Adventures in Unemployment -- Part The Continued

So I filed for unemployment. That's what lazy assholes like myself are supposed to do according various Republican politicians out there, so maybe I should finally accept that about myself.

So I started the process about a month ago. You go along, you click various buttons. You give your job history and your salary history and the reason you're now a lazy asshole living on the government dole. Then they send you a packet telling you all of the crap that you're supposed to do and how you're supposed to file a request for payment every two weeks. And they tell you when to call in file, or when to log onto the internet and file.

So I did that. Just as requested. And they ask if you've worked the past two weeks, and the number of hours worked you during that time and the amount of money you made during that time. Then they asked if you received any money from your previous job before leaving. Etc.

So I tell them that I worked five hours each for each of those two weeks and that I received $65 a week for each of those of two weeks. I also tell them that I received seven weeks of severance pay, and I assumed that that was in lieu of receiving any kind of notice of my being laid off and becoming a lazy asshole sucking the lifeblood out of all you right living people who work for a living so that I can sit on my ass all day doing absolutely nothing.

On the internet I get to this confirmation page that I'm supposed to print saying that my payment has been requested and that it is being evaluated. I check on and off over the next week or so, I'm told the request is being evaluated. Then I check back Friday and I'm told that I have never made a request for payment, and that I need to make a request. Just to make sure there's no mistake, I click on the request payment button, and I'm told that I've already made a request for this time period and to stop trying to scam the state -- okay, it doesn't say that last part. Anyway, I call one of the phone numbers, and there's no possible way to talk to a human being though I try for about an hour and hit every combination possible. So I send an email to a contact number and I just kind of forget about it.

Saturday morning I get a call. From a person who works for the state unemployment office. Frankly, I'm shocked to hear from an actual person and not from an e-mail. And I'm even more shocked to get a phone call on a Saturday morning. So we talk for a bit, and it comes out that they're having a problem with my severance package and how that should be counted toward my unemployment. Now I understand that, and that's not a problem.

Here's the thing. She told me that when I made the request for payment online, that I should have been given a phone number to call because the request should have been flagged as one having questions. And I apologize and said that I would have gladly called, but I wasn't told to. And she tells me it's not my fault. That's she got a copy of the request in the form that I received it, and that the mistake is theirs, not mine. But that now they've got to check with the bastards who laid me off to see how they classify the severance. That's understandable.

But that gets me to thinking. How many people is this happening too? How many people out there follow the rules and have a computer glitch they don't know of. So they don't follow through. So the state gets to thinking fraud or they're lying and denies everything about their claim.

I don't know. That all bugs me. I feel worthless enough filing for unemployment in the first place. But then I follow the rules exactly and things get screwed up. I know there are many people out there who think that people like me, along with most unemployed, are just worthless screw ups who deserve everything that happen to us. But we're people. And most of us didn't ask to have this happen to us. So instead of making us feel like even more worthless screw up jackasses than we already feel, how about trying to actually help us in some matter.

One final thing -- I didn't get the name of the woman who called me on Saturday. But I'm amazed that she actually returned a call on Saturday. Talked me through everything. Explained the mistake, and actually made me feel like a human being. And I needed that. Thank you.