Abuse of the unemployed
 
          I get dozens of request from across the country from unemployed people to pray that they, or a family member, will get a job soon. It is disparaging enough to go to place after place seeking employment and not find it. But it is a real slap in the face to have to take an ethics & morals test and further insulting and degrading to be told that you failed the test because you are too honest. This is happening thousands of times a day to people who are honest hard workers desperately wanting a job so they can meet their family’s needs.

These tests are a substitute for the polygraph that some employers used until they were ruled inaccurate and too invasive. They were created by some psychologists or psychiatrists and are extremely subjective and dubious. For instance; when an individual is told that they are too honest it means one of two things. They are actually considered too honest and would therefore pose problems for the employer and or the company which is in some fashion not so honest. Or it means that they think you lied on the test and are therefore not trustworthy. To add to the tests’ ambiguity they can be interpreted any way the HR person, or whoever is in charge, chooses to interpret them. As often as not the tests are fed into a computer and a program decides what the answers mean. Primarily employees pay for these tests assuming that they can weed out those individual who would steal from them. But individuals who have been arrested for counterfeiting, forgery and shoplifting have successfully passed the test and been hired. Meanwhile, scores of qualified trustworthy people are turned away. These tests are very effective at two things in particular: sucking money out of employers’ pockets and keeping qualified people unemployed. Other than that they are pretty much useless drivel dressed up as science. They are often a substitute for the hard work involved in finding qualified, dependable employees.

The insanity doesn’t end here. Another bane to those seeking a job is the Temp service. They save employees a lot of money and may occasionally get someone a fulltime job. Unfortunately though they most often get the job seeker only a few weeks work which can be more costly and problematic than not having worked those few weeks. One gets their hopes up that they have finally gotten a job only to be disappointed with the news that they “just aren’t what we needed” or “you’re not what we’re looking for” or “We only needed you for to get this order out.”  After one or two jobs, if they are that lucky, the temp service no longer finds you any work.

We’re not through yet, we are in the midst of a serious lunacy epidemic. Another problem that has faced the unemployed for many decades is now back stronger and more brazen: “Unemployed need not apply” the once unspoken message is now blatantly appearing in ads in newspapers and in online postings. I’ve never understood the thinking behind this one. The unemployed who will get up and go out and look for work want to work and will work. The fact that a person is currently employed is no guarantee that he will be a good worker. She may be fickle, inconstant or unreliable.

            These are some of the unnecessary obstacles with which the unemployed are faced today. Then they must face the ridicule and embarrassment that comes with being unemployed, on unemployment and eventually on public assistance. This shouldn’t be happening in our country. We need to stop this discrimination and abuse. 
             Contact your congressmen and representatives about these agregous acts of discrimination against our unemployed. Many of them are unemployed because their jobs have been shipped to other countries.