Unemployment Compensation
Jun. 20th, 2013 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebIt's been made clear to me that I will not be getting any more jobs from my contacts, so I've started applying for advertized jobs at my old employer.
I should probably also check out other state jobs and (nonteaching) jobs with the local school district.
I think I've mentioned before that I have enough savings, if you count all the money I contributed to my Roth IRA (but not the resulting growth) to last me until my pension kicks in. But everyone and their dog, including early retirement extremists, think I should get another job anyway--less than two years of working could reduce my wait for my pension for two years (i.e., give me two additional years of pension payments) and leave me with my IRA intact.
But I suck at job hunting, so it may take a while. Last time I actually gave up looking at one point. Almost immediately afterwards, I read that it generally takes 10 - 15 interviews before you get an acceptable job offer. I went back and counted and I had gotten 9 interviews. So I started again and did, indeed get a job shortly thereafter. That job hunt took 8 months, and I was more desperate then than now.
After talking to my mom, who is also currently between jobs, I realized I should be asking myself whether I should apply for unemployment compensation.
Accuracy
I think the only way for me to count in the unemployment statistics is to apply for this. Should I count? I kind of want a job and I kind of don't. Since I am seriously job hunting, and I certainly expect other people to be applying for the same jobs I'm applying for, it's probably accurate to call me unemployed.
Fairness
I don't need the money. So it seems terribly rude to apply.
On the other hand, I know I have an overblown sense of what counts as cheating--studying for tests like the SAT seemed like cheating, getting tutoring seemed like cheating, and even going to office hours seemed like cheating until I was on the other side, helping other people study, get tutoring, and get office-hour help. Basically anything that's an advantage (over which I have some control, unlike intelligence) feels unfair to me, even if it's not an unfair advantage.
One could argue that my employers have paid into this unemployment fund for decades and that this is just what it's for. (Except I always imagine grown people with dependents and house payments when I think of unemployment.)
Who Loses
If I get the money, someone else isn't getting the money. Would I be reducing benefits available for others who need it more? Or taking money from people who are actually working?
R. says when someone starts collecting unemployment, their previous employer pays extra for it. They pay so much that he's had one employer who hired a detective to find out if someone was collecting unemployment but also going to an unreported job. And they did catch the person, so they got all those funds back.
After doing minimal research online, it looks like employers contribute to a state fund (and now also a federal fund) and the money comes out of that. Because the unemployment rate has been so high for so long, some states are out of money (is mine one of them?) and so the federal government is lending them money (this may or may not still be interest-free). So, taxpayers may be paying.
The amount a business pays is related to its turnover rate except in Texas where it is, indeed, based on actual applications for unemployment compensation. (Apparently this is why we don't call it "unemployment insurance.")
So which funds from my previous employer would be getting drained? I wouldn't mind it coming out of the Registrar's budget because they're not being very wise with their money, but of course it wouldn't come from there. I would mind it if it came from the budgets of the last (or last two) colleges who hired me. I don't want to punish them for hiring me.
But what if it came out of a general human resources budget, then would I mind? Perhaps not. Has the entire university come up with policies that encourage high turnover and thus they deserve to be punished in this way? Based on meetings of the entire academic affairs staff and anecdotal stories from two friends in unrelated parts of the university, I'm going to say yes. The petty part of me would not mind reflecting their "more with less" mantra back to them.
History
I've applied for unemployment compensation before (either once or twice), but even though I had to sponge off other people during those periods, I didn't qualify because I hadn't been making enough money prior to my unemployment. This makes the spiteful part of me want to apply again now, while I might qualify.
Stupidity
I swear when my old roommate T. was collecting unemployment insurance she had to send in contact information on specific employers to whom she had applied for jobs. But R. said that when he was collecting (several years later), they just made him answer yes or no to the question of whether he had applied for at least one job over the previous week. This makes me think that if the government is not even trying to check on people, if they are just throwing their money in the garbage, I want to be holding out my own garbage can under the flow.
Of course it's wrong to take advantage of other people's stupidity. Some people think that if I follow the letter and intent of their rules, I'm not taking advantage. Again, I may not be taking unfair advantage, but I am taking advantage.
Conclusion
I'm going to look into it and see if I'm actually willing to do what is required.
I should probably also check out other state jobs and (nonteaching) jobs with the local school district.
I think I've mentioned before that I have enough savings, if you count all the money I contributed to my Roth IRA (but not the resulting growth) to last me until my pension kicks in. But everyone and their dog, including early retirement extremists, think I should get another job anyway--less than two years of working could reduce my wait for my pension for two years (i.e., give me two additional years of pension payments) and leave me with my IRA intact.
But I suck at job hunting, so it may take a while. Last time I actually gave up looking at one point. Almost immediately afterwards, I read that it generally takes 10 - 15 interviews before you get an acceptable job offer. I went back and counted and I had gotten 9 interviews. So I started again and did, indeed get a job shortly thereafter. That job hunt took 8 months, and I was more desperate then than now.
After talking to my mom, who is also currently between jobs, I realized I should be asking myself whether I should apply for unemployment compensation.
Accuracy
I think the only way for me to count in the unemployment statistics is to apply for this. Should I count? I kind of want a job and I kind of don't. Since I am seriously job hunting, and I certainly expect other people to be applying for the same jobs I'm applying for, it's probably accurate to call me unemployed.
Fairness
I don't need the money. So it seems terribly rude to apply.
On the other hand, I know I have an overblown sense of what counts as cheating--studying for tests like the SAT seemed like cheating, getting tutoring seemed like cheating, and even going to office hours seemed like cheating until I was on the other side, helping other people study, get tutoring, and get office-hour help. Basically anything that's an advantage (over which I have some control, unlike intelligence) feels unfair to me, even if it's not an unfair advantage.
One could argue that my employers have paid into this unemployment fund for decades and that this is just what it's for. (Except I always imagine grown people with dependents and house payments when I think of unemployment.)
Who Loses
If I get the money, someone else isn't getting the money. Would I be reducing benefits available for others who need it more? Or taking money from people who are actually working?
R. says when someone starts collecting unemployment, their previous employer pays extra for it. They pay so much that he's had one employer who hired a detective to find out if someone was collecting unemployment but also going to an unreported job. And they did catch the person, so they got all those funds back.
After doing minimal research online, it looks like employers contribute to a state fund (and now also a federal fund) and the money comes out of that. Because the unemployment rate has been so high for so long, some states are out of money (is mine one of them?) and so the federal government is lending them money (this may or may not still be interest-free). So, taxpayers may be paying.
The amount a business pays is related to its turnover rate except in Texas where it is, indeed, based on actual applications for unemployment compensation. (Apparently this is why we don't call it "unemployment insurance.")
So which funds from my previous employer would be getting drained? I wouldn't mind it coming out of the Registrar's budget because they're not being very wise with their money, but of course it wouldn't come from there. I would mind it if it came from the budgets of the last (or last two) colleges who hired me. I don't want to punish them for hiring me.
But what if it came out of a general human resources budget, then would I mind? Perhaps not. Has the entire university come up with policies that encourage high turnover and thus they deserve to be punished in this way? Based on meetings of the entire academic affairs staff and anecdotal stories from two friends in unrelated parts of the university, I'm going to say yes. The petty part of me would not mind reflecting their "more with less" mantra back to them.
History
I've applied for unemployment compensation before (either once or twice), but even though I had to sponge off other people during those periods, I didn't qualify because I hadn't been making enough money prior to my unemployment. This makes the spiteful part of me want to apply again now, while I might qualify.
Stupidity
I swear when my old roommate T. was collecting unemployment insurance she had to send in contact information on specific employers to whom she had applied for jobs. But R. said that when he was collecting (several years later), they just made him answer yes or no to the question of whether he had applied for at least one job over the previous week. This makes me think that if the government is not even trying to check on people, if they are just throwing their money in the garbage, I want to be holding out my own garbage can under the flow.
Of course it's wrong to take advantage of other people's stupidity. Some people think that if I follow the letter and intent of their rules, I'm not taking advantage. Again, I may not be taking unfair advantage, but I am taking advantage.
Conclusion
I'm going to look into it and see if I'm actually willing to do what is required.
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no subject
on 2013-06-21 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2013-06-21 08:21 pm (UTC)I did apply today. Oy. The application was fine except for the part where I have to register at the state's job search site and re-enter my whole resume in their format and look up and select all the sorts of jobs I'm looking for. Also I have to "do at least 5 work search activities each week" and keep a record of those activities in case they decide to check up on me. Not sure what a work search activity is, but at the very least I assume it includes applying for jobs and going on interviews.
The only problem I forsee is if I get offered a job that doesn't have the same pension--unless it's a pretty fun job, I'm quite unlikely to want to accept it.
no subject
on 2013-06-23 12:42 am (UTC)"If I get the money, someone else isn't getting the money. Would I be reducing benefits available for others who need it more? Or taking money from people who are actually working?"
That's not true... there's a whole lot of money out there and UI funding is complicated, especially during a recession when state and federal governments make emergency funds available.
N&M
no subject
on 2013-06-23 03:32 am (UTC)