yeah, it's been about a month since the layoff.
stupid me, for believing "plenty of work, you'll be good through next spring at least"
that's the trick with construction, making it through the winter. I quit a full time job that i hated and was absolutely miserable at for the promise of being treated well for a fair wage again. I definitely think that the last few months of doing what I love made up for the year I endured at a sweatshop being crapped on everyday. I suppose at the end of the day I am just another person on unemployment in Michigan. there is a chance (yeah right) of a 50 day callback but i'm not holding my breath. which brings me to another point:
A phrase that has served me well is "wrong me once, shame on you, wrong me twice, shame on me"
the place from which i was recently laid off from was also the place that laid me off before the sweatshop...several blogs about that. the layoff was coming that time, it was the way it was handled by some cock smooching ass clown that I did not care for. the way it works is once you get in with this company you're in, and once you are out, you are not in...i was a good company man till the way the first layoff went. shame on them. fine, i am still bitter over it but I turned the other cheek and when the opportunity and promise of work came along i jumped and thought all was as right as rain. I can guarantee that i had worked my ass off like no other these past few months, but at the end of the day, i'm not the in man anymore, and although they have a list of employees that they can't send to jobs that get drug tested as well as a whole group that can't work on government funded jobs due to criminal records i get the boot. SHAME ON ME....
that brings us to the 50 day recall. granted these are all rules pertaining to the union, which i dont have a lot of faith in anymore but the way it works is you get laid off, sign the out of work book and as jobs go out you get called in the order of the book. you rotate through the process so to speak. so this 50 day recall. i can languish at the back of the book watching YouTube in my underwear eating fruity pebbles and the employer has the option to call me back within 50 days regardless of my place on the book and i'm back to work. the problem is, say if another employer puts in a call for 10 guys for more than 2 weeks worth of work and you take it, you are ineligible for the recall. most calls don't specify the duration, but I could take a call for Bob's Electric and work for them till retirement or maybe a month, either way beats the hell out of unemployment. i run that risk of my former employer landing a gravy massive big job and keeping me going for the next 30 years, and i will have been made ineligible because i took a shorter call. there is always the possibility of taking a shorter call finishing that and then working my way through the book and going out long term anyway but i also might bet mauled by a polar bear and a mountain lion in the same day....
ramble ramble ramble....should i really pass up on other employment opportunities for the next few weeks in case i get a call back (read: in case a construction contractor that has already tossed me on my ass twice picks up enough work in the slowest time of the year to keep me going through the winter?)
I'd probably think not. I mean, the laid me off not once, but twice, there isn't much from hope and honestly there are enough guys there kissing ass and sucking dick to keep their jobs I'll never have a chance to get in again. yeah, if they call me back I'll go in a heartbeat, and if i get a job elsewhere and get laid off after a month or 2 i really won't be kicking myself any less than I am now for quitting a full time job for 4 months worth of work. $30 per hour doesnt mean shit when it only gets you 15 grand per year.
once I trusted them and had some faith, but thats long gone.
along with my faith in humanity.
last year I built a three wheel bike for a girl with cerebral palsy. she picked the color and I spent a couple weeks making a really nice custom bike. dropped it off anonymously and never wanted and credit or money. naturally there was some Facebook post of thanks and gratitude but it went away fairly fast which is what I wanted. I think a lot more stuff would get done if people weren't always wanting the credit. everybody knows someone that needs a good deed, and everyone is capable in one form or another of helping someone out, and everyone likes the accolades and adoration from helping others out, but actually getting people to do that is a different story. I built a bike from scratch, cutting, grinding, welding, painting. saw the need, filled the need. If I inspire one person to buy their neighbors on hard times a bag of groceries, or to pick up some Christmas presents for someone in need my job is done.
maybe despite my hard nosed battered exterior I still hold onto the inherent good vs evil do the right thing that i wish everyone had in this world. it seems like when someone attacks life with tenacity and determination and gives 100 % effort to something there will always be low life ass clowns coming out from under their rocks of mediocrity trying to pull them back to 65% of their potential because they can't stomach the 35% extra they put forth everyday.
Someone stole that bike and drove that little girl tears. Despite a story on the news and articles in the paper, it's probably long gone, and I'm already starting on a new one, but honestly, as I looked up and down her street there were half a dozen bikes lying out, not to mention a parts bike next to hers that got stolen. some ass monkey ripped off a little handicapped girls ticket to freedom. my best hopes are that it gets returned, but I think that's a long shot. as of now with the media attention and the facebook sharing campaign i can at least take some comfort in the fact that it's so hot that they wont be able to ride it anywhere and it'll either get cut up or chucked in the river and it will cause them some grief.
a few days later the bike was found abandoned in a ditch. Likely too hot to do anything else with, and I am as glad as anybody to see it returned but honestly, what has it done to that sweet little innocent girl. for the rest of her life she will probably have this nagging vulnerability. someone built something nice just for her, this puts her self esteem at 100%, then some piece of shit steals it , which honestly would put it at 0%, then it gets returned, which would probably get her to 75%. every time she works for something, or has to try harder to do the same things other kids do there will always be a black cancerous seed of someone lurking in the shadows to take it away from her. I know because I have been there. I'm not saying it isn't a good thing to be on your guard but the trust issues I have had to work through all my life would have been better left intact from long ago, cuse I never really trust anyone anymore.
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