Jericho: My Mum, The Hacker
My mom worked for The Junior League of St. Louis for 30+ years. They had a banquet facility, she was a line cook. The last few years the facility had been cutting my Mom's hours. Inevitably, they closed a few months ago. My Mom is unemployed - that's a very strange concept to me. At 53 she isn't ready to retire, but after three decades of food service, her skills are lacking.
My mother has never owned a computer. Okay, when I was in high school, she bought me a Franklin Apple II clone. But, nothing more modern than that. I begged for a more modern machine while I lived with her. We were broke. I begged her to buy a machine after I moved out, just so we could keep up via email. No go. She didn't see a need to shell out the extra cash when she could just call me.
Now that she is unemployed, she has a problem. She was in a unique situation at The League. She was working in a kitchen that treated it's employees as professionals. Sure, they treated her like shit and she should have quit there a decade ago IMHO, but at least she had benefits. As she is looking around now, most food service jobs don't come with much pay or any benefits. Any job she goes to has to provide benefits, she needs them. Considering what my Mom considers "good" pay and the lack of benefits, this is a sad comment on the state of the food service industry.
She has begun looking outside the food service world for work. There are jobs out there, but most of them require basic computer skills. My mom, a smart lady, just doesn't have these skills. Total lack of exposure. She recently passed two phone interviews for a call center job. She passed an in-person interview. However, when they sat her down at the computer, she was totally lost. As you might expect, she didn't get the job. That job would have paid her more than her last job, she would have been off her feet (her knees are nearly gone from 30+ years of standing) and there was a benefits package. I know my Mom could do better than 99% of the *unprintable* idiots at most call centers.
She qualifies for displaced worker benefits from the government. So, she is getting some basic computer and job search training. This is good, but I doubt it will be enough. I knew she would have some spare time on her hands, so, I thought I would try to help.
Steph and I hit the local used pc place and looked for a computer. I wanted a laptop. I wanted something that was all ready to go and I didn't want to have to pay to ship a monitor half way across the country. We found a Toshiba laptop. Get this: a P166, 4 GB HD and 80 MB of RAM. It had a CD-ROM and a 28.8 modem. This thing probably steamed up the glass around the office when it was new - now, it was a step above a paper weight. However, at $79 bucks, the price was right. We added a new $12 mouse and called it a good night. I went home and installed my copy of Win98, probably about the most this machine could handle, but there you are. I installed my copy of Office 2000. I used Office 2000 with Virtual PC on my Mac. At this point, I was feeling pretty good about all of this.
I had bought an old Toshiba laptop for a friend a while back when she was desperate. The machine had some impact trauma a little later and worked only in the technical sense. (I tried to fix this poor device - made it worse. Oy!) Our friend was kind enough to donate the remains to our cause. I harvested two batteries, an external floppy drive and a nice bag and added them to the new system. I looked at this clean machine and realized, this was a pretty cool set up! I almost didn't want to let it go!
We shipped it out as cheaply as we could. All told, we spent just over a $100 bucks. Not bad. My Mom is worth way more than that, but that's what I could sacrifice. Took forever for that thing to arrive! She was grateful and a little shocked, in a good way. Made me feel better than any $100 bucks I've spent in the last decade.
Of course, it has been nothing but problems for her since! I set her up with a free account on NetZero. Mostly, I wanted a way to test the modem and download some patches and updates since this device didn't have a LAN port. NetZero worked for me just fine. My poor Mom can't make a connection to save her life. Sometimes she can get to NetZero's page, but any pages beyond are not available. Sometimes it just sits there, dialing. She was finally able to look at email on Yahoo! and send me an email. But, it's been a pain. She is considering absorbing the cost of better internet service just so she can connect!
The best thing that has come out of this is that she is getting some exposure to skills that will get her a better job. I hated The League! I hated how they treated her. My Mom is better than every one of those rich, lazy, dim witted women who were more interested in displaying their wealth than charity. I hate to say this, but I'm glad she's unemployed. Her life can only get better from here!
My mother has never owned a computer. Okay, when I was in high school, she bought me a Franklin Apple II clone. But, nothing more modern than that. I begged for a more modern machine while I lived with her. We were broke. I begged her to buy a machine after I moved out, just so we could keep up via email. No go. She didn't see a need to shell out the extra cash when she could just call me.
Now that she is unemployed, she has a problem. She was in a unique situation at The League. She was working in a kitchen that treated it's employees as professionals. Sure, they treated her like shit and she should have quit there a decade ago IMHO, but at least she had benefits. As she is looking around now, most food service jobs don't come with much pay or any benefits. Any job she goes to has to provide benefits, she needs them. Considering what my Mom considers "good" pay and the lack of benefits, this is a sad comment on the state of the food service industry.
She has begun looking outside the food service world for work. There are jobs out there, but most of them require basic computer skills. My mom, a smart lady, just doesn't have these skills. Total lack of exposure. She recently passed two phone interviews for a call center job. She passed an in-person interview. However, when they sat her down at the computer, she was totally lost. As you might expect, she didn't get the job. That job would have paid her more than her last job, she would have been off her feet (her knees are nearly gone from 30+ years of standing) and there was a benefits package. I know my Mom could do better than 99% of the *unprintable* idiots at most call centers.
She qualifies for displaced worker benefits from the government. So, she is getting some basic computer and job search training. This is good, but I doubt it will be enough. I knew she would have some spare time on her hands, so, I thought I would try to help.
Steph and I hit the local used pc place and looked for a computer. I wanted a laptop. I wanted something that was all ready to go and I didn't want to have to pay to ship a monitor half way across the country. We found a Toshiba laptop. Get this: a P166, 4 GB HD and 80 MB of RAM. It had a CD-ROM and a 28.8 modem. This thing probably steamed up the glass around the office when it was new - now, it was a step above a paper weight. However, at $79 bucks, the price was right. We added a new $12 mouse and called it a good night. I went home and installed my copy of Win98, probably about the most this machine could handle, but there you are. I installed my copy of Office 2000. I used Office 2000 with Virtual PC on my Mac. At this point, I was feeling pretty good about all of this.
I had bought an old Toshiba laptop for a friend a while back when she was desperate. The machine had some impact trauma a little later and worked only in the technical sense. (I tried to fix this poor device - made it worse. Oy!) Our friend was kind enough to donate the remains to our cause. I harvested two batteries, an external floppy drive and a nice bag and added them to the new system. I looked at this clean machine and realized, this was a pretty cool set up! I almost didn't want to let it go!
We shipped it out as cheaply as we could. All told, we spent just over a $100 bucks. Not bad. My Mom is worth way more than that, but that's what I could sacrifice. Took forever for that thing to arrive! She was grateful and a little shocked, in a good way. Made me feel better than any $100 bucks I've spent in the last decade.
Of course, it has been nothing but problems for her since! I set her up with a free account on NetZero. Mostly, I wanted a way to test the modem and download some patches and updates since this device didn't have a LAN port. NetZero worked for me just fine. My poor Mom can't make a connection to save her life. Sometimes she can get to NetZero's page, but any pages beyond are not available. Sometimes it just sits there, dialing. She was finally able to look at email on Yahoo! and send me an email. But, it's been a pain. She is considering absorbing the cost of better internet service just so she can connect!
The best thing that has come out of this is that she is getting some exposure to skills that will get her a better job. I hated The League! I hated how they treated her. My Mom is better than every one of those rich, lazy, dim witted women who were more interested in displaying their wealth than charity. I hate to say this, but I'm glad she's unemployed. Her life can only get better from here!
posted by Jericho Brown at 9/22/2005 06:06:00 PM
10 Comments:
Ah, computers. The key to a rewarding, not to mention well paying, career. I wish I knew something about computers so I could get me one of those jobs.
How can a society that pays business execs millions while paying its cooks a pitance call itself civilized?
Hey, best of luck to your Mum. Has she tried Convergys? It's another call center, but they have extensive training, so if your mom can even use a computer at all now, she'll do fine. And not to knock your mom, but they'll hire just about any one. They have pretty decent benifites, too, but you do have to wait a month to get them, I think. Or maybe it's 3 months? I forget. I know the usual starting pay is $8/hr.
Anyway, tell her to either go on-line and fill out an app at convergys.com or go to their center in Arnold behind Arnold 14 Cine off Richardson Rd/55. She'll have to take a customer service test on the computer, but it's pretty easy. If she can read and use a mouse, she should be ok.
Sons are great!
We try!
She could move in with you, Jer, until she finds a job in Seattle... the greatest place on Earth- land of the jobs, etc etc. ;-)
We have offered. She has refused. *Sigh*
I've talked with my Mom more in the last month than in the last year. Neither of us are good about regular contact, we usually call each other once a month and spend two or three hours on the phone. Unlike my wife who talks to her folks at least several times a week and emails nearly daily.
Anyway, my Mom is getting a real education with this machine. It's being a total pain in her ass, but she is taking it in stride, making notes, and riding this bull for all it's worth. Proof that I came by my smarts honestly!
How goes Mom's job hunt?
I've talked to my mother more in the last month than in the last year. She is all over the place looking for work. She is totally getting into her little computer, too.
Last I heard, she was filling out a job application for Barnes Hospital. The application is only on-line and can take up to two hours to fill out! She'd have an easier time getting a job at the Pentagon!
I've got her playing Battle Boats out on itsyourturn.com.
She's totally hooked! :)
Charter is hiring. Free cable and all the bullshit you can eat.
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