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    actuallyurwrongHamilton Nolan
    5/28/13 4:02pm

    I often get frustrated when reading the comments in these stories because some seem so incredibly callous. Being unemployed is hard; having no idea what the fuck you're going to do while also having the very last bit of confidence beat out of you by circumstance is even harder. But I can't help but feel very little sympathy for the man who decided to maintain his lifestyle by plowing through his savings. That's a textbook bad decision. Is that just me smugly trying to convince myself that I couldn't possibly ever be in that situation?

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      Hamilton Nolanactuallyurwrong
      5/28/13 4:34pm

      Just based on the stories that come in here, I think it's fairly common for unemployed people to use savings to maintain their lifestyles, because they're often going on the assumption that a new job with a comparable salary is just around the corner. People often say they start tightening their budgets more and more as time goes by with no work.

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      actuallyurwrongHamilton Nolan
      5/28/13 4:48pm

      That makes sense, but it's reflective of a general sense of optimism that could help explain how some people end up getting so emotionally wrecked by unemployment. I was laid off from my first post-college job in 2007. My first step was to cut my spending down to absolute bare essentials, but I'm also not one to believe that I have good things coming to me.

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    Jolly RogerHamilton Nolan
    5/28/13 2:35pm

    Hey if anyone gets fired the non compete goes away (unless its during severance period), company can not stop you from earning a living, you can countersue for damages. Been there and won handily.

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      A. Nonie MeusJolly Roger
      5/28/13 3:56pm

      Yeah I was a tad skeptical about that detail. A company can't lay you off and then actively prevent you from getting a new job. Also, if he had a contract with actual clauses in it as opposed to just bullet points with his title, salary, and so forth, he damn well should have read it.

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      APersonaJolly Roger
      5/28/13 8:11pm

      Non Compete scares the fuck hell out of me.

      A blogger friend became a writer for a popular site. The non compete agreement said that they cannot write online for 2 years if they part ways with the site that they are working for.

      What. The. Fuck?

      That's like saying a baker cannot bake for another bakery for 2 years. Online writers write online, bakers bake in bakeries... etc.

      It seems tremendously unreasonable to snatch a person's livelihood away from them in order to stave off competition.

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    filmgirlHamilton Nolan
    5/28/13 3:26pm

    This is depressing. What the hell is going on in this country. You work your ass off just to be laid off for some young person who will work for half the amount you used to make. This is disgusting.

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      burbere003filmgirl
      5/28/13 4:03pm

      Young people are cheaper in terms of salary, cheaper to insure, will generally work longer hours, and provide a "youthful, dynamic etc." image of the company.

      On the downside, they're not complete morons. They tend to exhibit as much loyalty to a company as the company shows to its employees.

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      actuallyurwrongfilmgirl
      5/28/13 4:11pm

      This experience goes both ways. There are plenty of younger people applying for -and not getting - seemingly entry-level positions, administrative/assistant jobs and such, because those jobs are going to overqualified people with years of experience. Why pay a 23-year-old with 0-1 year of experience when you can pay the same amount to someone with 10+? Very few people are hiring young people simply because they're young. In the cases when that does happen, it's probably happening because of "cultural fit," which does actually matter quite a bit in a lot of sectors.

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    itsroachHamilton Nolan
    5/28/13 6:44pm

    Hello, I'm the writer of the first letter. When I first wrote into Gawker I remember editing my letter several times because it just became so long. I didn't even think that it would be published and I sort of forgot about it after a while (I think I sent it in in December of 2012?). I wanted to just elaborate on the non-compete clause.

    I told my husband that it couldn't be enforced. We had an employment lawyer friend tell us that it couldn't be enforced. We were reasonably sure that if his former employer sued him over it we'd win. But 1) we had no money for a lawsuit and 2) it didn't really matter as every single one of the staffing agencies around here would ask him if he had one and then would tell him "Thanks but we don't want to deal with that" when he said, "Yes."

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      TheAncientOneitsroach
      5/29/13 12:28am

      Why even tell them? If a contract cannot be enforced, it's not a contract. He shouldn't have had scruples about simply saying there was no contract.

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      Hamilton Nolanitsroach
      5/29/13 8:38am

      Replying to promote this, thanks for the update.

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    APersonaHamilton Nolan
    5/28/13 4:08pm

    Employers only hire you if you have the exact industry, exact skill sets and exact knowledge of THEIR business.

    This! A million times THIS!

    Does training even exist anymore? We live in a world where many internships require previous experience. How crazy is that? Transferrable skills have no worth.

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      PunditGuyAPersona
      5/28/13 4:29pm

      Not true in all circumstances. I've done marketing and corporate communications at a publishing company, a telecom, and now an insurance company in the last 15 years. I've had to learn each industry from scratch.

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      APersonaPunditGuy
      5/28/13 5:26pm

      I don't understand. Are you saying that companies needn't train new hires because they can train themselves and "learn the industry from scratch" on their own? Or are you saying that companies did train you?

      Also, there are a few points I'd like to respectfully make regarding your response:

      The 15 years you've been working include roughly 10 years that weren't insane economic collapse years. Things are much tougher now and employers have the "pick of the litter" when it comes to filling positions. Why bother training someone new when a recently laid-off individual who has experience in that exact industry (say, marketing) will come knocking at their door and probably accept a pay cut in order to get the position? It's a win/win for the employer, a cheap and experienced worker who needs barely any time to assimilate into that environment... what's not to love? I am not saying this is the case for you, I am just saying that I am aware of this scenario happening often. I've been told by hiring managers that they chose to go with someone who is/was doing the exact job title posted in the job listing rather than take a risk on an eager person who was interested in learning, and learning quickly. (This has been 2011-Now). Perhaps things were different 15 years ago.

      Beyond that, you say that you have done marketing and corporate communications for X, Y, and Z.... but at the end of the day it's still marketing and corporate communications. I understand that it helps to get intimately familiar with the specific product/service being marketed. I get that... But... You've been doing marketing and corporate communications and you're doing marketing and corporate communications, and you'll probably do more of the same. Those that are switching careers and hope to get into your field are shit-out-of-luck. Even new graduates that want to get into your field are having a hard time because those people need to be trained... and companies have no interest in training anyone when "perfect fit" people are clamoring for work.

      How does one get hired without experience when experience is only given to the experienced?

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    DonttweetfrommeHamilton Nolan
    5/28/13 2:36pm

    So many people on Gawker have looked to Europe as the ideal continent, it must be so hard for them to find out that things like unemployment actually happen there. What will people who confuse worshiping Europe with intellectual sophistication do now? I'm actually shocked that Gawker would even suggest that Europe had any problems like unemployment. I just assumed you would ignore it. It goes against everything Gawker stands for. The funny part is that in my experience, Americans who think Europe has all the answers in their 20s almost always end up as revolting conservatives as they age. But underneath it all, Gawker's base is deeply conservative at heart and worshiping the old country is a very conservative thing to do.

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      Johnny ChundersDonttweetfromme
      5/28/13 2:40pm

      Did it feel good to get all that out, whatever it was?

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      DonttweetfrommeJohnny Chunders
      5/28/13 2:40pm

      Yeah. It did.

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    yeahyouheardrightHamilton Nolan
    5/28/13 2:42pm

    She looks like a pain in the ass.

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      dgstanyeahyouheardright
      5/28/13 3:14pm

      I think that's Miss Shittytown.

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    quietgrrrlHamilton Nolan
    5/28/13 8:46pm

    I'm ashamed that it took reading this to make me remember how fortunate I am. I couldn't even get past the first story because that postscript felt like a punch to the gut.

    I spent all day feeling sorry for myself because I've spent two years looking for a job comparable to the one I've got but somewhere that I don't hate living. But as much as I hate living where I do, I live here with a pretty good and steady salary, great benefits, ample paid time off and really pleasant co-workers. I feel shitty that it took someone else's godawful misfortune to remember to appreciate what I have.

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      QuinnHamilton Nolan
      5/28/13 3:41pm

      I've watched the havoc wreaked on the other end of the non-compete cause... I've worked at businesses started by young people where their "friends" came and worked for them, then stole everything from their ideas to their programs to their clients (np, not by honest competition, but by agreeing to sell them the original business owner's stuff that he paid to have developed, all at a temporarily lower price). It's a cut-throat world and if you start a business, EMPLOYING PEOPLE AND GIVING THEM JOBS AND BENEFITS AND TAKING ALL THE RISK YOURSELF (paying a fortune for general liability insurance, to take just ONE example), not to mention having 100% of the massive amount of paperwork the government demands on your back alone, then you have to do SOMETHING to protect yourself. It's very expensive to patent and copyright everything, and to write contracts that preclude your employees from stealing all your stuff and either going into business for themselves, or bringing it all to a rival. One year is EMINENTLY fair for a non-compete clause; I have seen them for longer.

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        PeroxyacidQuinn
        5/28/13 3:56pm

        There has to be a way to write those that prohibits theft of intellectual property but doesn't prohibit working in the same industry.

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        erischildePeroxyacid
        5/29/13 6:25pm

        There should be, but contracts are written so that there is as little room for interpretation as possible. The "nice" or ethical thing to do is not enforce the contract if it's just plain mean to do.

        By writing a contract saying "ok, work for others in the field, as long as it doesn't affect us in a negative way" loses all it's bite. Even if i outright stole my ex-employers customers, i'd be able to argue that it's naturally what happens in the system.

        Contracts have to be written very black and white so that if they are ever legally tabled, there can be no questions or objections.

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      jazzoniaHamilton Nolan
      5/28/13 9:08pm

      I must say this is one of the most depressing group of unemployment stories that you have presented. With 12 million people still looking for jobs, there's no good news in a 7.5 percent jobless rate. I am furious at Obama for not creating a Jobs Summit back in 2008 and making that his top priority. I have decided I won't vote for ANYONE who does not make jobs their first problem to fix in any of the upcoming elections.

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        Callitoutjazzonia
        5/29/13 10:06am

        um... every candidate is going to "claim" that jobs is a top priority. But in the real world, there is very little any president can do. and we see how eager Congress is to help the people....

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        jazzoniaCallitout
        5/29/13 7:11pm

        Not entirely true. If Obama called for a Jobs Summit, he could gather together the experts in the field and the movers and shakers from the corporate level on down. That would have a HUGE psychological impact — and it would put the heat on employers who are basically sitting on their butts and not hiring in order to prevent Obama from looking successful. Yes, there are people out there with jobs — vacancies that they are deliberately not filling — because they'd rather ride out this presidency. Calling them out on it would be something that a president could and should do

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