Free Cell Phones for the Poor (Chicago, doctor, business, thoughts)
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How did people find a job in the days before cell phones? It's called the person at home taking a message? It's really easy... "I'm sorry, Joe isn't home right now. May I take a message?" Or perhaps an answering machine. I guess we are going to have to start subsidizing the internet for folks now, because it's unfair that they don't have internet in their home. (That's expected now days right?)... and god knows they can't find a job if they don't have monster.com. This is common sense people!! You can LOOK for a job without the internet and a cell phone. A home phone line is cheaper than cell phones by a long shot. I have a basic home phone that can receive calls only and has emergency 911 for 19 a month. Just the basic cost for cell service is over 40.00 and this having been a long-standing customer.
And while I care about our homeless, let's actually get real here... if they are homeless and looking for work, don't you think in order to submit their application that they either walked there and thus could walk back in and check on their app; or they submitted their app on line in a public place like a library and most likely they'd have an e-mail address for communicating? The last job I applied for and got every bit of communication prior to the interview was done through e-mail. Having to have a cell phone is NOT a prerequisite for getting a job.
Yes, that's all true, but before there were cell phones, employers didn't expect you to be reachable at all times. Now employers expect you to be a phone call away 24/7. Times have changed. Email only isn't enough for many employers. There are a few who are fine with it but you lose a lot of opportunities by not having a callback number. Take it from someone who had to get two jobs with no phone number. It was incredibly hard, and that was before they even found out I was deaf-blind.
Yes, that's all true, but before there were cell phones, employers didn't expect you to be reachable at all times. Now employers expect you to be a phone call away 24/7. Times have changed. Email only isn't enough for many employers. Take it from someone who had to get two jobs with no phone number. It was incredibly hard, and that was before they even found out I was deaf-blind.
You're right. And if you've ever used recruiters to find work, you often have to be instantly reachable. If they call you and you don't pick up, they'll call the next person. Employers do the same...you have to act fast to avoid missing out.
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayland Woman
Your idea of the homeless sitting around the library using the computers is laughable considering half the people on this thread would demand that librarians kick those homeless people out of the building and leave the computers for the tax payers to use.
That's the ironic part though isn't it.. Everyone keeps saying the homeless and job seekers need a phone to communicate AFTER the application has been submitted, because they need to be IMMEDIATELY in touch with the prospective applicant. Just how did that app get submitted in the first place??? If I'm an HR person, and I want to interview a prospective employee, it won't be dependent on them answering the phone right away. It'll be based on their job qualifications... plain and simple. Yes, if they don't call or e-mail or at least contact me within a reasonable time their SOL...
Perhaps a better solution would be a cell phone lending library if you will. While you are job searching, here's your free phone. You have use of it for X amount of time. At that point it should be returned or it will be cut off. It can be "renewed" for X amount of time... but you will not have it for your lifetime....
Yes, that's all true, but before there were cell phones, employers didn't expect you to be reachable at all times. Now employers expect you to be a phone call away 24/7. Times have changed. Email only isn't enough for many employers. There are a few who are fine with it but you lose a lot of opportunities by not having a callback number. Take it from someone who had to get two jobs with no phone number. It was incredibly hard, and that was before they even found out I was deaf-blind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Glasvegas
You're right. And if you've ever used recruiters to find work, you often have to be instantly reachable. If they call you and you don't pick up, they'll call the next person. Employers do the same...you have to act fast to avoid missing out.
These are valid points, but what else do you expect the government to provide to help people get jobs? Free suits for interviews?
Last edited by afoigrokerkok; 12-17-2011 at 09:30 AM..
You're right. And if you've ever used recruiters to find work, you often have to be instantly reachable. If they call you and you don't pick up, they'll call the next person. Employers do the same...you have to act fast to avoid missing out.
Yep. Goodwill is awesome, for example, but useless without a phone number to be reached at. They had to call my interpreter-friend and then she'd have to drive over to my house and interpret for me. If she wasn't a Jehovah's Witness and near my house preaching most of the time anyway, it would have been impossible to use Goodwill's services.
These are valid points, but what else do you expect the government to provide to help people get jobs? Free business-acceptable clothes for interviews?
People already have clothes from before they get laid off that they can continue to use. If someone who's employed buys a laptop and then gets laid off, they still have the laptop and can use free WiFi in most malls/chain restaurants. People can't pay their phone bill anymore if they get laid off.
People already have clothes from before they get laid off that they can continue to use. If someone who's employed buys a laptop and then gets laid off, they still have the laptop and can use free WiFi in most malls/chain restaurants. People can't pay their phone bill anymore if they get laid off.
Fair enough.
But I'm surprised that people aren't talking about the fact that free (very basic) cell phones are given out by many cell phone companies. Yes, they usually require a contract, but there has to be some cell phone company that will give you a phone and allow a pay as you go plan.
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
3,997 posts, read 4,168,153 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by afoigrokerkok
These are valid points, but what else do you expect the government to provide to help people get jobs? Free business-acceptable clothes for interviews?
Free hair-cuts and manicures..
Free electric car to get to the interview because some can't pay for public transportation
Free second language lessons, because not everyone speaks English
Free briefcase to look the part
Free lunch because they might have missed lunch during the initial contact..
Freedom from paying taxes for the first 6 months because it's only fair to let them "catch up."
Free from the worry because they can't be fired for 6 months if they can't do the job they were hired for (once they get through the free training that is.) Of course, then we get to give them back that free cell phone don't we...
Yes.. Yes... I know... ridiculous right? I agree... but when do the freebies stop? So many keep talking about free things because it's fair... fair doesn't exist. In the animal kingdom, life isn't fair.. at least we're on the top of the foodchain... I'm not at the top of the money chain, never will be, but I don't complain that it's not fair that I don't have a lake home or a private jet. I don't expect those who have to give me anything.. I can take care of myself or adjust accordingly....
Free hair-cuts and manicures..
Free electric car to get to the interview because some can't pay for public transportation
Free second language lessons, because not everyone speaks English
Free briefcase to look the part
Free lunch because they might have missed lunch during the initial contact..
Freedom from paying taxes for the first 6 months because it's only fair to let them "catch up."
Free from the worry because they can't be fired for 6 months if they can't do the job they were hired for (once they get through the free training that is.) Of course, then we get to give them back that free cell phone don't we...
Yes.. Yes... I know... ridiculous right? I agree... but when do the freebies stop? So many keep talking about free things because it's fair... fair doesn't exist. In the animal kingdom, life isn't fair.. at least we're on the top of the foodchain... I'm not at the top of the money chain, never will be, but I don't complain that it's not fair that I don't have a lake home or a private jet. I don't expect those who have to give me anything.. I can take care of myself or adjust accordingly....
Lacking any of those doesn't cause you to lose job opportunities the way not having a callback number does. Sorry but your examples just don't compare.
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
3,997 posts, read 4,168,153 times
Reputation: 2678
Quote:
Originally Posted by nimchimpsky
Lacking any of those doesn't cause you to lose job opportunities the way not having a callback number does. Sorry but your examples just don't compare.
I guess you missed my point.. Life isn't fair. Nobody is given the right to a cell phone. Nobody has a right to a car. Nobody has a right to have material possessions..And most of all, nobody has a right to take something from one person to give it to another, it's theft any way you slice it (and yes, it does work in reverse as well)... Yes... it may make it more difficult to survive, but sometimes life's trials and tribulations make us stronger. We adapt. We love, we laugh, we survive. The whole country has gone to hell in a handbasket when we no longer have the I-can-do-it-myself attitude. Is our country next.. to be asking for assistance, or worse yet... taking from other countries to keep our own people supplied with cell phones and materialistic crap? Guess it's food for thought what will happen when even the top of the money chain is tapped out...
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Everyone keeps saying the homeless and job seekers need a phone to communicate AFTER the application has been submitted, because they need to be IMMEDIATELY in touch with the prospective applicant. Just how did that app get submitted in the first place??? If I'm an HR person, and I want to interview a prospective employee, it won't be dependent on them answering the phone right away. It'll be based on their job qualifications... plain and simple. Yes, if they don't call or e-mail or at least contact me within a reasonable time their SOL... 
