The ranting part of my day:

The world of the laid-off techie

"My daughter came home yesterday with a group homework assignment and I had to write a paragraph about what I do for a living," said Cavazos, who has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University and a master's of business administration from Pfeiffer University. "Here I am throwing mail with an MBA. I was totally embarrassed. I'm just grateful that my daughter is still too young to understand how tough this is for me."

I'm sorry, I need to vent here. I know that people pay a lot for their educations and they expect to get jobs that will allow them to live in the style to which they'd like to become accustomed, but when it comes to bringing in money to pay for food, mortgage, your childrens' education, etc. (and not blowing your entire retirement savings), sometimes you have to do what you have to to get by, and there's no shame in taking a job that does not "challenge" you until you find something better. There are an awful lot of people out there who have better educations than I who do what they have to do to get by, while also working also to make the most of their education, rather than sitting around pooh-poohing blue collar jobs because they'd rather starve (and let their families starve) than take a job that's "below" them.

The downturn in the economy is a terrible thing for a lot of people. But then, when things were really good, they were more than a little unreasonably good. While white collar workers are having a hard time, unemployment overall isn't so bad, which means that a lot of people are still working and meeting their responsibilities. People who expect to have it good every day because they have these incredible skills need to adjust their expectations and realize that shit happens. To everyone, at anytime in their lives. It's how you deal with it that is the lesson your kids are going to learn. It's not an embarrassment to work for the post office, but your child will think it's something to be ashamed of if you're ashamed of it.

So there. I bet Mr. Cavazos is finding it difficult to work with the other people at the post office, since he obviously hates the job that they all do for a living.

[Link via LYD]