A year ago my company, Exuvian, imploded because the CEO, Steve, stopped doing his job, billing the customer and signing our paychecks. Why’d he stop? I have no idea.
After three months of working without pay I decided that there were better options so I considered myself laid off. But the Steve problem didn’t stop there. Because he hadn’t payed payroll taxes since March of 2008 it looked to EDD that I hadn’t been working at all. And when they think you haven’t been working you’re not entitled to unemployment.
At this point the typical Republican says, “Get a job” and that’s what I tried to do. But working on Beoing’s older IT for the previous four years doesn’t look too good on a resume. I tried to reinvent myself as an Android programmer just as the industry standards for Android Programmers shot through the unrealistic roof.
My savings are gone but I have a few things to hope for: I appealed the unemployment with EDD and that looks like it might come though. I reported Steve to the California Labor Board for my back pay and I applied to the electricians union’s apprentice program.
I have my fingers crossed that one or all of these will come though and put be back to where I was when this crap started but one thing this year has taught me is that optimism is just another name for wishful thinking.
