New Challenge

Never before in my 20+ years in the staffing industry have I been posed with the challenge that entered my life in the last week. After 24+ years working for 3 incarnations of a major telecommunications firm, my wife was caught up in their rather routine Thursday morning RIFs (Reduction in Force I believe) and finds herself unemployed for the first time in well over 30 years. The way this large company handles separations is rather cold, impersonal, and pretty much insensitive. Her unit was informed at close of business on Tuesday to be at their desks Thursday morning as their would be layoffs. On Thursday, her immediate supervisor walked in with an envelope containing her separation paperwork and, by the time she got home a few hours later, her email account was shut down.

The only silver linings are there are a few months before payroll and benefits stop and severance was somewhat fair. An outplacement company was provided to her for 3 whole months. At her orientation yesterday, she discovered that much of the advice disseminated to her was pretty much what I share with you in this blog! Her tenacity at not letting any grass grow under her feet is impressive. Occasionally, I will share snapshots of her search with all my readers, but have no fear, I will continue talking about whatever else comes to mind as always!

.NET Developer Needed!

-Excellent opportunity for a Software Developer with 4-8 years of software development with at least 3-4 years of ASP.NET along with C#, VB Script, Java Script, XML, and XSL. AJAX, CSS, and web services exp. desired. Must have done desktop and web app. dev. using MS Visual Studio and/or SQL Management Studio. Outstanding communication skills and an understanding of business processes and product delivery needed.

-Full time, permanent, on-site, excellent benefits, pay range:$70-85K

-All candidates must be eligible to work full time in the U.S. immediately with no sponsorship requirements.

-Candidates must be within reasonable commute of NYC and willing to report to the office daily!

-Send resumes to Harold Levin at harold@smartstaff.jobs or call 908-508-0300, ext. 205.

Vicious Circle

Unemployed people are facing an unneeded obstacle. If they try to re-enter the workforce by doing contract assignments, they face the risk of either losing unemployment benefits or having to go through the process of filing a fresh claim. This is an unfair burden to place on someone who is is fighting for financial and career stability. It would be great to see our lawmakers at the state and federal levels finds a reasonable solution.