Image by Ed Yourdon via FlickrBusiness reporter Hugh R. Morley deserves a hearty well-done today for his profile of an Oakland man who lost his job two years ago and who remains unemployed. It's filled with detail, and the reporter does a good job of exploring all the sacrifices the man and his family have made.
The story gets the play it deserves, on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park, but a nagging question remains: Why have the editors waited so long to try and tell the story of North Jersey's long-term jobless? Would a man out of work only one year make for a less-compelling story? And is this the only story readers will see?
I heard a horror story about a former colleague who left The Record more than two years ago, but have been unable to confirm the details. Surely, there are other stories about the long-term unemployed out there. Why stop at just one?
Nothing says more about the abysmal state of local news under the so-called guidance of head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes than the lead story on the front of L-1 today. When the addition of turn lanes and traffic signals to a downtown intersection dominates the Local news section, you can only throw up your hands in disbelief and disgust.
The headline, "Traffic plan inches ahead," is about as dull as you can get. For the second week in a row, the word "inches" appears in black headline type. Last week, it was associated -- nonsensically -- with Hurricane Earl.
Now, the Johnson Public Library apparently has become so alarmed about the lack of Hackensack government news in The Record in the past couple of years that it is giving a seminar on "the city's inner works," according to an L-2 headline.
The story was written by Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado, who joins Sykes in shouting to all far and wide, "See, naysayers. We cover Hackensack government."
No. They cover their asses.
Ironically, a story about a person who's been out of work for a year is less newsworthy than one about someone out of work for two years because of the "99er" factor. That first person might still be collecting unemployment insurance, but the tidal wave of layoffs began around March or April of 2008, when 500,000, 600,000 people were being laid off on a monthly basis. Thus, starting around early March of this year, you had thousands, and then well over a million people who exhausted all state and federal benefits, the so-called "99ers" who have lost the safety net of unemployment insurance and still can't find a job.
ReplyDeleteThis is a national crisis and will be an election issue, and kudos to Hugh Morley for bringing it to the readers' attention.
Collecting unemployment does nothing for your self-esteem, especially in view of how shabbily the bureaucracy treats you. Some of the employees at the office on State Street in Hackensack have complete contempt for their clients, while others are helpful, but the system is overwhelmed by the number of people thrown out of work by North Jersey Media Group and other greedy companies.
ReplyDeletePlease give us an idea of what the horror story entails. You don't necessarily have to identify the person by name.
ReplyDeleteIt involves someone left without medical insurance, but the ramifications are far greater. That's all I can say.
ReplyDeleteIn my own case, my Cobra coverage and insurance for my wife and son were not deducted from my North Jersey Media Group pension, which amounts to less than $1,000 a month. I noticed that I was getting full checks, but in the stress of being fired over my age-discrimination lawsuit, thought I had misunderstood the inhuman resources official on the deduction. When NY Life finally realized it, they gave me the option of repaying all at once or over time, and I took the latter method. I will finally be caught up at the end of this year. Luckily, I was collecting unemployment and now Social Security, and don't miss the money.
ReplyDelete"Collecting unemployment does nothing for your self-esteem." Au contraire, collecting unemployment has done wonders for my self-esteem. I no longer have to answer to supervisors whose mediocre skills I could run rings around, I no longer have to worry about what idiocy the dysfunctional management of my former employer will come up with next, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that the yahoos who fired me thought I'd have another job within weeks and they would quickly be relieved of their obligation to pay an increased amount into the unemployment fund.
ReplyDeleteSure, things are tough, but I wake up every morning doing what I want to do. I'm far more passionate about politics than I used to be. I understand more about life. I have fond memories of the middle class, and hope to be back in it someday, but looking back I was pretty miserable trudging in to my former workplace day after day wondering which of my supervisors was going to bite my head off next.
Don't get me wrong. Many, many of my fellow members of the long-term unemployed have literally had their self-esteem torpedoed. Indeed I was surprised and for a time mortified that the job market in my particular industry had shrivelled up so much that I had little choice but to reinvent myself with another set of skills in a different field. And I realized that my self-esteem used to be tied to my job, and it was making me miserable.
Cheers to Anonymous. The people who have it worse than those that got let go are the ones who had to absorb their work. The ones who survived are doing twice the work, but did they get a penny more in compensation? Nope. They were treated like dogs getting whipped into submission with zero compassion.
ReplyDeleteGive me a break. The ones who have to absorb the work at least have a job and money coming in. Of course, they have to watch other employees who are the editors' favorites loaf to no end and do little or no work and still colect their exhorbitant salaries. And the editors themselves, what do they do exactly to justify salaries of over 100 grand and up????
ReplyDeleteI'd much rather take the unemployment check as "money coming in" and spend my time searching for a job with employers that treat me better. The "at least I have a job" mentality has gone out the window because, believe me, working there is far worse for my self-esteem than collecting unemployment.
ReplyDeleteThose of us left behind are doing the work of two and three people for nothing extra and then we wonder if we'll be next anyway. No job security, no benefits, no respect and the situation worsens every day. It's great.
ReplyDelete