Archives for August 2016

The Working Poor and Medical Insurance- When You Can’t Afford to Get Sick.

August 8, 2016 by Riley Leave a Comment

What’s your first thought when you get sick? What about if you’re injured? Have you ever gone home, instead of to the hospital, because you simply couldn’t afford professional medical attention? If you answered yes to those questions, you have plenty of company. With sky-high co-pays and deductibles, it’s no wonder we often take our health into our own hands.

Granted, if you have the flu or a nasty cold, there’s not much a doctor can do for you anyway, aside from antibiotics, and over-the-counter pain relievers. I rode out many viral infections, because I couldn’t afford to see a doctor. This is true for mostly anyone I know. If we can survive it, there’s no sense in paying for someone to help, right?

“It’s a sad and vicious cycle. We go to work to have money for the things we need. Then, after working, we still can’t afford them.”

[Read more…]

Real Job Cover Letters- An Explanation

August 5, 2016 by J. Parks Leave a Comment

Picture by Joe The Goat Farmer, CC BY-SA 2.0

So what are Real Job Cover Letters, and why do we feature them on The Underemployed Life? Fair question. We’re going to try to answer it as best we can.

The Real Job Cover Letters section of the website may seem a strange fit for a site that’s serious about discussing underemployment. Some people think these letters are funny, some find them stupid, and some don’t know what to make of them. We get it. There isn’t much context to that section, so this post attempts to clarify why we include them here.

The primary reason they’re included is, this site wouldn’t exist without them. Let me explain why. Way before the site was created or even a thought, I was unemployed for the first time in nearly two decades. I was new to job hunting in the 21st century. I thought my resume, accompanied by an excellent cover letter, would land me some interviews. I was wrong.

In an effort to attract more attention, I toyed around with my cover letters, highlighting my education and skills. I still didn’t get many interviews, and realized my resume, cover letters, or anything else I tried, had little impact.

“There’s a degree of personal pain, hopelessness, and anger that underscores a large swath of my cover letters. There’s a stress and heaviness to being unemployed. It’s real, and it’s tough to cope with if the job search goes on too long.”

[Read more…]

Bill Maher: New Rule-The Right to Disconnect

August 3, 2016 by Staff TUL 1 Comment

The first entry we chose, comes courtesy of the New Rules section on the HBO show, Real Time With Bill Maher. In this segment, Maher delivers a blistering assessment of our culture’s passive acceptance of a proper work/life balance. We wrote about this problem back in April, and think it’s an important issue that needs more attention.

Far too many companies say they respect their employees off the clock time. However, the reality is those same companies are taking up much more of their worker’s time through mandatory overtime, mandatory off day meetings, off duty access to work emails, and other work related detritus, and….well, watch Bill’s take on it, and tell us what you think, on our message boards.

What It Takes To Get By In Silicon Valley

August 1, 2016 by Tess F. Stevens Leave a Comment

Image by Samykolon CC BY-SA 3.0

At 23 years old, I consider myself part of the lucky few who fit into the 30 percent tax bracket. By the way-it’s killing me.

Silicon Valley has been hailed as a hub for innovation for over 20 years. And now that everyone knows it’s the greatest place on earth for technology, everybody wants to live here. That also means you have to work harder than everyone else if you want to get by, and even succeed. This causes extreme competition for everything from parking spaces to apartments. There are more people here than ever before, and they’re all chasing wealth.

Cloaked behind the fog of the Bay, and the majesty of the California landscape, a new breed of income inequality is being cultivated. Silicon Valley is a place where the richest people in the world reside. Everything around us is getting more and more expensive by the minute. Places that wouldn’t cost 400 dollars to rent in Ohio, are nearly triple that value here.

No matter how hard you work, no matter how many hours you put in, you’re constantly behind. You’re running behind the wealth of Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. You’re fighting for the word innovation, as the gentrification of your city reaches into your pocket, like a thief in the night. When you pit the richest people in the world against working families, recent college grads, and new companies, you’re bound to run into some serious issues.

“It’s becoming nearly impossible for millennial kids to graduate with their degrees, and get a job.”

[Read more…]