Ooops. I Forgot To Explain What It's Like To Be Old

A few months back I asked if you remembered the phrase Pounding The Pavement but I realized I never explained what it meant! Raise your hand if you've heard it before... okay, a few of you, that's good.

It used to be that when you needed a job you looked through the classifieds in the newspaper, found stores or companies that were hiring, then dressed in your nicest clothes and walked from place to place. That's where 'pounding the pavement' came from. All that walking.

If they were hiring, they would hand you an application and you'd sit there and fill it out. With a pen. Then you'd go home and sit by the phone. Literally, because it was attached to the wall. And you'd wait.

If you didn't get a call, often times you would go back to the store and ask them if they had filled the position. It was important back then to be face to face, to let them see you. That proved to an employer that you really were interested in the job. If you didn't bother to come in, they didn't bother to hire you.

Nowadays it's all done on-line. You go on-line to see if they're hiring. The applications are on-line. You submit them on-line. The employer will contact you on-line...

Times, they are a changin'! 

As far as my girls, both Sharaya and Diana are working 2 jobs and Beth is still 'pounding the pavement'. Her job coach is looking into jobs at hospitals, churches, the school district... no openings yet, but she continues to look.

Mystery of the Red Bucket

I got an email from Beth's job coach saying she couldn't go to work until we met with the owner. Beth works for a local group home, doing their laundry twice a week. She likes it okay, she's been there for 3 years and the other employees don't talk to her or include her in anything. And lately they've been accusing Beth of some interesting behavoir. The latest incident has to do with a red bucket.

The acting supervisor at the group home said that an unwashed sheet with blood on it was found in with the folded laundry. The other employees have all denied having anything to do with it so they concluded it was Beth. This sheet was in a plastic bag, in a red bucket in a different room of the home. They are saying Beth went into this other room, opened the plastic bag, pulled out the sheet, folded it and put it with her clean laundry. Beth's job coach was there for part of the day and watched Beth fold a huge mound of laundry but never saw a sheet. How would Beth have even known the bucket was in the other room? And how would she have known there was a sheet... inside a plastic bag? It just doesn't make sense.

Beth and I met with her job coach today and the job coaches supervisor. They feel it's time for Beth to leave that job and look for something else. I've felt that for a few months. There have just been too many red flags the last few weeks. The bucket being the final straw. Her job coach will write up her resignation and have Beth sign it. She offically no longer works there. It's kind of sad but at the same time I'm excited to see Beth get into something that doesn't require TB tests and N1H1 shots.

For now Beth will attend a job class. A group of young adults meet once a week to talk about etiquete on the job, how to dress, they practice filling out job applications, etc. Plus, she'll meet one on one with her job coach to look for a new job. So, another chapter begins!

We may never know the truth behind that red bucket.