Part One: As Carman once sang, “God don't care what the circumstance, He just wants your faith and trust in Him”.
A lot of things happen in your life when you've lost nearly everything; you fundamentally change on levels you didn't know existed inside you. As you become somewhat more dependant on God and friends, you learn which ones will stand by you no matter how bad life gets. There is a greater appreciation for those people with each passing day that deepens, and you realize exactly how blessed you truly are by the Father.
In my case, life has been very rough. The employment scene in Texas has become more complex than I could've ever imagined. I grew up with the values Mom passed down from my Grandma; “work hard, keep your nose clean, give an honest day's work, and you'll get ahead”. If that were only true today, I would still be working, but it's not.
Texas has changed in the past eight and a half years; those creeds I was brought up with do not apply here. Your ability to do a job is based heavily upon your credit score; if it is not good, then you're automatically branded. One employer said to me “if your credit isn't good, then you're not responsible, and you're an automatic theft risk to us – why should we take the chance if we can weed you out in the interview process?”
It's funny when you think about this selective discrimination - and it is. Donald Trump went broke and yet there was a second chance for him. I could name a ton of celebrities who have nearly destroyed their careers with some business or personal mishap. This makes me wonder if the only ones who get a second chance are the rich and famous.
The other strike against a potential employee here in Texas is the unemployment gap, which is akin to “resume' death”. No employer wants to see a gap in a resume', whereas before, most understood circumstances beyond our control happen. A loved one becomes ill, you have surgery and need time to recover, you're unemployed, you decide to go back to school to increase your economic worth – employers don't want to hear it. If you're not working, you're automatically assumed to be lazy, and no one wants a lazy employee. If you take a job at a fast food joint just to pay the bills, then it's assumed you're a low caliber employee and not worth hiring back into your field of expertise. What a human resources set up – you can't win for losing!
I was about to apply at a local grocery store chain when I read in the newspaper how they're doing credit checks as well as personality testing. It's hard trying to get someone to trust you with bad credit, but I've got to tell you, I've flunked every single personality test I've ever taken for Texas companies. I'm not sure what that really means to an employer, but it's like flunking an opinion or urine test in my book! I will confess to having flunked an opinion test in college, but I was a screaming Republican during the 1996 takeover of Congress, while my professor was a Socialist from England. That I could understand, but flunking out at a grocery store? How much lower can you go! I couldn't bring myself to go through that kind of humiliation.
My circumstances came about from being outsourced twice. I watched helplessly as my jobs were shipped to India. In both cases, I worked hard and didn't fraternize, and observed with dismay as the incompetent kiss ups kept their jobs. Sometimes I wish I had the kiss up gene, but I wasn't born with it. As time has gone by, I have heard from friends most of the kiss ups have since been fired and the companies are in trouble as a result of their bad policies. One such company I worked at had the ethics of a termite infested tree stump; they are under investigation by the state regulating entity and have lost at least 30% of their business.
Whenever I was lucky enough to land an interview, I made a point to ask the interviewer about the response to the posting. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the average response was 160 applicants per job; post Katrina it skyrocketed as high as 600 applicants for two positions! Even those with perfect credit have found the job market to be a tough row to hoe.
The million dollar question is obvious: how do you land a job with bad credit so you can pay your bills when no one will hire you because you're a theft risk? I don't have the answer, but I do have God on my side. I have to trust what He's allowing to happen has a purpose that will bring glory to His name. Just because I can't see it doesn't mean greater things aren't coming my way. God has turned around the circumstances of those much worse off than me.
quazen.com articles by this writer can be found here
socyberty.com articles can be located here
relijournal.com articles are here
picable.com photographic images are here
