Around January of 2022 the company store in Secacus, N.J closed. Some retired, some transferred to the store in Peramus, and like me, a few of us moved down the street to the clearance store or the adjoining warehouse.
Despite it being a Tommy store, even if it was clearance, there were a few more things that I had to get use to than I expected. But as I started to understand, never mind starting to really roll with things, we got the news that they were going to close down the clearance store and the warehouse in a few months. Well more like this year by September. But since they told us one date over at the company store and then pushed the closing date up, my new mangers thought it would happen there too, and it did.
The last day for the clearance store was June 30th. Our last day open to the public was like a week earlier. But even with the signs up saying we were closed and the name taken off the building, people were still showing up as we were pulling fixtures out of the walls.
Thanks to the fact that I managed to cling to the company for just past my 5 year mark I got severance pay for 5 weeks. I thought it was going to be easy to get a new job and didn't search for a week, even though I had started to lay the ground work a few weeks before we knew for sure we would be done at the end of June.
So I started to look for receptionist and data entry jobs, and on the face of it, it shouldn't have been that hard. But apparently you need to have a BA to file paper work, smile at clients and answer phones. Oh, and 1-3 years experience in the field. Yes, I'm still unemployed. After my severance pay finished I filed for unemployment. After a month or two, they started to check in with me to see what I was doing to get a job and give me a lead or two. Which they should be doing since if I didn't have the little savings I do have, I would be homeless. I pay my share of rent and the lights bill and it's done.
So I've started to apply for cashier jobs too. But apparently I'm not the only one looking for work and those great job numbers mean nothing for me. I don't want to work on the sales floor again. I don't want to travel for 2 hours in each direction for work. And since I fell down the stairs a few months back, I don't lift much of anything on my bad says and I don't have many good ones.
After month 3 of job hunting, it's depressing. Especially when you have to dig your way through job alerts that you aren't qualified for, have already closed, are way, way too far away and even in other states, in fields that I have no talent for or wish to be in, or are outright scams to get a bit of the little money I have left, you can understand when I just take a day or two.
But I'm still trying. I have to. I need to work. Well, I need money, but I have some standards in what I'll do for it.
I'll let you know when I'm once again gainfully employed.