Today marks the beginning of a new direction for this column for a while.
After writing for the past 17 years or so about life in general, starting today I'm writing about one particular part of life: Doing whatever it takes to find a job and pay the bills right now.
We've all heard the statistics, but beyond that we all know people who are out of work or are affected personally by it.
Familiar names pop up in page after page of foreclosure ads daily. I'll vow not to look at them anymore; it's bad enough that other people's misery has to be put on display like that. And there but for the grace of God go I, right?
But a week or so goes by and I find myself looking, again.
The idea for a "Whatever It Takes" column came to me in a department store. I was talking to a saleswoman I met through doing my column.
She knew I had left my full-time job as Record-Eagle features editor a year ago to start a restaurant, and wondered how it was going.
I told her that I'd sold it, that I had been running out of money and was finding that it wasn't as satisfying as I'd expected it to be. Now, just like that, coming out of the chute at the other end, I was unemployed.
Then she asked what people always do: What will you do now?
I told her I was looking for work. With newspapers cutting staff and services, I wasn't optimistic about another editor job. I'd been thinking of trying some other avenues that were just about as unrelated to newspaper work as starting a restaurant.
While I don't want to look like I'm flitting from one thing to the other, I have a singular goal, I told her, and that is to get income flowing again, "Whatever it takes."
These are not normal times to be job hunting -- and that brings me to this column theme. Regardless of what happens with me, this is a huge issue for a lot of people right now.
My plan is to write about what it's like to be looking for work in this economic climate, at a time or place in your life that seems more filled with obstacles than opportunity, and of how we sometimes have to reinvent ourselves to do it.
I'll be consulting experts and HR professionals. I'll also be looking for reader interaction, hoping to offer insights and hear about -- and share -- your experiences and ideas.
One thing I believe: We are all in this together. And together, maybe we can help each other.
Whatever it takes.
Reach Kathy Gibbons at gibbonskath@yahoo.com or on the Internet at www.whateverittakesonline.net.
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