My grandparents are in their early to mid 70s…
My husband and I are in our early 20s...
Spent the weekend with them and there was much discussion of jobs and first time home owners.
My husband and I tried to explain that it’s hard to find a job. I was unemployed for about 3 months and struggled to find a job that paid over $15 an hour and was a day shift. Finally ended up having to have two barista jobs both paying $12 an hour and still not getting enough hours.
“it’s not that hard to find a job. You just don’t want a hard job. Go apply at a factory?”
yes it is grandpa. Yk how many openings there are at the factories near me that aren’t night shifts?? ZERO. I applied for housekeeping jobs at hotels and nursing homes, janitor jobs at hospitals and casinos, cashiers at gas stations, different positions at grocery stores, retail jobs, barista jobs, even applied to jobs that I knew I wouldnt get because I dont have the experience or degree just in case someone would hire me.
“people are always hiring.“
yeah, but who are they hiring? Nepotism, connections, age, gender, race, so many things go into play on who gets a job. I worked as a barista at one of the hotels I had applied to for housekeeping. Guess who worked the housekeeping jobs? All south asian and Hispanic women. Not a single white woman worked housekeeping there except for the head housekeeper lady. My husband applied to thousands of jobs before he finally walked around town and tried to give people his resume in person. One super small company accepted him.
I told my grandma: “if I applied to a part time receptionist job (which I did) are they going to choose me over the mid 30s woman with 2 kids? No…“
my grandma then replied “it’s probably because they think she would be more reliable since she’s older.”
THATS WHY ITS HARD TO FIND A JOB AS A YOUNG PERSON GRANDMA!!!
I worked with a woman in her mid 30s and had 3 kids at home. This woman came into work drunk and fell asleep in the lobby and in the break room ON THE CLOCK while I worked and did my job. But go ahead, choose who you’re hiring based off age.
”I went to a fast food place the other day and there was a woman my age working on a saturday! where are the kids working? they should be working that!” said my grandpa.
yeah, they should be working there. but they won’t hire them.
my grandma even replied that they probably assume the old lady is more reliable than a high schooler.
“theres plenty of houses you could buy. Theres a lot of cheap ones in *tiny town with no jobs for my husband and I and nothing for us to do*”
ok… what jobs are there for us then? are there jobs for my husband who is a computer science major and wants to expand his career in that?
”there’s trucking jobs. he can go drive a truck and get a bunch of money”
….yeah, Id love to live in a town that makes me depressed with a depressed husband that isn’t able to get a job that will fulfill him just so we can have a house… that will definitely make our lives so much better.
crazy thing is that they have a son, my uncle, who has never owned a home. he and my aunt have lived in large cities because that’s where the jobs for him are. they didn’t buy a house and lived in apartments because that’s the kind of life they were living. He’s a fricking law professor. what would happen with my uncle if my grandpa gave him the same advice he’s giving my husband?? my husband is very smart and wants to get his masters someday. it’s not going to happen if he works for a trucking company. If the trucking company would even hire a computer science graduate with no experience in trucking.…
Im sorry, its just so annoying.
like my mother works at dicks sporting goods right now. she’s 44. my grandma was probably not working at 44 or was working at my grandpas law office as a receptionist...
my grandpa also kept going on about how I should try to apply to be an office lady at a car dealership… my husbands dad is a manager or something at a dealership and explained to my grandpa that a lot of the time it’s a pretty family business. my grandpa just replied that “I doubt the lady in the back typing in information is someone’s daughter there.” well, I highly doubt I’ll get her job with no experience in that field grandpa.
at one point in February I applied to like 50 at home customer service jobs and got no response from anyone. Guess what I got in my email yesterday! An email telling me that theyd like to continue my application! Only like 7 months later! yeah… I have a job already…
end of rant. sorry.
I will be praying for all of you that are struggling with finding a job rn. it absolutely sucks. right now I’m ripping out year old smoke and bed bug ridden carpet and painting booger and smoke walls of an apartment that was lived in for 12 years. I’m super grateful for it though.
good luck to all and don’t give up!
Edit: when I mentioned minorities and moms I am not saying “they’re stealing my jobs!!!!! Ahhhh!!” My examples are just to explain that people have preferences on who they hire and they will stick to those rather than go outside of their “comfort zone.”