Six months ago, I became the victim of the latest bloodletting of the music industry. Affectionately it is referred to as the restructuring of the company to remain competitive. It looks much better in print then it feels. After following the advice of my friends and former co-workers I decided to look through the online classifieds. I can safely confirm that after applying to possibly over 500 positions on various employment web sites, that I was completely, even occasionally over qualified for I can count on both hands how many responses I received. I wonder just how many people feel like me that no one is reading his or her resume at all. On one of the bad days that I had recently I was awakened by a call from a service center and in the depts. In my sleep I had the sense to ask. “Just where are you calling from?” The woman answered “India Miss.” I almost hung up on her. If I was in a fowl mood I am sure that the next thing she would have heard was a dial tone. Seriously. It just was just another annoying plug that big business would rather send wok out the country then hire right here. I hope there is a special ring in hell for companies that do that. Of course my cranky attitude could have been due to the fact that the convenience call came at 7:30 in the morning.
The theory that outsourcing is a great thing on the economy leads me to a real hard-core question. Where is the pride in “Made in America? That’s why I have an American made car. I am unequivocally an American girl. I would like to work at an American company with Americans. I just wish that that were a reality for people. I was struck a few years back when Michael Moore shot his movie about layoffs. Layoffs are not easy. They are designed to create profit at the top while creating the same product. Truth be told I would rather be proud of something made right here in my own country. I would hope that the scare of poisonings from China would wake someone somewhere up. That’s little warning bell would go off in some board meeting that maybe with the cost of cheap land now that maybe buying plant here stateside would be profitable once again. We have just about outsourced everything that was American. Cars, food, clothes, IT service and anything else that requires benefits. That’s pretty pathetic.
The bitterness from being put out to pasture at my previous job left me stunned. Of course I expected it. It has become the American way to be marked “redundant” at some point in your career. Honestly, after I left I tuned off all my radios. I plugged my I-pod in to the charger and stopped listening to any music of any kind. My childhood dream of retiring from music was shattered and I had to learn again what it was that I liked.
Well, after a summer of I re-discovered I could actually listen to music again without bitterness and enjoy it. The one thing I was struck by on radio was the sense of similarity on the songs. I even turned on music videos and after watching for an hour I was struck by the lack of mediocrity. Had it been like this the entire time I was there or have we outsourced our talent too? It was definitely a thought, so each day the last few days I turned on the radio looking for a peek at something original. That’s when it hit me. All the play lists are frozen and it just Christmas carols playing. Maybe that’s a good thing and I can ask Santa for a better play list along with a good job for Christmas.
Even better yet maybe 2008 will be the year without massive layoffs.
