Category: Unemployment figures

Unemployment Hopelessness

Hope While Feeling Hopelessness

This week I ran into a pride killing situation.  We finally decided that we needed help with our light bill and maybe with the groceries.

Before my unemployment, we depended on our money so much more than I really realized.  We depended on money to feed us, to let us live comfortably, to  allow us to help others.  We just took the blessing of money for granted, until it was ripped away.

So, just making the decision to get help with some of the bills was a huge humbling experience.  But waiting in the little office, just to be told to go home, we will call you was depressing.  I really wanted the experience to be over with and a resolution to be right around the corner.  Then the call never came.  The workers never answer the phone either, everything goes to voice mail.

It feels so unfair that all this is happening to us; That we have to fight at every step with a government that is determined to take every thing that we have worked for.

I didn’t even feel up to going to the DSS office to apply for food stamps in person, but I did do the online form.  It promptly told me NO.

Sometimes you have to lose everything to gain Everything.

Real Hope

The unemployment situation is totally out of our control, so we depend on God.  We go to Him for leading, and continue to satisfy our needs.

Even though I see the many things that we have to sell now to make payments and I tear up greiving, I am grateful for what we have.

I try to find ways to help others that don’t revolve around money.  Before, I would always, first,  give money instead actually doing anything.  Now I find real pleasure in finding different ways to be cups of cold water to people who are thristing for the love of God.

People who are unemployed can help their attitude by:

  • finding ways to help other – helping at a retirement home, helping at a homeless shelter,
  • don’t isolate yourself – get involved with people
  • prayer – God changes us in our quiet times
  • get into a real good Bible Study on Job for example.  Some Bible Studies won’t feel like it applies to your situation right now, but knowledge and wisdom always help
  • Don’t dewell on sites about unemploment – reading the comments only lead to more depression. Focus on sites that encourage and lift up your spirits and God.

Don’t give up!!  God is always good and He is helping even though it doesn’t look like He is.

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Finding Encouragement

“I personally feel that being the wife to an unemployed man means we need to do our part to show love in tangible ways, to be his best friend in the storm, to try lifting his spirits when we can, and to help boost his self esteem.”                                               ~ Rosann Cunningham, UnEmployed Faith

I love this quote from the book Unemployed Faith.  But what if the wife is the one who is the breadwinner and unemployed – where does encouragement come from then?

From the womb, I was a tom-boy.  I loved westerns and empathizing with the gunslingers and not the “helpless” women.  I always either had a toy gun in my hand or a race car.  No matter how many dolls Momma gave me, I had more fun with the “boy toys”.

My grandfather owned a hardware store, so I wanted to play store instead of house.  My whole life has been around not being helpless, of being in control.  I always believed I had more of a boy’s brain than a girl’s.

But, as I grew older, I definitely knew that I had at least part of a girl’s brain, because my feelings would get hurt discouraged at things that didn’t phase my husband.

I have been unemployed before, but this time is different.  God always came through in the other three times I have been laid off.  The week unemployment ran out, God had a job waiting for me.  I never doubted.

Now this unemployment happened.  God doesn’t seem to be anywhere around.  Bills are piling up, threats of house forclosure, threats of lawsuits for non payment, threats of reposession are happening on a weekly, if not daily basis.

I really love my husband, but all I hear from him is what we need to spend money on next, not what he is going to do to help.  It is always about what I need to do.

How do you find encouragement when there is none around to encourage?

Go back to the Bible.  All the encouragement you will need God will lead you to.  Also, find some good sites on Facebook.  The UnEmployed Faith group is great place for encouragement and to find others in your exact place of discouragement.

Always find something to give God praise for.  This simple but hard thing to do always comforts me and puts my attitude in a different place.

I hope this helps encourage others who are searching for something, anything to hold on to in this storm that threatens to overwhelm.

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Obamacare isn’t the cure all

I am unemployed and do not have insurance, but I do NOT want to be on Obamacare.  Even though President Obama stated in the ramp up of getting votes for his insurance that we would NOT lose our insurance, there were many people warning about this very thing – this law was written to kill the current insurance model.  If that is the case, then the current insurance companies will be forced out of business.

Case in point – in the state of Tennessee, small business owners and the self-employed will be losing their bare bones insurance coverage, because of Obamacare.  This is the start of real affordable insurance companies being killed because of this law.  The government really wants everyone on Obamacare, then they will have complete control over every aspect of our lives.

Don’t believe it?  Who is going to administer care? – The Death Panels that Sarah Palin warned us about.  Who is going to control the money? – The IRS who is already in the process of strong arming people who do not agree with the Presidents polices.  Just as the Tea Party’s that wanted to have a 501-C during the last election cycle.  Many still have not received that status, but the liberal groups were fast-tracked through the process.

“The new health-care law has destroyed an innovative state health insurance plan that is helping 16,000 Tennesseans afford health-care coverage,” Alexander said. “Like all Americans, these Tennesseans were promised by President Obama that under his health-care law they’d keep their coverage, but will likely be forced by the law into the Obamacare exchanges, where the affordability of health insurance, security of their personal information and ability of doctors to take new patients are all in question.”

In another article, small business owners are being penalized for not notifying their employees by letter about the health-care exchanges.  This is even for business with only one employee but with annual revenue of $500,000.  This is a little known part of the law that business owners were not even aware of.  It is almost like the government is wanting the law to be so confusing that they will be able to charge penalties for anything.

Joseph Dutra, president and CEO of Kimmie Candy Co., has 30 employees and brings in more than $500,000 in revenue annually, which means he has to notify workers of the exchanges by Oct. 1. He had no idea.

“My understanding is that a lot of businesses don’t know what the requirements are under the law,” Dutra says. “So many businesses don’t have a designated HR department.”

Read more: http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/legal-hr/2013/09/06/new-obamacare-penalty-that-biz-may-not-know-about/#ixzz2eV046AjF

Of course, the White House declined to comment:

The White House declined to comment on how the fine would be implemented, but deferred to the U.S. Small Business Administration, which says education on this FLSA requirement has been part of “any and all outreach that SBA does with small business owners.” The agency says it has participated in more than 750 ACA-related events with more than 30,000 small business owners and community stakeholders since February 2013.

Read more: http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/legal-hr/2013/09/06/new-obamacare-penalty-that-biz-may-not-know-about/#ixzz2eV0OqrQH

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About this site

Being out of work for the last 5 months have led me to some basic conclusions about unemployment.  Especially my relationship with others who are working.  I hope this site will encourage others who are unemployed.  I also hope this site will be an encouragement to people in the circle around the unemployed person to better understand the feelings involved.

Are you unemployed?  Do you need some encouragement?

 

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