"Temp job and a friend’s help offer new hope" by Megan Woolhouse | Globe Staff, January 12, 2014
NORTH ADAMS — By most standards, it would just be a temporary job with modest pay, but for Mindy Shoestock, it could represent the opportunity of a lifetime.
The new American dream says the paper of wealth and privilege.
The job, interviewing people seeking fuel assistance, is a world away from away from the McDonald’s where Shoestock, a single mother of three, has worked for more than a decade. She wears a wool suit to the office, works 8 to 4 instead of night shifts, and, for the first time in her adult life, sees the chance to build a professional identity, and perhaps a career.
“I don’t go home smelling like french fries,” Shoestock said. “I feel fantastic, like I’m moving forward.”
I'm so happy the Globe found the corn kernel of $uce$$ in this turd of an economy.
Moving up is increasingly difficult in poor, postindustrial communities like North Adams, a former mill city in the northwest corner of Massachusetts where jobs and opportunities are few....
Yeah, tell me about it while the newspaper babbles on about the alleged economic recovery gaining momentum.
But Shoestock had a tireless advocate, Aleta Moncecchi, a wiry and energetic 49-year-old social worker who saw beyond Shoestock’s mistakes, missteps, and poverty, helping her land a temporary job at the Berkshire Community Action Council, where Moncecchi also works.
If only we all had one of those.
“She tries, she works hard. She’s trying to make a better life,” Moncecchi said of Shoestock. “I don’t think she’s had anyone that pushed her, that said, ‘You can do this. There’s more out there.’”
Right, it was all her personal failings and ambition. Not like the state was lording tax subsidies on her or making tens of millions in debt interest payments to her every month, or someone found $20 million for her.
Readers, I can only say I'm sick of this rank rot from the pos pre$$. The Boston Globe $ucks worse than it ever did. Trying to please the new ma$ter?
Shoestock was the subject of a 2011 Globe story about the state’s poorest residents falling further behind in a tech-driven economy centered on Boston. In Berkshire County, low-income families earned less, adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1979 — even as earnings in upper income brackets rose significantly.
And it has ONLY GOTTEN WORSE since!
Related: Welcome to My World
At least the Globe remembered her.
"A strong stock market and better business climate have continued to concentrate American wealth in the top 1 percent of earners."
Yeah, that's kinda funny.
Struggling to feed her two sons and pregnant with a third child, all from different fathers, Shoestock was a McDonald’s supervisor with take-home income of about $16,000 a year, an empty refrigerator, and a pile of unpaid bills.
So Shoestock likes to sleep around, huh?
Related: Fast Food Workers Co$ting Taxpayers
And it will soon be more.
Moncecchi has known Shoestock for nearly a decade, first encountering her when she worked as a family advocate in the Head Start program, the government-sponsored early education program. Shoestock and another parent had brawled, and Moncecchi met with her to handle the situation.
And she is getting into fights, too?!!
I know some nice girls like that. They tend not to have boyfriends for very long, either.
The two women didn’t click instantly. But Moncecchi came to see that Shoestock had a willingness to listen and a deep desire to improve her life and her children’s.
Almost worthy of illegal immigrant status.
Though it was not part of her job, Moncecchi began visiting Shoestock regularly, tracking her down as she moved from apartment to tenement, bringing her clothing and food. Several years ago, Moncecchi rallied members of her church to donate money to buy presents for Shoestock’s boys for Christmas.
That's nice, but many organizations collect toys and distribute them.
Shoestock’s pride made it difficult for her to accept the gifts, so Moncecchi suggested she return the favor by volunteering at her church’s annual spaghetti supper. Shoestock did, bringing her sons. And she and her boys have returned every year since.
Moncecchi admitted she became frustrated two years ago when Shoestock, already living on the edge of homelessness, got pregnant with her third child, also a son. But, Moncecchi said, she also saw that Shoestock needed her more than ever.
Related: Homeless Haven of Boston
When a position at the Community Action Council opened during a massive reorganization in 2013, Moncecchi told Shoestock to apply. The agency, funded by state and federal money, was about $360,000 in debt.
Oh, the $aving grace was a PRECARIOUS STATE JOB!
What a PATHETIC PIECE of AGENDA-PU$HING $HIT is my Globe!!
A new executive director, Deborah Leonczyk, had taken over and pared back staffing. But Moncecchi persuaded Leonczyk to hire Shoestock.
That is HOW you get jobs in AmeriKa. Not on merit or opportunity, but WHO YOU KNOW! That is why AmeriKa -- and its newspapers -- are in such bad shape.
“Aleta said, ‘I have somebody wonderful,’” Leonczyk said, “so I gave her a chance.”
Now Shoestock, 31, sits at desk in a carpeted office along Main Street just a few blocks from the McDonald’s where she worked.
So she is not working at McDonald's now?
Her long, brown hair is tied, held back in a bow, rather than a hairnet.
Her job involves working with low-income residents seeking fuel assistance, helping them to determine whether they qualify and fill out necessary paperwork. Moncecchi said Shoestock quickly grasped the job and works hard at it.
Yeah, let's hope that is a burgeoning industry and field, huh?
What a sign of FAILURE of the WHOLE $Y$TEM!
“I can’t believe what she’s capable of,” Moncecchi said. “She does so many applications a day, and I don’t have to tell her what to do.”
Isn't that $AD?
Shoestock said she tries to make the people who come in feel comfortable, because she knows it can be hard to ask for help.
Especially from the state because I don't want their "help."
She recalled one older woman who had been diagnosed with an illness and suddenly needed assistance paying her fuel bill. The woman was embarrassed and upset, but Shoestock tried to put her at ease.
“There’s people like her and like me every day that have to ask for help,” she said. “It’s OK to need help.”
Actually, no it is not. That kind of attitude is leading to acceptance of wealth inequality and the rich $hitting all over us. It's time to take it out of the greed-heads' hides!
Shoestock earns just 50 cents more an hour than she did when she left McDonald’s, but she now gets paid holidays.
That is not much more money, and the holidays are at taxpayer expense!
Thanksgiving and Christmas Day were the first paid holidays of her working life.
Related: No Time For Vacation
But she also knows that she still faces an uphill struggle. The job is temporary, contingent on agency funding, with no guarantees of becoming permanent.
And it won't be (see second article below)
She has held onto her job at McDonald’s, working Sundays, just in case.
Then she DID NOT LEAVE McDonlad's! So I was LIED TO up above in the SAME ARTICLE!??
Shoestock still relies on food stamps and visits a church food pantry to keep her family fed. The church also offers free clothing from its consignment store, allowing people in need to take as much clothing as they can fit in a brown bag.
That is how Shoestock found the wool blazer, blouse, skirt, and low black heels she wore on a recent workday.
And this is a Globe $uce$$ story?
If she doesn’t land a permanent position at the agency, she hopes to turn the work experience into another office job. When her sons are older, she said, she might return to school to study social work. But for now, she’s simply grateful for the chance she has been given.
“People look at me differently now,” she said of her new image. “I love getting up in the morning.”
I don't because it usually means I'm headed out to get a Globe -- but not today!
--more--"
Try to think of the lack of job security as a Xmas gift from the state:
"State review faults long-term ‘temp’ jobs" by Todd Wallack | Globe Staff, December 24, 2013
Some state agencies have routinely used temporary workers to circumvent restrictions on hiring traditional staff, a tactic that costs the state money and creates sharp differences in the ways government workers are treated, according to a report by Inspector General Glenn Cunha’s office.
Meaning it costs taxpayers money.
Meaning it costs taxpayers money.
The Dec. 20 report found dozens of “temporary” workers who had been employed by the state for years, including 10 who have worked for the state for more than a decade and 20 more who have worked for state government for at least five years.
I'll bet the state doesn't heave to give them benefits!
I'll bet the state doesn't heave to give them benefits!
In one case, a manager attended a retirement party for a popular longtime worker — only to later learn the retiree was actually a temp worker.
And State Police officials told investigators they hired a staffer in the accounting department as a part-time temp — after she retired with a state pension in 2002 — so that she could train her replacement. But that arrangement has persisted for the past 11 years.
So she was DOUBLE-DIPPING, huh? This as SOCIAL SERVICES SUCK HERE!
So she was DOUBLE-DIPPING, huh? This as SOCIAL SERVICES SUCK HERE!
“For many years, state agencies have misused the temporary help services contracts,” Cunha’s report said.
The report found the Patrick administration spends about $10.2 million a year on temporary staffing firms and had 361 temp workers in October, including roughly 100 who had been working for the state for at least a year.
Though the spending is a tiny slice of the $34 billion state budget, the Executive Office of Administration and Finance said it plans to release a new policy by the end of the year to address the issue.
“This policy makes clear that agencies can only hire temporary workers on a short-term basis,” said Alex Zaroulis, an agency spokeswoman, who said the administration began work on the new policy last year.
“We welcome the inspector general’s report, as it will certainly be helpful as we refine and implement this policy to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent effectively.”
Translation: oops, you caught us.
******************
Many of the longest-serving temps work for the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, reviewing disability benefits for the Social Security Administration, because the federal government has capped the number of full-time staff the unit can hire.
Translation: oops, you caught us.
******************
Many of the longest-serving temps work for the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, reviewing disability benefits for the Social Security Administration, because the federal government has capped the number of full-time staff the unit can hire.
Similarly, the Patrick administration, hoping to keep the budget in check, has limited the number of workers agencies can hire, prompting some departments to use temp workers to “get around” the cap.
In some cases, the inspector general found that agencies correctly used temporary workers for short-term or seasonal hires.
But the inspector general said several agencies wound up paying extra fees to staffing firms for long-term jobs or hires they could have handled internally….
The agency also warned that shorting workers on benefits has a hidden cost, because some workers wound up receiving government assistance.
Are you flipping kidding?!!!!?
Are you flipping kidding?!!!!?
The inspector general found 14 temp workers receiving help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, while others probably obtained subsidized health insurance through the state Health Connector….
And now the food stamps have been cut off by Congre$$ and the Connector sucks because of Obummercare!
And now the food stamps have been cut off by Congre$$ and the Connector sucks because of Obummercare!
--more--"
And this is the same state supposedly looking out for workers in the workplace in the private sector?
I'm going to have to decide how much stock I want to place in the Boston Globe from now one, folks, because it is a $hit paper.
And this is the same state supposedly looking out for workers in the workplace in the private sector?
I'm going to have to decide how much stock I want to place in the Boston Globe from now one, folks, because it is a $hit paper.
