Re: Laid Off

["William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>]

I'm a little late to the party, but over the years, I have noticed that 
Pennsylvania likes to get its hands into anything involving money.

Years ago, they began taxing people who sold items at swap meets. Grant, 
many were businesses, but a lot were simply people clearing out garages and 
houses of excessive stuff they no longer needed.

Rules vary by states, but I'm unaware of requirements to work a minimum time 
between unemployment collection periods in the ones I have drawn from.  I 
have worked a month between without issue. The main concern is that you have 
accumulated enough funds in the system to draw.  If you are making minimum 
wage, then anything short of working the full time of each quarter will 
often jeopardize your collecting. Most of us usually make a salary high 
enough to not have that as an issue.  Or you should be, anyway.

Back when I was in college, I was working a day job. The place laid me off 3 
weeks before the school quarter started, so I filed. UI rejected me as a 
student, even though I was not in school and had at least 3 weeks when 
school had no impact on being available for work.  Back then, that 3 weeks 
of UI would have really made a difference.  I felt cheated.

As such, I keep abreast of UI rules for me and collect every penny I can.

1. Always file. Make them reject you, don't reject yourself.
2. Question their rejection. Most don't really know the law, they know what 
they know.
3. Never wait to file. You know you aren't eligible until next week or two 
weeks due to how the pay comes out, BUT file anyway. They will delay the 
payout if you really aren't eligible. But filing on Friday may have a better 
result than filing on Monday, as you may cross a quarter, and that can throw 
your banked amount all off.
4. Never count on UI to actually get you a job. If you do, you will:
a. Never get one.
b. Get one paying much less than you should get.
c. Get one that doesn't really apply to you.

Concentrate instead on places that do deliver jobs. Monster.com, 
CareerBuilder.com (use a disposable email address, as they spam like crazy), 
Dice.com and a few others.

Don't fall for "contract to hire" pitches. Everyone tells you they can only 
pay $25 an hour instead of $35 an hour because it is contract to hire and 
they don't want to pay directs that higher amount. Tell them they can reduce 
it when you go direct. Reality is that they suck you in on the lower pay, 
and you will either never get the permanent direct spot or they drop you two 
days before you go "permanent". Often, the direct has no more benefits than 
the temporary, as benefits have dropped considerably in the last few years.

There are a lot of recruiters out there. Learn to speak Indian, as there are 
many from India doing the recruiting now. I know a few who refuse to speak 
to foreign recruiters but that is how life in America is now.  It all works 
out, but read the contract CAREFULLY.  Often they include things that are 
illegal in the US. Be prepared to modify a contract and send it back to them 
with the changes.

Good luck, keep your spirits up, and keep looking.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lauren" <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012 7:36 PM
Subject: Re: Laid Off