The Recession

The Recession / Uncategorized / career / teaching — No Comments
11
Jul 10

Lessons in Impermanence, Part III

This continues the “Lessons in Impermanence” series, with continuing some thoughts directly after “Part I.”

Life after grad school also had its share of impermanence as I continued at the urban community college and had a brief stint teaching English at the FIDM. I then tried jumping ship by getting a more “regular” job at one hot mess of a labor union’s headquarters. That lasted for six months, followed by six months of unemployment. Then, during that time, I courted English department chairs and a director of a foreign language school, and I found myself on the freeway flier circuit in the fall of ’07. After a year and a half, I didn’t return to any classes with one district, continued to work for another until I got laid off.

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23
Feb 10

Lessons in Impermanence, Part II


“Strangers When We Meet” is how I have felt about some people I’ve known in the past.

The jobs were one lesson in impermanence since they were all short-term. Unlike the grocery store, where I stayed on for one reason or another even though I hated it, I didn’t have to stick around if I didn’t want to. I could always move on to something else, provided I found something. At the same time, I found my relationships with people weren’t always permanent, whether I had control or not.
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22
Feb 10

Lessons in Impermanence, Part 1


David Bowie singing his signature anthem of impermanence, “Changes.”

If there’s anything to learn from this recession is that nothing is permanent. Way before our economy tanked to where it is now, corporations adopted the layoff as a quick road to profits during the Clinton years. Downsizing, reducing redundancies, etc – it became the popular way for companies to slim down their expensive American workforce and seek cheaper labor abroad. Even when times appeared to be prosperous, such as the late Clinton years or the middle Bush years, the stable job was not as easily obtainable as it once was.

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The Recession / blogging / current events — 3 Comments
21
Feb 10

The Newly Jobless, including One who took Drastic Action

With the Beatles‘ recent popularity with generations who weren’t even around the first time around, you’d think that love is all you need. However, we live in times where even that sentiment, as lovely as it is, is not enough to counter the malaise of this recession. One of the feature stories in this month’s Atlantic Monthly, “How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America,” paints a grim future for the American job market in the next few years. The New York Times, not to be beat, is doing a series about “The New Poor” (coming off an era with the new rich) with a similar article: ” Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs.” The Atlantic Monthly makes predictions about the cultural changes to come while the NY Times takes a closer look at the systems in place to deal with unemployment and how they’re ill-prepared for this crisis. With the grimness pointed out by both sources, why not laugh at the futility of paying off credit cards on Cracked.Com.

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20
Feb 10

The Doctor, Amazon.Com, Healthcare FAIL, etc


The new trailer for the upcoming Dr. Who with the newly regenerated 11th Doctor and new companion Amy Pond.

With the Christmas and New Year Specials giving David Tennant’s 10th Doctor a proper send-off and effectively ending the Russell T Davies’ era of Doctor Who, this trailer helps whet our appetites for the coming season with Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor and Steven Moffat, who wrote some brilliant episodes in the past such as “The Girl in the Fireplace” and “Blink” among others, taking the helm as executive producer. The trailer above, recently posted to BBC America‘s Doctor Who site, definitely promises the season to be a good one. The previous trailer gives more of a dramatic sense with actual scenes, whereas this one simply sells it. Best Doctor Who teaser since Christopher Eccleston’s offer of a “trip of a lifetime.”

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17
Feb 10

He’s certainly got Cloutier

For some odd reason yesterday, I found myself in the business section of NY Time‘s website when I came across this interview with George Cloutier, an entrepreneur who gets small businesses out of the holes they dig themselves into. He was full of all kinds of glib, but hard-won business wisdom such as “Fire Your Relatives. Scare Your Employees. And Stop Whining.” He also had a tough style of speaking, which fascinated me. Then I realized who he reminded me of: Gordon Ramsay. Clearly, Ramsay and/or his producers must have been aware of Cloutier’s business and his approach to rescuing businesses and realized they could make good TV out of it. With Gordon’s speech resembling a heart monitor and doing the fixer-uppers for ailing restaurants, he had channeled Cloutier without giving props to the man.

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