I've been working in politics since I graduated from college. I adored the work, and was good at what I did. But politics is exhausting work. It's 100 hour weeks, moving constantly, and eating mostly junk food, or what I could get from whatever restaurant was nearby. There were 2000 Obama staffers out there, many of whom would want to stay in politics, and few jobs in an odd numbered year. So I decided that after 2008, I would take a break. I would retire, at least for one year, and get a "real" job, one where 60 hours was a long week, not a short one, and where I would have enough time off to have a social life, make some friends outside of work, and maybe even have a relationship, something that is difficult to do when you are always either working every waking hour or getting leaving town after an election.
Of coursed, I picked the worst economy since I was born to do it in.
I moved back home with my parents and tried to find some work in education, specifically special education. My high school teachers had joked all the time I was there that I had an open job offer to be a special ed aid, since I spent most of my free time in High School tutoring my peers. But while the school district normally always have openings for Special ed aids, due to high turnover, nobody is leaving secure government jobs these days, even if the pay is nowhere near enough to live on in this area. So I expanded. Looked for tutoring jobs, special ed aids in other districts in the county, even in the neighboring state. I ended up taking the SATs again for one job prospect, and spent a week studying for a test I hadn't studied for the first time around a decade before.
Eventually I went to a temp agency. I had wanted to avoid that, but have had some luck in the past getting general office jobs. I figured that my political experience included enough general office work that would translate as general office experience. But office jobs are scarce these days. Some places are getting temps because they have laid off regular employees, but even those jobs aren't in great supply.
So I took a job at a warehouse. Graveyard shift, I left for work in the middle of the Colbert Report, and would head home just in time to get caught up in rush hour traffic. I slept during the day, and consequently got almost no sunlight. But it paid the bills. I had set up a payment play to pay down my debt. I had a little bit of spending money, and started buying such luxuries as frozen yogurt on sale, some Chinese takeout and a game I had been wanting for months.
Last night I woke up to 2 messages on my voicemail. "Please do not report to your shift tonight." They had shutdown the entire shift. All the employees, most of whom were temps, were out of a job. There were a few jobs on other shifts that would be offered to people, but at a lower pay rate, standing the whole time, and fewer hours a week.
I'm not terrible worried for myself. Living with my parents, even though it's awkward for someone my age who is used to living alone, I have few expenses if I'm not paying off debt. I am worried for my coworkers. The family, mother, father and daughter who all worked together at adjoining stations. Even if they all get hired onto other shifts, losing one night's pay will be a blow. Or the guy I met who commutes an hour to get there. He was a tech for Circuit City for 10 years, a skilled worker. He's only had the new job for a couple of weeks.
There aren't a lot of companies hiring in my county. So few that the company that does pre-employment drug testing stopped doing it at the local offices, I had to go most of the way into the city to get to a location that did.
So now I'm back to the drawing board. There's a couple of job fairs in the next couple weeks. A former volunteer mentioned the US Census is hiring, and I have experience managing canvassers, so that is a possibility.
I think I picked the wrong year to retire.