Unemployment Orientation

In order to continue collecting on your unemployment claim, the state sometimes requires you to attend an orientation. This entails going to the local labor office and sitting in a little classroom -- complete with those funny desks from high school -- and listening to someone talk to you about how to find a job, and the resources available to you, and a little bit about how the benefits work.

Normally, this would be an inconvenience. However, the fact that you are sitting in said room with ten or fifteen others means that it's downright hellish. For you see, people have questions and if you give them a forum -- or a comfortable classroom like environment -- they will ask these questions, no matter how absurd or dumb they may be.

While some questions were reasonable (Why does NJ give out more per check?), the forum was not the right one. Other questions, arising out of the explanation of how the benefits worked, simply caused the poor proctor-type person to repeat again and again what he'd just said. This also meant draggin out the entire process for all of us who understood the basic logistics of the system.

At end, some people were asked to go to the second floor for a Re-Employment Interview. I did not get asked, which was kind of sad. But on the other hand, Re-Employment makes it sound like some crazy Government Agenda Program.

And then it was over, and I returned home. At some point, I may be called back in for Work Search Review where they will want documentation of all my efforts to find a job. Fun fun!