The Sneaky Entitlement Society

Two affluent men are running for the office of President of the United States. That means it’s time for another round of one of our most-cherished traditions: finger pointing at the bottom-sucker “entitlement” folks.

Strangely enough, despite the type of things I normally write about the workplace, I’ve never been fired from a job. Weird, right? Inconceivable! You’d think a hater like me would be one of the first to go. Yet, somehow, it’s true. And, as a result, I know remarkably little about things like Unemployment Insurance (UI).

I gather it works like insurance. When employment is high, employers are paying more taxes into the UI program which creates a surplus. When there is a recession, less revenues are paid into the program and payouts (in the form of benefits to the unemployed) increase. The net result is a social net that saves for a rainy day and minimizes the disastrous effects (on society and the individual) when there isn’t enough work.

The program is paid for by employers in the form of payroll taxes.

How am I doing so far? I might be wrong on a few of the details but I think that’s about it.

The fun part, of course, is that the program is based on the premise that there isn’t enough work. In other words, if you quit or get fired, this program isn’t for you. Move along, move along. I guess that basically means it covers employers who are laid off.

Every one of my lateral or down-spiraling career moves has always been preceded by a “take this job and shove it” phase, so no unemployment benefits for me. Because I’m a responsible worker I’m left to dream about other avenues of escape like Mama Compensation.

Is the person who receives unemployment insurance benefits part of the “entitlement society?” You tell me. In the meantime, I think I may have found someone else who is. And it might not be who you think.

I’m not the only one with a shitty job. I could write volumes about my wife’s workplace. They’ve appeared on the pages of this blog a few times in the past. And I’m hoping my wife will regale us with a hearty tale of her two months out for disability leave. Good fun!

It’s a place where management is incompetent and the missions statement is apparently something to do with pitting employees against each other and creating an environment of bitterness, hate, fear and distrust. And that’s on a good day!

Not too long ago, during a period of expansion, the company laid off 15 employees. As usual the rumor mill predicted it way in advance. You can imagine how it went down. The CEO held meetings in response to the rumors and stated there were not going to be layoffs. Then, of course, came the layoffs. They want to keep you bamboozled right up to the last minute lest “productivity” is somehow affected. Yet they never seem to notice the things they do themselves that kill productivity more than anyone else ever could.

Here’s the fun part. They’d lay someone off then immediately set about filling their position with someone else. Yeah, I don’t get it, either.

So then came a round of “tightening our belts” even though the company was growing and then one Friday 15 employees were let go.

Not long after, the company was hiring again and all 15 of the empty positions and were filled and new positions were created. None of the original 15 employees came back.

We happy to be friends with one of them and she confirmed it. She was never asked. She was given no opportunity to return to her old position. And she was still on unemployment.

Tell me I’m wrong, but I thought companies laid off workers when times were hard and brought them back when they could. This company, however, seems to use the tactic during periods of expansion as a way to clean house.

What’s the net effect? This small business is using the unemployment insurance system as a way to pay for their personnel changes. And the sacrificed pawns are still out there drawing from the system because of their actions. Talk about entitlement.

I’m sure this post is whack and inaccurate in millions of ways. Lay off, will ya? But feel free to tell me everything I’m wrong about in the comments section below. I’m all ears. I’m just saying that what this company does feels weird. Is it just me?