A Chronicle of an Un/Underemployed Former Architect - Part 1
When I commenced this piece, it was with the intention of telling at least part of the story of what I have been doing over the last few years since I disappeared from this forum. Despite my attempts to state things in the plainest terms, and with minimal detail, my story grew in the telling, and became an article of over 7,000 words. For that reason, I'll be posting it in several parts over the next few days.
In October of 2011, the architectural firm for which I had been working for 10 years went out of business, leaving me unemployed and in a long line of job seekers in the profession. By the time my job disappeared, the economy had decimated the building industry, particularly in Arizona, and I had been watching and hearing of firm closures, building suppliers and contractors going out of business, and the general downsizing of anything building-related for about three years. My appearance in the job market was only one of probably over a thousand similar stories in Arizona alone. As far as I can tell, from research I have since done, the data from that year show that the market for architectural services shed approximately 1200 jobs in the state of Arizona, where there had previously been over 4400 jobs.
The following months were therefore not surprising. I collected unemployment (a meager 200 dollars a week after taxes), and survived on my savings and the two weeks’ severance and two weeks’ vacation pay I received from the firm, for about a year. In the meantime, I was applying for the few jobs I could find in architectural services, without ever hearing anything in response. I tightened my belt, and learned to live on less and less, cutting as much of the excesses of my life as could be managed.
Volunteer Work and Other Pursuits
I tried to make myself useful and be a positive influence in the world. Shortly before I lost my employment I had begun volunteering for a startup food hub called Chow Locally. At first, I went weekly to the Phoenix Public Market, working out the back of a converted U-Haul truck, sorting vegetables, and passing orders out to customers. Eventually, when their business model changed to a box program, I helped build boxes from cedar wood planks, packed the boxes with produce from local farmers, helped generate the weekly pamphlet insert illustrating the produce included in each box, and assisted in distributing the boxes to customers.
After about a year, I could no longer consider merely volunteering. I was running out of savings and my unemployment funds were on the verge of being cut off. Chow Locally offered to pay me for my time, but because they were a startup on a shoestring budget they couldn’t offer me much. I came in and worked for once a week for $10 an hour for several hours. I desperately needed to supplement this income. One day, while I was working, a man walked in from the office next door, returning the cedar box that someone in the warehouse had given him as a trial gift. I talked to him for a few minutes, and he mentioned that he had just moved into his office and needed some help. I said that I could use some employment and could offer him a few of the things he was looking for.
This was how I ended up working for Bundu Gear and Pioneer Africa for about two months (this one man is the owner of both outfits), in addition to my time at Chow Locally. I helped move him into his office, going with him to purchase office furniture and give him advice on furniture and layout. I cleaned, did a little graphic design work, fixed some of his billing documents, created current inventories of his merchandise, generated packets for prospective product reps, and performed some research for him for a couple of months. He paid me $12 hour for about 15-20 hours of work per week. The work was not decent, but like Chow Locally, he simply couldn’t afford to pay me enough to survive. I had to find other employment-more lucrative and steady employment.
In the meantime, realizing what I should have much sooner, I applied for Nutrition Assistance (i.e. food stamps) with the state. This was a difficult decision, and an idea that I had a tough time wrapping my mind around. I had always forged my own way, using my own resources, and now I was officially going on welfare. Illogical though it may be, I had never considered the unemployment benefits to be welfare. In any case, I began to receive around $120 a month for food, and this took a small amount of pressure off, but I was nonetheless struggling.
to be continued . . .
In October of 2011, the architectural firm for which I had been working for 10 years went out of business, leaving me unemployed and in a long line of job seekers in the profession. By the time my job disappeared, the economy had decimated the building industry, particularly in Arizona, and I had been watching and hearing of firm closures, building suppliers and contractors going out of business, and the general downsizing of anything building-related for about three years. My appearance in the job market was only one of probably over a thousand similar stories in Arizona alone. As far as I can tell, from research I have since done, the data from that year show that the market for architectural services shed approximately 1200 jobs in the state of Arizona, where there had previously been over 4400 jobs.
The following months were therefore not surprising. I collected unemployment (a meager 200 dollars a week after taxes), and survived on my savings and the two weeks’ severance and two weeks’ vacation pay I received from the firm, for about a year. In the meantime, I was applying for the few jobs I could find in architectural services, without ever hearing anything in response. I tightened my belt, and learned to live on less and less, cutting as much of the excesses of my life as could be managed.
Volunteer Work and Other Pursuits
I tried to make myself useful and be a positive influence in the world. Shortly before I lost my employment I had begun volunteering for a startup food hub called Chow Locally. At first, I went weekly to the Phoenix Public Market, working out the back of a converted U-Haul truck, sorting vegetables, and passing orders out to customers. Eventually, when their business model changed to a box program, I helped build boxes from cedar wood planks, packed the boxes with produce from local farmers, helped generate the weekly pamphlet insert illustrating the produce included in each box, and assisted in distributing the boxes to customers.
After about a year, I could no longer consider merely volunteering. I was running out of savings and my unemployment funds were on the verge of being cut off. Chow Locally offered to pay me for my time, but because they were a startup on a shoestring budget they couldn’t offer me much. I came in and worked for once a week for $10 an hour for several hours. I desperately needed to supplement this income. One day, while I was working, a man walked in from the office next door, returning the cedar box that someone in the warehouse had given him as a trial gift. I talked to him for a few minutes, and he mentioned that he had just moved into his office and needed some help. I said that I could use some employment and could offer him a few of the things he was looking for.
This was how I ended up working for Bundu Gear and Pioneer Africa for about two months (this one man is the owner of both outfits), in addition to my time at Chow Locally. I helped move him into his office, going with him to purchase office furniture and give him advice on furniture and layout. I cleaned, did a little graphic design work, fixed some of his billing documents, created current inventories of his merchandise, generated packets for prospective product reps, and performed some research for him for a couple of months. He paid me $12 hour for about 15-20 hours of work per week. The work was not decent, but like Chow Locally, he simply couldn’t afford to pay me enough to survive. I had to find other employment-more lucrative and steady employment.
In the meantime, realizing what I should have much sooner, I applied for Nutrition Assistance (i.e. food stamps) with the state. This was a difficult decision, and an idea that I had a tough time wrapping my mind around. I had always forged my own way, using my own resources, and now I was officially going on welfare. Illogical though it may be, I had never considered the unemployment benefits to be welfare. In any case, I began to receive around $120 a month for food, and this took a small amount of pressure off, but I was nonetheless struggling.
to be continued . . .