EMPLOYING the UNEMPLOYABLE

EMPLOYERS looking to hire are not anxious to choose their new employees from the ranks of the unemployed if they can hire someone away from another employer. And this is a vicious circle (cycle) that perpetuates itself. Your GOVERNMENT will be stepping in any day now to make this practice illegal. There is already a $1000 fine if you consider an employed person to hire over an unemployed person in New Jersey.

Other than bad luck and the economy, are there other reasons why some people are unemployed for as long as 2 years and receiving benefits? Is it possible that some people just suck at what they do and lose their jobs first in a downturn because of their lack of value to their former employer? Then there's the data that proves that if you are out of work for an extended period of time and stay at home watching the "soaps" whether on worker's compensation or unemployment, you NEVER get back into the "working for a living" ethic.

Let me tell you an Army story about a doctor that worked in a stateside military orthopedic clinic back years ago during the Asian war. Everyone in the clinic was pulling his weight and seeing hundreds of patients per week, except one guy who was a former professor of hand surgery prior to being drafted (we no longer have the draft.) He took his sweet time and only picked his favorite cases and saw about 20% of the workload the rest of us did. One day, the hospital commander strolled through the clinic and asked the chief if he could spare one of us to send to Vietnam where they were in need of surgeons. Without hesitation, the professor had to pack his bags and stock up on mosquito repellent. He never carried his share of the load and wound up getting the military equivalent of being fired. I am sure it happens every day in corporate America. Sure, being laid off or fired may not be the employees fault. And, he may be a wonderful future employee (or not). But, shouldn't that be the decision of the future employer and not the F'ing government? Where do we live anyway, the Soviet Union?