Rocking The Boat

Ah, gentle readers, with the midterm election fast approaching, your MatchGirl's, though currently employed, mind keeps turning to her unemployed and underemployed friends and neighbors.  The unemployment rate is stagnant and where it drops - in nearby states like New Jersey, it's supposed that this is only because so many people's benefits have run out that they are no longer being tracked.  And income levels have not changed in a very long time.

A quick little internet search reveals that - with the last numbers - the unemployment rate here in Kings County is slightly above the national average, and above the average for the rest of the sate of New York - at 10.5%.

Your MatchGIrl knows, dear ones, that many of you have found jobs - some are making more than you were before, some less.  Some of you have found jobs in your chosen field.  Some of you, like your MatchGirl, have veered in a new direction, either through choice or circumstance.  Some of you simply took the first thing that was offered to you, knowing that you could stay unemployed no longer.  And a great many of you are underemployed.

Those of you who have found jobs - I know - are incredibly grateful to be working.  I am.

Here's the question, though: Do you find yourselves, just because you are so very excited to (finally) be working again, letting your employers take advantage of your eagerness?  Do you find yourself too eager to please that you're being overworked and (probably) underpaid? Are you finding yourself afraid to rock the boat simply because you are terrified of not having a job again?

Your MatchGirl hears things and reads things - both news article and anecdotes - and, unfortunately, I think that this is the case - across the board.  And I understand being grateful to be employed.  I am.

Be careful, gentle ones, in walking that tightrope that lies between gratitude and being taken advantage of.  Be careful in keeping your new and oh-so-hard to come by job.  But take care of yourself and your needs.  Know that you were hired for several reasons - and being a door mat was (hopefully!) not amongst them!

What do you think? Are you moving on up in your new found employment? Or simply treading water, trying not to capsize?