A little personal work history... from 1981 until 2008, I enjoyed a very lucrative career in telecommunications. From 2008 until I got permanently laid off in 2016 it slowly went down the shitter. I started out on small business systems of many different manufacturers, settling down on Northern Telecom equipment in 1984. Every year I got a raise, especially at the company I worked at starting in 1998 after leaving Nortel. Every year I was there until 2008, I got a 3% cost of living and a 1-2% merit raise. The raise of 2007 put me at $40.59 per hour with full benefits, 401K with company match, and a home-based company vehicle. It put me well over $100K per year.
In 2008 there were no annual raises for anyone. The 401K match was gone. That morphed into a 10% across the board pay cut and staff reductions in early 2009. In the early spring of 2010 things got really shitty. The state of Kommiecticut instituted a program called "workshare." Employers were encouraged to not lay anyone off but reduce weekly work hours by 20%, for which the state would pay unemployment to make up the difference. I would have rather picked up a part time job, but the dickheads I worked for changed my day off every week, and didn't tell me what day I was off until the last fucking minute. At that time technology was changing from legacy stand alone phone systems, to complex network based VoIP systems and servers. I was senior guy in the field.
In early 2011 things started looking up. The weekly furlough and unemployment ended and I was picking up overtime. We were picking up more and more AVAYA systems since they had bought NORTEL out of bankruptcy. In late April the company decided to hire a salesman they could not afford... until they re-instituted the weekly furloughs to pay his salary. I got pissed and fired them as my employer, and told them exactly that. I don't burn bridges, I fuckin' nuke 'em!
The new company I had been considering had just opened an office in Kommiecticut and needed technical staff. They hired me for what I asked for including my four weeks of vacation that I had earned as an experienced telecom engineer. It turned out to be a crappy company to work for too. The constant diminishing benefits and never a penny raise for anyone. The attitude of management to do more with less and then less again. I made it known on a regular basis I was not a happy camper, but my complaints fell upon deaf ears. Their business plan was based on new sales, but no one was selling much, and they left entire geographical areas wide open and untouched. I contend because of that, the Kommiecticut office was closed and I was the last employee let go on August 18, 2016.
The in-between in brief: sold a bunch of stuff to keep the roof over our heads, on unemployment until benefits ran out, a month after that landed a promising job in aviation that turned out to be a dud. Not eligible for unemployment, we burned through savings until I landed a truck driver job. I had a truck driver license since the 1980's when one was needed to drive a volunteer fire department apparatus. I just always kept it up to date. That lasted about a year and a half and I was out, but eligible for unemployment. I collected for a little over a month, and have been at the fire department ever since early 2019.
I love my job, I really do. I wish (if wishes were fishes, we'd never eat meat on Friday) I had made it my career when I was in my 20's, not late 50's. I never could locate a working crystal ball to know the future. Firefighting as a career is really a young man's job. The CPAT entry exam is designed to keep ADA type applicants out. I mean you can't be a firefighter if you're a paraplegic in a wheelchair, and this is how they legally prevent it. It will also just about kill anyone over 35 unless you run marathons. So I have to settle for lower paying, non-union, per diem jobs with no benefits that don't require CPAT. I'm lucky to get as many shifts as I do, most guys like me work at 2 to 4 different small departments. It was paying the bills until the Gropey Dopey economy and inflation have sucked the life out of our monthly income. And we recently refinanced the house saving $300 per month, but that too is GONE! So, I need to do something to make more moola.
I reactivated my Indeed.com account and started searching for anything I can do. I filled out my first app today for a municipal DPW job that starts at $10.44 more per hour than I make now with full benefits. The posting did not say anything about a mandatory jab, but I will find out as soon as I can communicate with someone if they are interested in me. If it requires a jab, I will tell them "thanks but no thanks" and withdraw my application. I am hoping to score something that pays better, is open because schmucks don't want to work, and doesn't require a jab.
