Category: advice and tips

(Wrote some more after seeing Breonna Taylor news): I was watching the PBS Asian American series. A few comments pops out in my mind: I did not realize there is discrimination against Indian American before watching this. Then an Indian American commentator said: basically the new immigrants wanted to be seen as “white”, or as minimum they want to be in between the white (I guess the ruling class), and the black (African American). This reminds me Joe Biden once commented on Barack Obama (this guy is clean). I know Joe likes to put his foot into his mouth, but what does mean?! Maybe Joe just said “politically incorrect” thing in a lot white people’s mind? Also please note Obama is mostly raised by his mom (white) and his maternal grandma (and grandpa, both white). || So my point here is while the United States always like to criticize other people / other countries’s human rights record, what about the African Americans at home?! Caging the immigrants children is another level.

(Original) I wrote about this a while ago in Chinese.

In light of the Ahmaud Arbery’s killing, I like to add more. 2 or 3 minutes read below.

Years ago I was in Rolla, driving my first car, a run-down Toyota Celica 1984 black, my American friend (graduate student, caucasian) joked I could be pulled over by police because of my car. He said his good old American Buick or Pontiac would do fine with police. I did get pulled over a few times, some are my own fault, such as my tail light was not working, or I did not drive straight (I was new driver, they think I was drunk). But I agree with some of things he said. Then in 2006, I talked to my roommate (young professional, caucasian too), and I said John Edwards may have the best chance break out from the Dems presidential primary because Hilary is woman, Obama is African American, and people here are not ready for them yet. I was wrong: I still remember the election night Nov 2008 I was on the way from Little Rock to St. Louis, I took the delta flight transfer in Atlanta which is unnecessary because the Southwest has direct flight. At Atlanta airport it looks like Obama was going to win (McCain is a good guy though).

I also remember Eric Holder (Obama’s AG) said he got pulled over from state highway patrol for no reason. I think things changed somewhat after Ferguson, black lives matter, but obviously took a step back in recent years too. I can see similar kind of racism in China too (against Africans live and work in Guangzhou).

Overall, over the time though, I do see two things: 1) Majority of people are decent, and they can tell right or wrong, and be on the right side of the history (in the US, that means civil war, women’s voting rights, the civil rights, etc), in the current pandemic they believe in science, wear facemarks when needed, and respect the frontline workers, and when possible, support the less fortunate. 2) In tough times though, we also see both the best and the worst of human beings, for example, I can see people calling Bill Gates the globalist (elitist), call for punish China or incite violence in Hong Kong, the armed militias storm the state capitols etc. Those are on the wrong side of the history, and they are minorities.

A bit off topic, the bottomline is racism is stupid and has no place in our world… (now you know, you don’t want me to say something 

This piece is a continuation of the piece I wrote last night about the economy and the mass layoff. Layoff is just a way of life in corporate America (note this includes non-for-profit org as well). There are couple things in the US about layoff that makes life harder: 1) The health insurance is usually associated with employment for lots of white collar jobs, losing a job also usually means the loss of health insurance of the employee, let’s say if that employee is the breadwinner of the family, that also means the family will lose health insurance. This is both costing money and inconvenient. 2) Unemployment insurance: usually it pays between $350 to $600 per week (depends on the state, living cost etc), the duration (usually 6 months) usually depends on state too. These are practical things or consequences, some employers do offer some severance pay (but usually most US employers don’t have generous severance pay). So in this scenario, the money let’s say $2400 a month is not enough to cover both health insurance for a family and a mortgage (or rent), not to mention food and car payments. Please note there was a survey last year that 40% of American does not have $400 in the bank.

Manage Emotion

There is other factors that come to play as well, in many cases those factors are actually more significant compared to the money side of the things. Let’s assume this person or family has enough money to survive before the impacted employee finds a new job. Let’s just say the other spouse brings enough bacon home. The main thing I want to say, from my personal experience is the stigma, or the rejection feeling from the layoff experience. I have seen in couple cases, grown up coworkers, cannot stop crying when they were asked to leave. I think maybe it’s the first time they experience this. Fortunately for me, I have seen these movies before personally experiencing something like this. There could be signs (looking back), such as the announcement of potential layoffs from CEO, or the secretary (admin assistant) looking away when I looked at her a few days before layoff (again this was a small company, and they did not do things large orgs do: their ways of orchestrate is more sophisticated, and usually not given away quickly. It’s very hard to overcome the rejection feeling, my personal experience this is a bit like dating a girl, and being rejected. Usually only time can heal to some extent, one may say “move on to next girl friend or next job”, but for some people I think this feeling never truly or 100% goes away. But it’s something we need to manage or control. Because those ill feeling is not good for health. One bible verse I like on this topic is: And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us (Mt 6: 12). I recall seen a passage on a friend’s desk the day after I found out my contract ended earlier I thought: I was expecting to convert to full time employee after certain time.

My suggestion

The most useful advice I received once is the lady who is a consultant hired by the employer, and her job is help transition (polish resume, job search strategy etc). I actually did not go to their sessions. But on that fateful day, the thing left me impression is “take care of yourself first“. Basically step back, recoup, take some rest, before restart. Usually I was not in that type of fortunate position (again the breadwinner role in my family). we usually do have some savings but don’t want to burn the cash too fast. I recall in 2011 when I experienced this the first time, I still went to the Bread Co. for dinner (to go), and I think we had about 40k in the bank, but feel a bit uneasy about spending $20 or $30 for family dinner: myself, my wife and one year old daughter. In the most recent experience, due to my age, I feel the age discrimination is prevalent (it’s illegal in the US, but many places practice this anyway, because it’s hard to find evidence for candidates). Another reason in the job search situation, it’s usually buyer’s market, unless the labor market is unusually tight or hot.

Ironically, due to my new job, I have interviewed (mostly tech screen) many candidates for developers, or architect position since last July. I will write up some job search strategy, and interview tips in my next series. Do remember another tip: this is something I heard from a wise gentleman (law professor), he said “it may not necessarily a bad thing for you, as it gives you some new perspectives and look for new things otherwise you don’t proactively go out and search”. So there is that: a wise perspective.

I took some pictures of “wish healthcare workers well” in my neighborhood. Tomorrow may 1st is international Labor Day. I understand the US does not observe. I wish the healthcare and all front-line workers well. We live in an unprecedented time indeed. This afternoon I got a call from a friend who worries about potential layoffs. I understand: I have been there, both the worrying part / seeing coworkers being paid off, and the actual layoff part. Again this time the US has lost 30 millions of job since pandemic, out of 150 millions of total jobs. 50% of the people know someone either from family or friend that lost job. My wife and my jobs are safe so far, but we know in this environment nothing is given or forever. We can only control the things that we can control: we sold the condo on March 19. We try to do our jobs as much as practical at the same time, watching our little ones. And I have some plans for my post corporate programmer career as well, if it comes to that. Wish all is well and together we will overcome this pandemic. China with 1.4 billion people has this mostly under control, so can the USA with 1/4 of population, 350 million.

It seems things get shitty today. I know it’s coming on last Friday, as WFH and everything seems imminent. One thing though I dislike, is the organization I work for sent out WFH email on Sunday night. I did need to come in anyway as I know I need to onboard a new colleague. Recall last Thursday, I went to West County costco, and I saw a gentleman who pushed a cart with something, and answered to an aquantinee: I came because my wife said so. Today is different, at the Maplewood Sam’s Club around noon, I saw the food court is closed (was going to get the deluxe pizza and soda), some people (mostly African American) wear face masks including the lady in the entrance. The store was busy as it took a while and some intervention to get some help on the online order pickup. My wife wanted a freezer, but Sam’s Club is out of stock (it let me order online initially). Went to home depot, Best Buy and also checked Amazon it seems the decent size ones (5 cu ft or larger) are out. Then listened to the WH guy doing the briefing in the pm, and does not sound encouraging as the stock market had another big drop. Think eventually it will get under control, but right now the US is just trying to avoid be another Italy. Hope Spain and France can get it under control soon. And situation in Italy and Iran don’t get worse. China seems working very hard to control the incoming cases. Another crazy work begun.

Deep Springs College: I heard about the college first time today. Apparently this is a very small college (26 students enrollment per Wiki). But they emphasize work (labor), the college is free. All male for now until the lawsuit can be settled.

College of the Ozarks: I knew this college a while ago, and I heard about it in the news on their “absolutely no alcohol policy” (even off campus). It’s a christian college, and the Berea college below is similar in this aspect.

Berea College: in Kentucky instead of Missouri, similar size as CoFo above, about 1,600 students. Both CoFo and Berea require students to work, and the tuition is waived. It looks like there are at least 7 work colleges in the US. Quote: “Each student receives a tuition scholarship worth nearly $100,000 for four years.
The College is one of only seven federally recognized Work Colleges in the United States…”