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It's just that sometimes comments like "when my kids go back to school, I'll just get a job" make me think THEY think its just so easy to get a job -- let alone after one has been out of the workforce for five years or more. Like they can just waltz right back into a job.
I think it's rougher out here than they think it is.
That's all. But maybe I'm reading more into that too than they intend.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,206,701 times
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Why single out the stay at home moms? It doesn't matter whether it's a stay at home mom (or dad) or some other reason, being out of the workplace for 5-10 years is definitely a big negative in the current job market. Whether one is doing household finances or volunteering at the local church, school, or retirement center what matters is whether the volunteer work is job-related and has actually kept skills up-to-date. If everyone at a workplace is expected to be at least intermediate level with MS Office products including Excel, Visio and Sharepoint, and the person has used the latest version for those products in their volunteer work or even home finances then they can use that as applicable experience. Even so, the applicant is less likely to be hired than someone with current experience since there are likely to be many of those to compete with.
It's just that sometimes comments like "when my kids go back to school, I'll just get a job" make me think THEY think its just so easy to get a job -- let alone after one has been out of the workforce for five years or more. Like they can just waltz right back into a job.
I think it's rougher out here than they think it is.
That's all. But maybe I'm reading more into that too than they intend.
Well...if this was the main intent of your post... you are obviously right.
In general, IT IS hard to get into the labor market after so many years of ..WELL...NO paid employment.
I may be going off on a tangent here, but I honestly think that the "SAH/domestic" occupation is nothing but a nice luxury to have in today's world.
Unless a woman can only get the kind of job that pays too little to justify even the lowest cost of day-care for 4 years in a row - choosing to have a parent at home is simply a luxury today.
Some people can clearly afford this luxury - as the woman may never need to return to the labor market anyway. But few can afford for the woman to NEVER work after she had children.
I have seen so many cases where families THINK they can afford this luxury (or even feel entitled to it simply because they can live on loans) - when in reality they don't.
Eventually, the bubble bursts and the woman is forced to look for work - now with pretty bad job prospects.
As a not-by-choice professional woman, I certainly wish we could be back to the 50's when the vast majority of women simply could afford to stay at home - children or not.
I also understand that train has long left the station. Unfortunately so.
Any one else chuckle or shake their head at some comments by stay at home moms about keeping their skills up by doing the household finances or volunteering for community groups -- or even serving on a company board.
I'll see, hear or read comments about how they've keep their skill current by doing those things (VERY part-time), so they can re-enter the job market -- after being OUT of the market for 5 or ten years.
My first thought is that just by saying you think THAT keeps your 'skills' 'up to date' shows how out of it they are.
MAYBE if a person had a real work-place part-time job I could accept the comments a little better. But I want to say, honey, (no offense intended) doing the family budget or volunteering for the PTA....while better than NOTHING I guess, doesn't mean your job skills are up to date.
Being out of the job market, I wonder if they really know how hard it can be to find a job -- when you HAVE one, let alone you've been out of the market.
And 2) maybe the kind of entry level job a housewife of ten years would get...you wouldn't need a whole lot of skills for anyway. But even then they'd be up against 100 other people for that job.
You are VERY insulting here. VERY INSULTING.
Some of these people you are berating so lightly have family situations keeping them on the sidelines!
Some would LOVE to return to work...where are the opportunities? it is crap like this that is giving us a bad reputation and nobody hires us anymore! You should be ASHAMED of yourself for talking about us this way! What do you know? not everyone volunteers for the PTA...trust me, I wouldn't if they paid me...
First of all do you think we all own RICOH copiers in our homes and are keeping those up to date????? Or have updated our phone system with the latest CISCO products???? Or hmmm let's see expensive dentist equipment? (for someone who was a dentist)??? are you out of your mind? I am a photographer/graphic designer and so I am keeping THOSE skills up to date...others are teachers, others are lawyers, others are nurses etc...Do you think you forget "how to be a lawyer" after staying home? do you think they change ALL the laws in a 5 year time frame???? do you think we're brainwashed once we decide to stay home? how is an administrative assistant keep her skills up to date at home? does she have a work workflow to follow? do you hear how DUMB that sounds to have such an expectation????? "Sure honey, let me have a subscription to RICOH monthly to print cake recipes! so I don't forget how to use a copier!" Employees are trained on that every time a new model comes out...how's someone that's not in that office going to "know" how to use one if they're not there? telepathy?
HR is keeping a LOT of people unemployed purposely. A lot of companies are keeping people unemployed purposely; others moved their jobs elsewhere in the world...how is that my fault exactly???? I doubt that there is any mom out there that does not want to return to work. Doubt it 100000%.
Do you KNOW that sometimes what we're paid is not WORTH going to work? IF I have to bring money from home to go to work, I am not going to go to work!!! I have expenses too! My work is NOT free; my milk costs the same as yours does!
Yeah indeed! You're right on that one, because truly employees these days are playing on facebook and the likes, and don't bother "keeping their skills up to date anymore"...they just update their statuses!!!!!
Quote:
My first thought is that just by saying you think THAT keeps your 'skills' 'up to date' shows how out of it they are.
Then, some would like to have their children raised well, and not raised by non english speaking daycare personnel paid minimum wage! I am sorry, but nobody teaches manners there!
What do you propose exactly? I don't see ANY freakin programs that HELP MOMS RETURN TO WORK...NONE WHAT SO EVER! Should NOBODY have kids anymore??????? You are so freakin ignorant its not funny! But honestly, I am not surprised! How many kids do you have? how many have down syndrome? how many are autistic? how many have cerebral palsy? what are those moms to do exactly????? those types of kids require non stop care; some have to learn to use medical equipment properly...takes skill...what do YOU know about that?????
A judgment with very limited information is often only an uneducated opinion.
Maybe it's just me....but flaunting wife's IQ and degree to tell a hardly representative anecdote ...just smacks of narcissism to me.
You do know that MOST SAHM-s (just like most paid workers) have neither IQ-s of 160 nor degrees from fancy institutions.
Most are what the OP was most likely having in mind: regular people, neither terribly smart, nor terribly stupid, with mid-range IQ-s, without degrees from fancy institutions...and in this case, without work experience either.
Let's work within this framework - because this is "DA framework".
Location: In a city within a state where politicians come to get their PHDs in Corruption
2,907 posts, read 2,069,650 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by syracusa
Maybe it's just me....but flaunting wife's IQ and degree to tell a hardly representative anecdote ...just smacks of narcissism to me.
You do know that MOST SAHM-s (just like most paid workers) have neither IQ-s of 160 nor degrees from fancy institutions.
Most are what the OP was most likely having in mind: regular people, neither terribly smart, nor terribly stupid, with mid-range IQ-s, without degrees from fancy institutions...and in this case, without work experience either.
Let's work within this framework - because this is "DA framework".
Espousing your opinion about everything and anything-like you seem to be doing- smacks of narcissism to me.
It's just that sometimes comments like "when my kids go back to school, I'll just get a job" make me think THEY think its just so easy to get a job -- let alone after one has been out of the workforce for five years or more. Like they can just waltz right back into a job.
Why shouldn't they waltz right back to work is my question to YOU???
Do YOU feel inferior for not having "teaching another human being about life" on your resume? does that make you uncomfortable?
We KNOW, how difficult it is...we KNOW...we've been made aware of it more so after the market crashed...thanks to some really "well raised" individuals.
We have to fill out RIDICULOUS 25+ Minutes tests online; we are ASSUMED TO BE THE WORST INDIVIDUALS THAT EVER WALKED THIS EARTH! WE KNOW. & We are equally disgusted by people like you which is why most of us choose to have our own businesses and then NOT employ people like YOU.
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