While this may come across to some as a poor play for alliteration, it is in fact the most succinct way to explain an issue that some of us (mostly me, apparently) must face to achieve anything in life. To be alive used to mean that somewhere some amount of work had to be done to find food and shelter, but now we all have jobs. Or need to have jobs. Or MUST have jobs. The result is we live in a society so convoluted and invested in the process of acquiring jobs, and the increased prosperity or security (some times just the increased wave to work ratio) of those jobs that we have actually founded an industry for employment.
Temp agencies have a place to provide work to people who are inbetween things and to provide workers for places that don’t need the staff for very long. Ultimately a mutually beneficial and even elegant solution to a set of problems.
But what we have lurking in the furtive hallways of the new industry of employment is not elegant or even leaning towards being necessary.
Why is their a job position that basically exists to get people jobs? Why are there employment specialists? How is it that we have created a labyrinthine business structure that actually requires a series of guides to get you from the entrance to the center and back out again?
It has reached a point where finding a job requires a solid starting fee equivalent to a months rent just to hire all of the necessary professionals to assist in looking over applications and resumes, interview coaches, professional references (not references of your life as a professional, I actually mean people who are paid to act as references to hedge your chances).
And it would be one thing (a grim reality, regardless) if this was what was needed to become a VP or manager at a major company, but in TODAY’S ECONOMY (which is a bold and terrible and ephemeral thing that must be spoken of like the plagues of the 1400s) it is becoming increasingly important to shell out this type of gelt just to get an entry level position at McDonald’s.
Gone are the days when nepotism or cronyism could leverage open the doors of commerce (and I can’t believe I am sad to see those days gone), welcome now the days of clandestine teams of ‘proffesionals’ that will get you into the door and through the lobby, covering your back and speaking on blue tooth ear pieces to maneuver you past the security and into the job interview. There a combination of bribes and threats will buy off the HR director and then you begin work on Monday.
Whether you can do the job really has nothing to with it.
Filed under: Tame by Comparison
