front page of businessweek.com! My anime business and my old health business got me to realize different sides of the financial spectrum and as some of you know, many of us (including myself) were furious about that now failed Paulson $700 bailout plan that was going give the crooks who stole from the US the money back. I know this isn't really otaku related but I would assume that man of you can't avoid the news on it so I''m extra happy to see that my comments got me to the front page of the biggest business site on the web. You have to be living under a rock to not know that the US economy is in the crapper. Caused by the nepotism between Wall Street and the government, greedy Real Estate agents and loan sharks and an overpriced and overrated college system that teaches everyone to be worthless 9-5 cubical-slaves, this economy was just a house of cards that was ready to fall. All isn't doom and gloom though; one of my anime wholesalers, Diamond Comics did a report on the increase in sales anime and collectible goods and the turnout at the New York Anime Festival 2008 sure doesn't show signs of a recession there. Thankfully the internet has given all of us a voice and I'm very humbled and honored that I'm featured on the front page of one of the biggest business sites in the world. I of course commented about the incompetence of Treasury Secretary Paulson. Here's my entire comment:
"Secretary of Treasury Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs, turned the company's $30 Billion debt into $100 Billion. The guy is not even qualified to count your cash as a teller at any bank let alone come up with anything that deals with money or in this case, have the US taxpayers write him a blank check. The guy hardly qualifies enough to flip burgers since there would need to be someone there to make sure he doesn't miscount the orders!"
Link to the comment here.
BusinessWeek and My Anime Business
Looks like things are starting to finally pay off in my anime business. As of a few days ago I finally got the capital needed to put the nails on my job's coffin. Chuck's Anime Shrine matched 2007's gross sales in late April and early May, and with a goal of $10,000/week sales in the next few weeks, 2008's numbers will be looking very nice with 2009's profits all the more sweeter. A recent deal with Japanese manufacturer, Milestone is going to upgrade the business from anime retailer to anime wholesaler and even BusinessWeek wants to get an idea on what I'm doing with a future excerpt from me and a little featured deal. If it wasn't for my involvement in Amway, I would have never thought of diversifying myself, getting free from my job and being truly happy. As I'm hammering the nails to the coffin that holds my college-degree job, I'll probably return to more involvement in Amway since, lets face it, royalty income is the way to go and no MLM is better for it.
Hope that adds some lemon juice and salt in the wounds the naysayers of Amway got from their boss whipping them for being 1 minute late to their job.
Amway and the Naysayers Who Grind My Gears
Congrats to Cathy Cross for becoming an IBO ^_^Ok, most people know me as the anime loving otaku who was part of the Anime Music Video movement a few years back that lead to all those crazy AMVs you see on youtube. As of last year some people will also note that I turned my high school anime fandom into a anime figure business that will have me completely out of the job world by next month or before my 25th birthday in November. I will also make sure everyone knows that I'm a proud Amway/Quixtar IBO. Most of my 2-3 year time off on my anime site is thanks to my involvement in Amway. It can also be thanks to the stupid job I had at Friendly's Ice Cream here in Selden, NY... that also made me realize that I was feeding the mentally challenged. Now I simply work for one at my college-degree job of at a certain camera store as the website bitch..I mean co-webmaster. A Flash series is oh so needed to depict the utter stupidity of the common folk in this area and my current boss at BB.
After working with people in my job and in Amway I've come to the conclusion that many many people are simply tools to society. We are forced to believe that a college education is the key to the finacial and overall success in life. Check out my previous posts, the most successful people in the world, the successful youtube generation entrepreneurs like myself and plain old common sense and you'll see that's a bunch of smoke and mirrors. The reality is that many people end up working for the rest of their life for a few jobs they don't want to be in. They will rush to work and cause car accidents and needless traffic congestion because their boss will practically ass-rape them if they arrive at 9:01.
Today's society and economy can be depicted like lemmings falling off the cliff because the other ones did ahead of them did, too. The lemmings being society and the ones ahead of them being their parents before them. Otaku and the youtube generation has seen enough of our parents fall victim to common stupidity as you can easily see across the net. People who have put down Amway, Mary-Kay, anime, the internet and the like are going to be extinct in the next 20 years as the youth of America and the world today realizes they've been duped to be nothing but my oh so favorite coined-by-me word, cubical-slaves.
Oh, and don't be surprised if you find me at Comic-Con, the Tokyo Game show, on the G4 network and other famous otaku places in the world drinking my XS Energy drinks and eating an Amway meal bar. Being an entrepreneur in my companies proves I'm no fool and nobody's tool and I would probably be right if most of my otaku friends also agree with that, too.
-Image thanks to business week's take on Amway. Look through the comments for "Chuck G." That's me
Is College Worth the Money?
Back in March of 2007, U.S. News created a headliner that I was waiting for a while to see. The topic, Is College Worth It? In it, they finally questioned the multi thousands of dollars it takes to get a degree in a shaky and simply pathetic job market. (This post might upset many parents and generation X'ers but the question had to be asked and as of this posting date...it must be addressed even more with the state of the economy.)College many years ago was originally meant to serve as an extra curricular in life's path. It was for people who wanted to become scholarly and to help progress the movement of human knowledge, science and technology. The same holds true today with many colleges doing just that but their M.O. sure has changed. From Kindergarten to 12th Grade, kids are wired with the fantasy that in order to be successful in life, they need to know what "job" they need to get and they need to work hard for college to get that job.
Frankly, colleges today and the whole school system is nothing but a factory for cubical slaves and dynamically changing resumes. Many kids are driven into the notion that if they go through college, they will get the so-called "good-job" and make tons more money than their non-graduated class-mates. Granted many people who don't go to college usually set for low-end jobs that barely go over $30K a year while the graduates will make it to a job paying $60K-150K a year, whether that job will last in today's market is another story but lets give them the benefit of the doubt.
This looks very good for college if you only take that info into notion, which many kids are cornered into believing, hence they feel that their $60K investment for $60K a year or more is really worth it.
Lets look though at the riches people in the world; Bill Gates, Michale Dell, Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, etc. They must have triple Ph D's based on what college teaches, right? Wrong! Most of the richest, most successful people in the world never went to or graduated college and not one of them has a job! The thing is the topic that is not really mentioned at all in school is being in business for yourself. Kids in school are taught that you can make it in a business but its more of a lottery chance of winning in that field, or so they say.
What about business colleges? Usually business ownership is not mentioned all too much there, too. Most of the time business majors fall into the trap of becoming business "managers" FOR a company, but never the actual OWNER of the company.
One thing you are taught in business school or just by simple common sense that doesn't require a degree, is the topic of ROI (Return On Investment). With today's job market the ROI is not in college's favor at all. Why pay $60K and 4+ years of school work to get a degree, get a job and then watch that job fall no matter your position? No business owner in their right mind would dare such a risky investment. It's simply not worth it! But... if you do good in school and get lots of scholarships, college would be a great choice still because of the networking potential for your own eventual company and the lessened financial stress. It would then let you start off in a much better place than others but please don't sell out to a job.
Working for someone is extremely limited and many young kids and teens see the stresses having a job has done to their families. The internet has made it much easier to run your own company while at work. Also, if you are a business owner making $500K a year and with time to spare the difference between a ditch digger making $30K a year and a computer consultant making $80k/year is 3 weeks pay!
I'll use my example:
I graduated college as a Computer Science major in New York. I upgraded my job from an ice cream scooper at Friendly's to a programmer and web master at a large photography outlet (would have been a big company in the city but those positions where outsourced to India while in college.)
On Long Island, a $40K salary won't even get you out of your birth house. As of today I run an anime and video game business and in one week's time I make 2x-3x my job's income a week in only two days work, not 40 hours with 10 hours wasting expensive gas with the rest of the masses. I also work with a ::gasp:: network marketing company that will eventually build more residuals than even my conventional business will. Did it take a college degree to do these business venture?...nope. My anime website turned business was originally made in my 12th grade web design class I took to pass the time since I was technically already graduated at the end of 11th grade. My job and my businesses don't even deal with a single thing I was taught in college. So to be blunt, college was a money-trap scam... for me.
Why isn't this talked about much, why is it taboo?
There are a few reasons.
First reason is that college professors can't teach what they don't know. Ever heard the statement 'A' students teach 'B' students who work for 'C' students.? Sad but it's mostly true. College professors for the most part teach out of theory and not experience. Yes, some were in the field but they most likely are not anymore and they used teaching as a fall-back. They don't know how to be successful (financially- and-time-for-their-family-speaking) so how in the world could they teach us?
Second reason this isn't mentioned. Well, how do you think many schools are payed (outside of tuition)...state and federal grants from tax payers. Who pays the most to Uncle Scam...I mean Sam? Employees do. Yes, a business owner will pay tons in taxes too, but the US constitution has benefits for people who run their own company. Why?, it creates jobs and is the only way to restore any economy. People who don't understand it call them "loopholes" for the rich but any person in the US can access them, rich or poor. Letting out such knowledge in high school and college will lower their pay both from taxes and tuition from all the entrepreneurs bailing out of the college scene for a better chance at life.
Third reason is that it unfortunately has become a status symbol for parents to have their kids in college. They love to brag to their friends and their neighbors about their kids like they do their highly pesticided lawn. This has caused a generation or two of parents who force their kids into a college degree that really isn't in the best interest of the kids. Observe the multitude of students attending Suffolk Community College near my house with Liberal Arts majors and you'll see this in action. Yes, its great to brag about Jeff's wonderful degree he got in law but he sells insurance during the day and bar tends at night to hopefully pay the college debt.
As a parent, I'd be upset they wasted their time and money. When my father left his job to run his own automotive business from home, his family was shocked and asked him stupid questions like "You should have a job and make some real money." or, "Is it legal what you are doing?" His parents lost their bragging rights to the neighbors but my father was able to run a business from home that he could support a stay-at-home wife with 8 kids and no mortgage...on Long Island! Those are worthy of bragging rights!
Basically you all have gotten my views on college and hopefully people will start to see the obvious that they are being doped into a failed system which hopefully will let colleges just be their for the betterment of humanity and not cubical factories!
Let me know your opinions and comments.
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