For someone making 80K going down to minimum wage is a shock

[TwixVoy]

On another thread there were a lot of posts about not being able to find work for years. What some of it came down to (I think) was not necessarily being able to find work, but simply not being able to find work at the same level they were used to. I think what people need to realize is that for someone making say 80K all of a sudden losing that job and having to move down to a much lower rate of a pay is a huge shock mentally. I think for someone who has always made a very good income they may not even be able to fathom being able to live on anything less.

What you have to understand is that for someone making 80K in a professional environment all of a sudden going down to minimum wage is a HUGE shock that many people can not handle. Is it right? No, but a lot of people can not mentally handle it.

For example - I am a mid-level manager at a major retailer. I occasionally interview applicants. Just last month I had a middle aged person apply for "anything". I don't know what her personal situation was (I didn't ask)... but from what I gather from her comments she lived well off her spouses income and then something happened where that income went away. Maybe he got fired. I don't know, but the income was gone.

So I sat down with her to interview her. The ENTIRE INTERVIEW she kept making comments like "I am going to try. This is just such a shock for me to be living on minimum wage all of a sudden." (BTW: we pay more than minimum wage, she just assumed that... probably part of the mentality I am talking about) Then she made comments like "I always had my husband support me, but we don't have the money now"

She also wanted to hold on to what she had. She made comments like "I have to keep my car so I just need something to make the payments. I have to pay over 600 a month for it. I don't want to have to ride the bus." Honestly what I thought she needed to do (but didn't tell her of course) was GET RID of the car. She obviously wasn't going to have the income to pay for it anytime soon.

I WAS going to hire her, but then she started getting offensive. A few comments from her I remember were "I never thought I would be working with such dirty people" and "I don't intend to retire here or anything trust me. I would never end up at a place like this"

I mean I really find applicants like this fascinating. They just really really have a hard time coming down to a low income level mentally.... they just don't take it well at all.

It's interesting because when we start getting applicants like this who have finally broken and are willing to accept any job it also gives you an idea of just how bad the economy is doing.

But I think think this is completely understandable. I mean say you are living like Paris Hilton and then all of a sudden have to work at McDonalds. It IS an understanble reaction.... and I think it causes a lot of people to not even want to consider a low wage job because it just simply bothers them mentally.