The most depressing 3 hours I ever spent ...

So today I had to go for 'Re-employment' training because I'm on extended unemployment and a fight almost broke out!

Picture this, there's about 25 people in there and there's this skinhead looking guy who says, "Yeah, I tried to get a job working at a meat packing plant but I couldn't get hired because I have a record, but they hire illegal's all the time." Everyone get's quiet, then another guy across the room shouts out, "You're a ***king ****ole." The skinhead's face get's bright red and he starts shaking and I'm sitting there thinking, "Oh crap, here we go. One of these idiot's has a gun and we're all gonna die. Why didn't I bring mine?!"

The guy sits there steaming and mumbling and rocking back and forth for 3 minutes and finally the instructor, who was this 60 year old woman who couldn't smash a fly, tells him to shut up or get out.

THEN ... about an hour in she was telling everyone if they have a Verizon phone to make sure they don't have it set to pick up and instruct people to listen to hold music while Verizon tries to reach them because it pisses employers off. Then out of the blue one guy says, "You can't tell us what the hell to do with our own cell phones!" And the guy who called the skinhead a blanking blanking blurts out to the instructor, "You ***king **tch!" ... and she didn't do anything! She just let it go!

The thing that struck me the most out of everything the instructor said though was, "You will never get a job again making any more than minimum wage and you'll be on and off unemployment the rest of your lives if you don't go to school and get a degree in something ... anything ... but you have to have a degree now. The days of just having a high school diploma are over whether we like it or not."

Ain't that something for a state official to say that?

I guess I've lived a pretty sheltered life. I've worked since I was 13, been in bands since 14, never had time for much of a social life. I've never been around people like I described above, but after listening to what I heard today, I felt like I was upstairs and now I have an entirely different outlook on a lot of people here. I actually met some of the most disliked people upstairs in person today. Let me tell you, these people are very real, they do exist, and it's not an act or an alter ego. This is actually how some people live their lives and act in public. It dawned on me that, this is why I struggle to get along with some of the people upstairs. I've always worked in a semi-corporate environment around educated people and always had to conduct myself in a specific manor. I never knew this side of society existed to this extent. I found myself crawling in my skin for 3 hours and I hated every second of it. I learned a lot about others and myself today, so I guess it wasn't a total loss.

Had to vent a little, it's been a stressful afternoon. Doh! Sorry. So how was everyone else's day today?

LOL

Yep...I know that kind of thing..not nice when it happens ...

I can see some of what she was saying but one has to know what it is they want to do...myself...I went into Personal Support Worker as I love to help people...it has been in me for a long time. My wife is disabled so I had to do a lot of things for the two of us. So when my job got downsized I found myself wallowing around in misery and anguish for a couple of years..I found this course through our City Spectrum pamphlet and went to the intro for it..did a session with one of our many employment programs...thankfully we seemed not to have people with miserable attitudes like those you ran into...and lo and behold...I came out with my PSW papers..and now..after 4 years in it am doing the QA work for the company I got involved with...

I don't know what it is like where you are but i would definitely look for those educational programs that might help steer you in the right direction....

a lot of hate and pain in the world these days.
Glad I'm on the way out and not on the way in.

how does one get an avitar that moves like your meter...i swear im not high jacken this thread...someone p.m me...thanks

This is how I plan to spend my golden years:

"Stories like those confirm why I remain self-employed."

+100%

good thread bud...x rays are negative..

I think I know exactly how you feel.

It is very, very healthy to have to meet that kind of people occasionally. Knowing that there are (lots) of people like that helps you build a realistic picture of the world. I have also met many people who, like you said, haven't realised that these kind of people really exist (..to that extent).

In my work I've met lots of short term season workers during the years and I think I've developed an eye to see which ones will make it in life. There are so many that lack the social skills that would help them to be taken seriously.

There are SO much folks that (for different reasons) are not able to receive/understand the information rush around them. Most of what they see in the TV-news or read in newspapers is uncomprehensable to them and their understanding of causes and consequensies in politics and economy is very limited. And still most of them live as normal members of the society being able to take care of themselves. It's when things are not going well, that these people turn into time bombs.

The most scary of all people are the ones who don't know that they don't know, and turm agressive.

Like Churchill (I think it was he) stated: The strongest argument against democracy is a conversation with a citizen (I'm not sure I translated that right).

In the future we'll get more and more aggressive, bitter, poorly "equipped" citizens, because life is getting harder and more heartless all the time. The parents are sucked dry just trying to make ends meet (or to meet the standards of the neighbourhood), and at the same time the media is presenting sick and unrealistic images of what "good life" is. Everyhing is designed to make an average kid go twisted.

The poor are getting (relatively) poorer and the rich richer so fast that some H.G. Wells'  visions start to feel very realistic. Sometimes I feel we're going back to the 1800's.