If you're anything like me, the idea of becoming unemployed has never entered your head. As most of you know, I am pretty much a peon. I have a 9th grade education, no skills to speak of and yet I have always been comfortable in the fact that there were endless job opprotunities available to me. I am a waitress/bartender for Gods' sake. In that respect I was always a little cocky. I mean, for the type of work I do, jobs are a dime a dozen and I never thought even the worst economy could hurt me.
What I didn't think of, was something I had mentioned in an earlier post. Not that there are any less jobs out there for people like me, but that there are a lot more people after them. Secondly, as the economy fails, people don't quit going to bars or restaurants completely, but they sure do tip less.
Well, right about July of last year I had the bright idea that I was wasting my time at the job that I had been at for 9 years. It seemed suddenly I wasn't making as much money as I had been in previous years. I blamed the management, my coworkers, etc. But, never even had thought one about our economy.
So, in my spare time I began to pound the pavement, and about a month later I got hired on to a crew that would help open a new restaurant. It was a more fine - dining atmosphere, a place with a bar, in a really great location, and it was corporate so they offerred benefits. It sounded perfect. I gave my notice at work and heaven was mine.
It took me less than two weeks to realize that I had made a grave mistake. Not only was my first paycheck short by about $100.00 ( as were most of the others'.) but in my first week it cost me about $60.00 just to keep gas in my car and pay for parking. The tips I was making were not even covering the costs of getting out to the place, let alone paying my bills.
I understand that opening a restaurant takes time, building a smooth, regular customer base, even more time. The problem wasn't that I didn't have the patience, it was that this was an airport restaurant, which means you are pretty much stuck with whatever happens to be coming through your terminal that day. At DTW there are very few restaurants that you can get to without going through security. To get through security you have to have a boarding pass. Which means, unless the new restaurant was set in the flow of traffic, or traffic was rerouted in some way... it was NEVER going to be profitable.
End of story.
So, I quit. I had to, to save money. I know that doesn't make any sense, but it really was costing me to keep going out there. And that is where my adventure begins!!
I will not bore you with any more details except to say that eventually I had to turn to unemployment. Hating myself the whole time, repeating to myself that it was only temporary, only for a little while. And while that might have been the case, I still almost gave up. Quite a few times I almost just said screw the whole darn thing.
But once I finally did get all my ducks in a row, or rather the unemployment agency got my ducks in a row for me...they paid me retroactively. My first check was 6 weeks worth of unemployment, basically just enough to pay my rent (Thank Gods!) and at that moment was entirely worth it.
The only tip I can give you is to keep going. They don't ask you to jump through too many hoops, but it does take quite awhile. Be patient. I know it hurts to be hoping for money that they say you are entitled to, only to find out it will be yet another two weeks...AGAIN.
The paperwork is in swahili and it's hard to understand when they start talking about 'quarterly earnings' and such. There are people at the office that will help you, if you really can't get through it. Unbelievably enough, the people that I always spoke to were very nice and extremely helpful.
Once you have the approval letter it will tell you what to do. Here in Michigan you have to call an automated system called MARVIN. You have to call on a certain day, between certain times. I don't know if this is the same for each state. But, keep calling. Even if it says you're approved and you don't get a dollar amount, keep calling on your day and time, because for each time you call, you will get paid for those weeks.
I set up an online account here:
Now, in doing so, I was able to monitor everything that was happening on my account AND I found something even cooler than that.
My original day to call was every other Wednesday between 3-4 pm. If you use the online service, you don't have to wait until your assigned day, you can file the Monday of the week you are supposed to call between 7 am - 7 pm. Therefore, you get paid earlier, so, if you were to file on Wednesday, you wouldn't get your payment until Friday or Saturday. This way, you can file on Monday and get your payment by Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
On that website you can change how you want to get paid, direct deposit or debit card and it keeps a running list of your payment dates, payments and how many you have left before you run out.
Also, if you have already run out your first claim, you can go here:
Everything is very simple and once you are in the program's system from your original claim, there is nothing else you have to do. Just keep certifying.
I wanted to include a state by state database, also, so if you are having trouble filing or not sure where to file in your state, go here:
Remember: Don't give up. It WILL pay off. And even if you go back to work before you get your first payment, keep going, they still owe you for the time you weren't working.
Good Luck!!
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