Unemployment Compensation

Let me get this off my chest before I start in on unemployment compensation . . . GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND WORK!  I’m not sorry I said that either.  This is what the unemployment office should be telling the 260,000 unemployed workers in my state. Our unemployment rate in January rose to 8.2%, yet as a business owner I still give out overtime every week because I can’t find people who want to work.

In the fifteen years I’ve been in business, I don’t think I’ve fired more than 15% of the people who have left my company.  The biggest problem I have is getting people to work.  Either they call off several shifts each month, or they simply stop showing up to work. When this happens, usually on the same day they don’t show up, I receive a notice from the unemployment office that Joe Nobody has filed for unemployment benefits.  Granted, I do not employee people in a high paying industry, however the payrate is much better than minimum wage and the work is steady. Pay increases are given to those who work hard, days off are given whenever a request is submitted, hours are flexible, pay advances are available, bonuses and vacation time are afforded and there’s absolutely no micro-management.

That said, back to the unemployment issue.  So I get the notice that an employee, Joe Nobody, who stopped coming to work has filed for unemploment benefits.  I submit the proper paperwork to contest his unemployment and three weeks later I have a hearing with the unemployment judge.  The former employee explains to the judge that he was caught sleeping on duty by my supervisor.  The supervisor relieved him of duty and asked the employee to meet with management the next morning.  Since Mr. Nobody assumed he would be fired, he decided to quit and file for unemployment benefits.  The judge asked if we had a written policies and procedures manual.  “Of course we do”, came my reply, while proudly displaying our 74 page manual.  Not impressed, the judge retorted, “can you show me in your manual where it says an employee may not sleep while on duty”.   “Uh, well, I’m sure it’s in here judge” I stuttered, “may I have a few minutes to find it?”.  With his majesty’s permission, I feverishly paged through our policies and procedures manual, finding everything from “though shall not bring discredit upon they company” to “you must make proper notification to the company if you intend to die”. But, nothing that specifically said an employee could not sleep while on the clock.  Long story short, Joe Nobody received unemployment compensation and I instructed my staff to re-write our manual.

Here’s my point . . . Joe Nobody refused to get off his ass and work.  He was lazy, had always been lazy, but he would not have been fired because I had nobody to replace him.  Yet 260,000 people are in line for unemployment compensation? I guarantee you that more than half of these unemployment compensation seekers are related to Joe Nobody and have learned to live off the system.  Joe Nobody is not unique to my business or to any other business similar to mine.  We see it every single day and often experience a 100% yearly turnover rate.  Why? Because all of the Joe Nobody’s out there know that unemployment compensation is so easy to come by.  And, here’s the kicker, Joe Nobody will not only file for unemployment benefits against my company, but against every other company he’d work for during the past couple of years.  Joe Nobody knows that at least one of the companies he files against won’t take the time to contest his request for unemployment compensation.

What’s the solution?  Get rid of the damn liberal judges who find every unimaginable reason to side with Joe Nobody and all his brothers and sisters who refuse to be productive members of society.  I for one am tired of supporting them and tired of working my ass off so they can sit on theirs.

My next post will probably examine Obama’s socialist movement and its adverse affect on hard working Americans.