There is no FUN in unemployment

If you are reading this blog because you actually know me you probably know that I have been unemployed since April 1st. I never thought I would become a statistic or a victim of the crappy economy but alas here I am. I was fortunate enough to get some severance when my company decided to close the Denver office and I had an awesome summer being magical at Hogwarts for 144 young witches and wizards. All of this (and some help from family) has enabled me to go without collecting unemployment benefits until now. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for unemployment, but I am also very frustrated by the entire process.

I filed for unemployment the week after I was laid off but because of my severance package and working over the summer my claim was postponed. Did I mention that unemployment benefits comes at a price, there are lots of hoops to jump through and rules to follow. In order for me to reinstate my claim I needed to call in and talk to someone...yeah right!

cartoon image found here

After two and a half week of calling in every time I thought about it throughout the day every day (avg 6-8 tries per day) I still had not spoken to anyone and had only gotten though once only to be cut off after 35 minutes on hold. The money was running out and I was getting desperate.

Finally I decided one day that I was getting through if it killed me and I got nothing else done that day. I woke up at about 7:00 and got all of my paperwork in front of me and started dialing at 7:30 on the nose. Each time I got the recorded message that all agents were busy and to try again later I hung up and hit redial. I did this for three and a half hours straight (I lost count but I think it was somewhere in the range 150 calls)!

So I had finally gotten through and thought I was making progress only to have my hopes dashed when I heard, "Due to the high volume of calls your expected wait time may be up to 120 minutes."...Seriously!!! A mere 110 minutes later I finally got to talk to someone. Who took all of my information and reinstated my claim in under five minutes. UUUGGHHHHH!!!!