There was an interesting article in Parade Magazine this past week on the nearly 10% of the US population that is unemployed.
Should they work for free?
In Georgia, people without jobs work part time for up to 6 weeks. They earn no salary but continue to collect unemployment (along with money for transportation, child care, etc). The businesses don’t issue paychecks (saving employers $15M), but give them a chance to test drive the employee. This has also reportedly saved the state $5.3M in benefits for people that would have stayed unemployed.
While this program has its quirks, I think it is headed in the right direction. Why not pay unemployment and have each side test out the relationship? I have found that after a month, both employer and employee know if it will work.
What do you think? What other innovative ideas have you seen in the marketplace?
Yes. I never thought about it until I read you article but I think it is a great idea for people to perform volunteer work when collecting unemployment and I feel welfare recipients should be required to do the same!
Sadly to say, I have been unemployed for several months and have been forced to collect unemployment. Prior to being unemployed, I started doing volunteer work and I have continued to do so. In going twice a week to Johnston Willis Hospital for only 4 hours at a time, it has helped tremendously by boosting my moral in giving me a feeling of accomplishment during such a depressing economy. In addition, I put my volunteer work on my resume as “Current” work experience because though I am not getting paid for it I am performing a job. After I started putting this experience on my resume, I started to see where more employers are impressed with the fact that “I am working” instead of just looking for a job. In donating only 4 hours of my time in a day, it still allows me time to apply for jobs and go to interviews. The people I do volunteer work for are very gracious. They are happy to work with me when I need a certain time off to go to job interviews and because of this I pray my next job will provide me with time to continue my volunteer work.
Sadly unemployed in Richmond, Virginia,
Gail Tyree
@gail Excellent point. I think being busy and contributing helps on all fronts
I beleive this is a bad ideal.No one should work for free, to be able to collect unemployment benefits. I have not seen the employer helping the general public. You would have people that are unable to do some types of work. Would everyone do the same type of work as called in order? Do you beleive everone could to physical work of working in the cold ouside night and day? You would be doing heavy liftering, rain or snow. Would you use the big man or women to do this work? What about cost of someone being injury on the job? I beleive the people that started this program in Georgia need to be drug tested. By the way I been drug tested as part of job I worked at 100 times or more, pass all.
This is not a good idea. Many of the unemployed have no healthcare benefits OR are unable to afford (COBRA) benefits OR are excluded from purchasing healthcare because of pre-existing conditions. Irrespective of the nature of the work assigned by the state of Georgia, no one should be at risk of losing what they have(financially responsible to pay medical bills) because of any risk of injury no matter how benign the work/volunteer assignment.