I'm in, it sounds good.
29-Day Giving Challenge.
- Thread starter rainplace
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #12
Wow 5 people are in and 2 are maybes... incredible
If you all are going to do this a bit of practice sure wouldn't hurt right?
I sent an email a bit ago to [email protected] and said a prayer for her.
Why not read the story below and send an email of encouragement. I have found out in life one can not put a price on encouragement.
Or if you have any leads that be great of course also.
Hope you consider!
Woman takes job hunt to the streets of downtown Seattle
By Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter
After losing her job of eight years when her marketing employer downsized, Simmjaze Sayles has spent 20 months looking for full time work, finally resorting to wearing a sandwich sign in downtown Seattle that says, "I WANT A JOB And Nothing Else!"
JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Standing at Fifth and Union downtown, Simmjaze Sayles advertises her skills. She says she's always worked but has had no luck at finding a full-time job, despite applying with literally hundreds of employers.
Searching for a job
Desperate times, desperate measures.
On the busy Seattle downtown sidewalks, some people avert their eyes perhaps hoping the bad times also don't descend on them some give her a thumbs up, some even offer words of encouragement.
Simmjaze Sayles is the woman dressed in a nice office outfit with skirt and jacket, briefcase by her side containing a stack of résumés, and wearing a sandwich board with a plasticized sign that headlines: "I WANT A JOB And Nothing Else."
She's been standing now with her board for a month, bundled up against the cold, umbrella at her side in case of rain. Not one bite.
She says she knows some might feel embarrassed at standing on the sidewalk with such a sign.
"I have no qualms about wearing this sign," says Sayles. "This sign is honest. I have a lot of experience. I am a hard worker."
Over the years, stories about work-hungry individuals resorting to wearing a sandwich board, or some similar stunt, have become part of the unemployment landscape.
But you gotta do what you gotta do, to somehow stand out from everybody else looking for a job, when you haven't had a full-time job for 20 months and you're scrambling to make the rent on your apartment.
Sayles will not allow herself to become depressed. "I have dreams and goals," she says.
"Hope, courage and confidence to be victorious. I know I'm going to get a job!"
Smart location
On this particular morning of Christmas week, Sayles is standing at Fifth and Union, where the corner businesses are a Chase Bank, Brooks Brothers, Fox's Gem Shop and Specialty's Café & Bakery.
She picks downtown spots that are busy and where potential employers might pass.
One street she avoids is Third Avenue. That's where the street people with their cardboard "No money, no food" signs hang out, she says. She wants no part of that.
Sayles says some people have offered money. She won't take it, she says.
Sayles is a proud person. She points to the second line on her sign. She wants a job "and nothing else."
On the sign, she lists her work attributes:
"Experience: 10-30 Years Customer Service, Telephone Surveys, Receptionist, Some Computer Skills. Email: [email protected]. Will YOU Hire Me?"
Bryan Rush, a commercial real-estate broker, sees Sayles while he's crossing Fifth Avenue.
What Sayles is doing, he says in admiration, "that's a lot of effort."
No job, no prospects. "It could happen to a lot of people right now," says Rush.
There is a date on the calendar that is embedded in Sayles' mind.
It is April 10, 2008.
That's when her employer downsized, and after eight years of working for the same company, she lost her full-time customer service and telemarketing job.
Some have given up
These days, just as people remember what they were doing on the exact dates of particular historic occasions, they can add the date when they become another of the unemployed. This group now encompasses 10 to 17 percent of the labor force; the lower figure doesn't include people who've simply given up looking for work after fruitless searches.
Sayles now has a log of literally several hundred places where she has applied for work.
She tried cold-calling, a skill she picked up in telemarketing in her former job that included market research. She called every marketing firm in the phone book.
Sorry.
She went through the phone listings, calling other businesses she thought might need someone with her skills.
Sorry.
It's not that Sayles has been completely without work.
At the state unemployment office, she saw a leaflet from AARP Foundation WorkSearch, which helps people 55 and over find jobs. For sure, Sayles is in that age category.
The organization has gotten federal money to have older types work 18 hours a week at minimum wage at a nonprofit. Since May, Sayles has been a receptionist at the Northwest African American Museum.
Of course, most of her wages are deducted from her unemployment check, but it also means that Sayles shows up at a workplace three times a week. She's not at home alone.
At the AARP office in Seattle, they took a picture of Sayles and her sandwich board.
"She's got moxie. I don't know if I could do something like that," says Nora Norminton, the WorkSearch project director.
Sayles grew up in Seattle, went to Garfield High School, and through a couple of marriages has always worked.
She's done everything from filing medical records at Harborview Medical Center to working on the Frango assembly line at the old Frederick & Nelson. This is the longest stretch of unemployment Sayles has ever had.
She remembered the first few weeks without a job.
"It's very stressful, just stressful. You don't sleep. You're always worrying. How am I going to pay the rent?" she says. "I cannot be homeless. That's my fear."
Helpful passer-by
A little bit of hope shows up at Fifth and Union in the form of Carol Ann Davis, a financial adviser walking to work.
Davis says she deals a lot with people in their 50s who had worked at the same place for a couple of decades or more, "just this far away from retirement," and found themselves out in the street.
Davis tells Sayles that she knows someone looking to hire people for customer service. Davis returns with a business card of the potential employer.
Davis tells Sayles, "I think you're one classy lady."
Sayles repeats her mantra, "Hope, courage and confidence to be victorious."
I sent an email a bit ago to [email protected] and said a prayer for her.
Why not read the story below and send an email of encouragement. I have found out in life one can not put a price on encouragement.
Or if you have any leads that be great of course also.
Hope you consider!
Woman takes job hunt to the streets of downtown Seattle
By Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter
After losing her job of eight years when her marketing employer downsized, Simmjaze Sayles has spent 20 months looking for full time work, finally resorting to wearing a sandwich sign in downtown Seattle that says, "I WANT A JOB And Nothing Else!"
JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Standing at Fifth and Union downtown, Simmjaze Sayles advertises her skills. She says she's always worked but has had no luck at finding a full-time job, despite applying with literally hundreds of employers.
Searching for a job
Desperate times, desperate measures.
On the busy Seattle downtown sidewalks, some people avert their eyes perhaps hoping the bad times also don't descend on them some give her a thumbs up, some even offer words of encouragement.
Simmjaze Sayles is the woman dressed in a nice office outfit with skirt and jacket, briefcase by her side containing a stack of résumés, and wearing a sandwich board with a plasticized sign that headlines: "I WANT A JOB And Nothing Else."
She's been standing now with her board for a month, bundled up against the cold, umbrella at her side in case of rain. Not one bite.
She says she knows some might feel embarrassed at standing on the sidewalk with such a sign.
"I have no qualms about wearing this sign," says Sayles. "This sign is honest. I have a lot of experience. I am a hard worker."
Over the years, stories about work-hungry individuals resorting to wearing a sandwich board, or some similar stunt, have become part of the unemployment landscape.
But you gotta do what you gotta do, to somehow stand out from everybody else looking for a job, when you haven't had a full-time job for 20 months and you're scrambling to make the rent on your apartment.
Sayles will not allow herself to become depressed. "I have dreams and goals," she says.
"Hope, courage and confidence to be victorious. I know I'm going to get a job!"
Smart location
On this particular morning of Christmas week, Sayles is standing at Fifth and Union, where the corner businesses are a Chase Bank, Brooks Brothers, Fox's Gem Shop and Specialty's Café & Bakery.
She picks downtown spots that are busy and where potential employers might pass.
One street she avoids is Third Avenue. That's where the street people with their cardboard "No money, no food" signs hang out, she says. She wants no part of that.
Sayles says some people have offered money. She won't take it, she says.
Sayles is a proud person. She points to the second line on her sign. She wants a job "and nothing else."
On the sign, she lists her work attributes:
"Experience: 10-30 Years Customer Service, Telephone Surveys, Receptionist, Some Computer Skills. Email: [email protected]. Will YOU Hire Me?"
Bryan Rush, a commercial real-estate broker, sees Sayles while he's crossing Fifth Avenue.
What Sayles is doing, he says in admiration, "that's a lot of effort."
No job, no prospects. "It could happen to a lot of people right now," says Rush.
There is a date on the calendar that is embedded in Sayles' mind.
It is April 10, 2008.
That's when her employer downsized, and after eight years of working for the same company, she lost her full-time customer service and telemarketing job.
Some have given up
These days, just as people remember what they were doing on the exact dates of particular historic occasions, they can add the date when they become another of the unemployed. This group now encompasses 10 to 17 percent of the labor force; the lower figure doesn't include people who've simply given up looking for work after fruitless searches.
Sayles now has a log of literally several hundred places where she has applied for work.
She tried cold-calling, a skill she picked up in telemarketing in her former job that included market research. She called every marketing firm in the phone book.
Sorry.
She went through the phone listings, calling other businesses she thought might need someone with her skills.
Sorry.
It's not that Sayles has been completely without work.
At the state unemployment office, she saw a leaflet from AARP Foundation WorkSearch, which helps people 55 and over find jobs. For sure, Sayles is in that age category.
The organization has gotten federal money to have older types work 18 hours a week at minimum wage at a nonprofit. Since May, Sayles has been a receptionist at the Northwest African American Museum.
Of course, most of her wages are deducted from her unemployment check, but it also means that Sayles shows up at a workplace three times a week. She's not at home alone.
At the AARP office in Seattle, they took a picture of Sayles and her sandwich board.
"She's got moxie. I don't know if I could do something like that," says Nora Norminton, the WorkSearch project director.
Sayles grew up in Seattle, went to Garfield High School, and through a couple of marriages has always worked.
She's done everything from filing medical records at Harborview Medical Center to working on the Frango assembly line at the old Frederick & Nelson. This is the longest stretch of unemployment Sayles has ever had.
She remembered the first few weeks without a job.
"It's very stressful, just stressful. You don't sleep. You're always worrying. How am I going to pay the rent?" she says. "I cannot be homeless. That's my fear."
Helpful passer-by
A little bit of hope shows up at Fifth and Union in the form of Carol Ann Davis, a financial adviser walking to work.
Davis says she deals a lot with people in their 50s who had worked at the same place for a couple of decades or more, "just this far away from retirement," and found themselves out in the street.
Davis tells Sayles that she knows someone looking to hire people for customer service. Davis returns with a business card of the potential employer.
Davis tells Sayles, "I think you're one classy lady."
Sayles repeats her mantra, "Hope, courage and confidence to be victorious."
Last edited:
Neccesity made it a must that I start today. Here is where I have already posted the reason why I had to if you are interested. I am going to officially start with you on January 31st rainplace. But I may do a practice run with the rest of this year. Since life has thrown me a curve ball and I think it will do me some good right now.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3369077#p3369077 Post #4801
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3369077#p3369077 Post #4801
- Thread starter
- #15
Quote:
- Thread starter
- #16
I wanted to bump this thread up to see if anyone else would be interested in participating.
This is a bit harder than I thought it would be. I did well for a couple of days, but forgot about it for several. So I am back on to starting at the end of the month. I know at that time there will likely be a daily post on here, so hopefully that will keep me on track.
I am really looking forward to this Rainplace. I hope a bunch of people join you. It will be fun, and could really start a new lifelong adventure for some.
I am really looking forward to this Rainplace. I hope a bunch of people join you. It will be fun, and could really start a new lifelong adventure for some.
Im in-family and friends ahve been after me for eating eggs. I sell them for 3$ a dozen but Im going to try and give away a dozen everyday for 29 days-we start Feb 1st right? Great thread and idea!
- Thread starter
- #19
January 31 is quickly approaching! Two more weeks. Anyone else want to participate?
Rainplace
This is going to be such a great time. I am doing some planning of some things that I want to do. Of course I will be giving away eggs. That was a great suggestion sonew123. I also want to give some things that I never thought I would ever be able to give away.
I collect little boxes, and think I will try to give a few of my favorites. And I have been thinking about those cultures where the simple act of admiring something in their home means that it will be wrapped and given to you as you leave. That has always seemed so selfless to me. That really is what I want to get to. Selfless acts.
My son and I used to give money at Christmas and would knock on a door and leave the money in an envelope on the door. Then we would run and watch from a distance. We did recieve a little bit of joy for our act. And of course we each knew that the other had done it. But it was a good feeling not to need the recipient to know. I want to do that kind of giving. Giving for giving's sake, not for the kudos for doing it.
This is going to be such a great time. I am doing some planning of some things that I want to do. Of course I will be giving away eggs. That was a great suggestion sonew123. I also want to give some things that I never thought I would ever be able to give away.
I collect little boxes, and think I will try to give a few of my favorites. And I have been thinking about those cultures where the simple act of admiring something in their home means that it will be wrapped and given to you as you leave. That has always seemed so selfless to me. That really is what I want to get to. Selfless acts.
My son and I used to give money at Christmas and would knock on a door and leave the money in an envelope on the door. Then we would run and watch from a distance. We did recieve a little bit of joy for our act. And of course we each knew that the other had done it. But it was a good feeling not to need the recipient to know. I want to do that kind of giving. Giving for giving's sake, not for the kudos for doing it.
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