Looking for Work

Looking for work...that journey we all take, sometimes with a zeal and eagerness usually only seen on the face of a 10 year old on Christmas morning, then after the first few minutes or so, the dejected look of a prisoner of war being told their country has lost the war and no one is coming for them.

I found out the cold reality of the Detroit job market most recently by the ending of a contract job in IT and suddenly being back in the market, if you can call what passes for opportunity in Detroit as a "market". Detroit and the surrounding areas have been left in a vacuous void of opportunity by pathetic and corrupt leadership that has sold virtually everyone and everything out for a dollar.

From the money laundering to terrorist groups by a locally famous mid-eastern restaurant chain to the job slashing tactics of automotive executives to the corrupt unions that feign defense of the workers they pilfer from for generation after generation. All have exacted their pound of flesh from the citizens here in Michigan. Virtually every business has mined the human resource here like a strip mining operation and moved on leaving human wreckage in it's wake.

I digress but feel you need to have a ground level view of the economic battle ground in Detroit.

What this has accomplished is making virtually everyone of a legal age desperate for any job available while at the same time putting employers in a position of unimagined power to ask for previously unheard of concessions from prospective employees.

I most recently applied for for a part-time position as a picture framer at a national arts and crafts store chain.

No ad in any paper or even on their corporate web site, just a sign on the door.

"hmm" I thought, "This sounds ok, I can still look for a serious job and make some easy, albeit, small amount of money whilst leaving me enough free time to do my own thing."

I printed out the application from the corporate web site, filled it out and handed it in the same day. I received a call a few days later for an interview, so far so good.

After waiting for 30 minutes after my appointed time I spoke with someone about the position, this would entail more than just framing.

"Ok like what?" I asked. "Unloading trucks, sales and some stocking making up at least 50% of the time spent on the job"

Some other points not mentioned until my in store visit:

A national background check. Arts and crafts are notorious havens for the criminal element like the Mafia or the Yakuza I guessed.

A 90 question personality test, in which I was coached on how to best answer by my interviewer.
Strongly disagree or agree, the computer will read you as wishy washy if you have too many answers in the middle of the bell curve.

The only time slot would be from five o'clock until 10 o'clock at night daily, including weekends.

As of yet no mention of pay offered, the assumption being I must be willing to take anything offered I guess.

But here is what really cracked me up, the 90 page personality test had no less than 5 questions asking me in tricky double negative ways if I smoke pot of not.

Such as... "Do you think it is appropriate for a business to be concerned with any recreational marijuana use an employee may do on the own time if it doesn't effect the way the employee performs his/her job?"

First off, alcohol is far more dangerous to society at large than pot ever will be AND it's legal.

I mean are they kidding asking this in 5 or 6 different ways? Are they so disconcerted with their last viewing of Reefer Madness that all employees have to preemptively announce they agree with company views on the law or rights to privacy where it concerns pot?

Not once did they ask if I currently or in my past imbibed in cocaine, heroin, alcohol, pills, ecstasy....nothing else....just pot, the weakest of all recreational drugs. I am guessing that I can do lines of coke on my dashboard, slam a six pack, shoot an 8 ball and report to work as a part time framer for arts and crafts store and I should be good, after all they never even asked me about it.

Another questions asked several times in several ways was, "Would you consider stealing $5.00 if you knew you would not be caught?." Are they crazy? that wouldn't even get me any pot, maybe some beer or a hit of X but 5 bucks? I mean I would be tempted with like 5 million laying around but 5 bucks? no way, I probably wouldn't even bother to pick it up thinking it was a joke and someone had a fishing line attached to it.

Seriously, shouldn't these types of questions be asked of the people with the most access to monies and already have positions of potential to do the most damage to a company? I would be far more worried about the CEO with a raging coke habit who is seeing hookers on their 3 martini lunch and is being blackmailed by Rico the pimp before I would be worried about the part time framer who smoked a joint last month at a Super bowl party.

A drug test is mandatory by the way for all new hires, although I assume NONE of the corporate officers have never urinated into a vial to prove their presumed innocence before guilt. You and I will though.

The premise that the company cares about it's employee's health is a crock of crapola. The only thing they will test for is pot, it's the cheapest test and will lower their insurance rates if they can "prove" a drug free work environment. If they really cared as proposed they would be testing for ALL illegal drugs, making the tests far more expensive than they are prepared to pay for.

In the end the jokes on the employing company because the insurance company is going to jack the rate up on some other fee, the insurance company isn't going to eat the loss, that's not how they stay in business.

So back to my point, employers are now able to ask questions like these. These rights we used to have were paid for in blood by our fore fathers, wars have been fought for these rights, other countries citizens are dying right now to gain these rights....but we have given them away without hardly a whimper...to get that part time job as a framer at the craft store.

Who will fight for these rights when they are gone, who is fighting for these rights now? When did we give them up for the assumed security of a pathetically small pay check?

I will try and keep you all regularly posted on how the job hunt is going for me.

Welcome to Detroit.