I (sort of) was a Karen today

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(Edited)


(By Liam Briese on Unsplash).

Just a bit over a week ago I had a job interview. It was for a local IT helpdesk position at a bank, and I really wanted it. Not just for the perks they offered but I generally felt like I would love the job and be working in a great environment.

Well, I didn't get the job. They decided to move on with someone who had years of experience on the same position. Of course I was sad receiving the news but since I had successfully planted the thought of my probability of getting the job to be microscopic, I wasn't too devastated. I felt thankful for the chance they gave me, and sent them an e-mail stating so.

The incompetence of others could impact you


Prior to even receiving the invitation to the interview, I found two IT-Specialist courses that I wanted to go to (both being two days long). Since they weren't free and the legally unemployed here can get up to 2000€ of courses funded per two years, I contacted my consultant at the Unemployment Insurance Fund by sending her a letter (an electronic one, once again). I never got an answer.

Some of the fault lies on me, indeed. I could've at least called her to check if she received the e-mail but I decided to stay in my comfort zone and wait for a reply.

Fast forward to after the interview and rejection.
I had an appointment scheduled with the consultant at the UIF yesterday. Same old boring "what have you done the past month to find a job?", nothing new, until I told her about the interview and the typical "bla bla move on bla bla more experienced" answer.

This gave me the perfect chance of asking her why she ignored my e-mail. And guess what... the reason I missed out on two courses that could've put me in a bit better position on the interview, maybe even get me the job I so-so wanted... was that the consultant did not realize the blue line of text in my e-mail that changes the arrow cursor into a pointy finger when you hover over it was an actual link she could click on.

I couldn't participate in the courses because my consultant couldn't click on two fucking links?!

And that's not the end of that... no.


The same day she assigned me to go to the carreer advisor's office (I was lucky she had a free spot the same day, else I would've waited another month). The advisor was way more competent, supportive and understanding. She understood I was interested in the IT field aswell as creative arts, etc, and told me I should go to as many courses as I can with the 2000€ project.

The first thing I did when I got home, I found a course on graphic design (posters, ads, etc) and sent my UIF consultant a new letter, hoping she now knows how to click on links. Again, no answer, so I sent her another one today, asking if she got the previous one... and all I got from her was a bunch of questions she should already know answers to (or at least be able to fetch from the database - I've answered the same questions three times before when filling out their electronic job search diary), like "what have you done to find a job?", "why do you think you can't land one?", "why do you need courses?".

I got so fed up I sent a longer letter to the Unemployment Insurance Fund asking them to assign me a new consultant and explaining the whole situation. Hopefully they'll do something about it.

... and hopefully this feeling of a Karen asking to see the manager fades soon enough.



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the consultant did not realize the blue line of text in my e-mail that changes the arrow cursor into a pointy finger when you hover over it was an actual link she could click on.

I am banging my head to the keyboard for this. For you. Because of that idiot consultant. It seems that no matter where you go, the most idiotic people seem to work in unemployment offices or places where you apply for benefits such as child support or pension. Complete twats.

I'm thinking that this all is part of a bigger plan. To get rid of people who get fed up with situations like this. Fed up with people who should help you but actually make your life more difficult. I did. I got fed up with explaining things over and over again so I became an entrepreneur. :D Now I'm just as poor but don't have to explain anyone anything anymore. And can say FU (nicely) if someone offers me a job without proper pay.

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Most people don't even go to the unemployment office when they quit or lose their job for a while. Sometimes I think it's wise. The tiny (in my case) 130€ monthly support they give to the unemployed is not always worth the wrecking of nerves trying to improve yourself. (Now to think of it, though, this month's support helped me out - it arrived at the right time, when I was out of money and my kid's kindergarten bill (which is about 3/4 of the UIF support) arrived).

Entrepreneurship always sounds cool and fancy but at the same time scares the crap out of me. I don't think I have the guts to create my own company. (But you never know, I just might one day, if I have some genius idea... which probably won't happen).

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I recommend being an entrepreneur to no-one. Unless you have tons and tons of money just hanging around. Or nothing else to do. Then again I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

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I have so many questions. What's a Karen, some kind of meme thing? What's hive-1354893242?

Also, please bookmark this - they give new free courses every half year. I even took the business starting course years ago.

https://tmk.edu.ee/taiendkoolitus/koolitused/tasutakoolitused-2/

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You're right. Karen has become a meme, originating from people who have worked in retail and / or the food industry. Karen is the middle-aged woman with a short haircut that divorced from their husband and took the kids, drives around in her SUV goes batshit crazy about tiny things and complains to the manager everywhere for any reason.

Hive-174578 is OCD's community / hivemind. @acidyo just posted about it at night, too, you can read a bit about it here.

Thanks for the link! I've looked around for courses schools offer but hadn't looked at TMK yet. I'll keep my eyes and ears open.

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Thanks, will check the post out.

About the courses, they used to have 40-50 courses per half year, there seems to be suspiciously too few atm, maybe they have distributed these to different institutions. Check around the web a bit, keywords "tasuta koolitused täiskasvanutele", there are some real gems with evening schedules.

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Yeah, I've looked into them but evening schedules don't fit me, I need courses that are in the time gap of 9AM to 5PM like I need a job with the same time gap. But thanks anyway!

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Computers, why would knowing how to use them be a requirement for an unemployment office worker.. oh wait, because everything is done electronically these days! That is just ridiculous. I hope you get a better case worker soon, Karen, you deserve it.

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Especially with all the hype Estonia always gets when people talk about IT and tech, how we can declare taxes in just a minute or so, most of the government services are online, etc, you'd think people know how to click on links. 😂

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If the person was not close to retirement age, there is no excuse! Maybe you should apply for her job...

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