This particular situation is quite humbling and embarrassing; imploring the grace of people unknown. I am more known for being on the other side of the equation.
One may ask how this all culminated to a ‘critical mass’ situation.
Over the last few months, I was driving for Amazon Flex as an individual contractor (1099). Even though it was a highly competitive arena due to how the work offers are presented (notifications sent randomly via their app), there was enough work to pay the rent and some of the bills. In the meantime, I was looking for work with a longer shelf life. I knew that once the holiday season was to end, so would the available work through Amazon. (Amazon has its own fleet of W-2 driver associates as well as contracted companies who have bidded for a percentage of the deliveries.)
Why didn’t I also drive for Uber or the like? And, why am I not doing that now for the interim? ……No car. Lost that to Capital One on December 23rd.
I applied for an Uber partner position about three or four years ago. My application had been pending review for the whole time. At the time, no biggy. I had moved on to other things.
What was devastating, is that in last October when there was a mysterious lapse of Amazon work, I followed up on the whole Uber thing only to find out that they could not ‘partner’ with me due to a background check with Checkr. I have a near flawless driving record and no criminal history whatsoever. I then followed up with Checkr who apologized for the misunderstanding.
I look back on the countless applications I have submitted over the past few years with companies who have resourced Checkr.
Life before all of this used to be pretty good. Bachelor’s degree. I got to travel and do things some people may never get the chance to do. I worked in various capacities for 15 years at a well-renowned banking institution, having started in humble beginnings as an operations clerk. Before that, I had a little (home garage) screen-printing business in Albuquerque with a friend. I was surrounded by encouraging artistic, creative people.
Though I now live in Arizona (again), I had to resign from the aforementioned banking career when I moved to Ohio for familial reasons. A career-crippling move at the age of 46 in 2010, especially when the real wrench-in-the-works wasn’t realized until the summer of 2014, when I attempted to rekindle the magic back in Arizona.
We were boarding my wife’s stepfather from August 2007 through 2010. Each time we moved (3 times), he would have to register his address. You’ll have to really connect the dots on this detail. Nonetheless, his status or classification (generalized by address not by name, keep in mind) had been revealed in the summer of 2014, upon a job for which I applied via Corporate Job Bank whom was requiring previous addresses.
I have little regrets for helping him out. I just wish I could have known to better prepare myself. On account of that, the quality of the pitiful few job offers I have received has greatly diminished. My curriculum vitae has taken a beating. There’s no vita in it now.
So there you have it. I am not stagnating, even though in my catatonic state of frenzy, it is hard to conceptually function. I’ve never had to compose anything like this before. I was hoping to be more cerebral, making analogies between consequence and quantum entanglement.
Even though I do not like to think that there is a reciprocal kharma/dharma equal sign to the many times I have paid it forward or given namelessly, I hope someone is listening (in this case, reading).