Category Archives: News & Reviews

My husband John was laid off two months ago and is now an “unclaimed treasure”
(that is, he is on a job hunt). To help pay the bills between jobs, John signed
up for the first time for
Unemployment Insurance
with the California Employment Development
Department (EDD).

What is Unemployment Insurance in California?

Unemployment Insurance (UI) is a nationwide program created to provide partial wage replacement to unemployed workers while they conduct an active search for new work. Unemployment Insurance (UI) is a federal-state program, based on federal law, but executed through state law. Employers finance the UI program by tax contributions. In California, the EDD administers the UI program according to guidelines established by the UI Code and the California Code of Regulations, Title 22.

http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/

EDD appears to be a completely faceless bureaucracy. That is, there is no
person to call, no place to go to resolve problems. There
is only a phone number. John had a problem with his EDD paperwork
(he received two contradictory UI mailings on the same day and made the wrong
choice) and needed to talk with someone. It took three days of fifty to 100 calls
per day to 800-300-5616 to get someone from EDD on the phone. He called before 8 am and
heard the “We are not here outside of the following hours” message roll immediately
over to the “We are currently receiving more calls than our system can handle. Please
try again later” message. He redialed all day and heard the “Please try again later”
message roll over to the “We are not here” message promptly at 5 pm daily.

Only an EDD person on the phone can help with a UI problem. There are

EDD offices. EDD office staff only provide career and workforce services but
cannot resolve UI problems – they offer you a phone to call 800-300-5616.
Letters from the EDD feature a post office box address, no fax, no local number,
no names, only 800-300-5616 with alternate numbers for Spanish, Cantonese,
Mandarin, and Vietnamese.

Late yesterday afternoon, when John finally spoke with an EDD 800-300-5616
representative, the problem was sorted out promptly. The EDD woman scolded John
for his mistake but said since it was his first infraction, they would probably let it go
and not deny benefits. She went on to complain that there were so many callers
with all the people being unemployed that EDD was working nights, weekends, and
holidays. John gently pointed out that at least she had a job.

My daughter Jessica is participating in the
University Presidential Inaugural
Conference (UPIC) in Washington, D.C. this week, so she will see
President Obama’s inauguration in person! Jessica was invited (along with thousands
of other kids) because she is an alumna of a
Congressional Youth Leadership
Council (CYLC) program she attended in High School. She signed up for this
conference almost a year ago, long before we knew whose inauguration it would be.
You can see Jessica’s pictures and updates on her blog:

http://feelingelephants.wordpress.com/.

Jessica took the bus to Washington DC yesterday bringing the camera she borrowed
from the CMU student newspaper, the
Tartan. So far, she has heard a
talk by General Colin Powell.
Tomorrow, they hear from former Vice President
Al Gore. Tuesday night after
the inauguration, she will attend an inaugural ball. The picture above is of
Jessica showing us her new ball gown (with the shawl I brought her from Bangalore)
before I packed it. It is so exciting to have a member of our family attend this
historical event!

Image Copyright 2009 by John Plocher

In the two months since
John Plocher, my husband, was

laid off from Sun, our family has made many changes. Only one of us is
commuting to work, so our 16-year-old son Paul and I spend more time
together during the drive between home and his High School, on the way to
my Sun office. Between job hunting activities, John has more time to cook, so we
eat out less. (John is an excellent cook so this is good!). The pets are happier
because John is home to give them more attention. Unless I have a meeting,
I work from home in the afternoons while Paul is doing homework. I have less
free time…

We have also found a good many things we wished we had thought to do
before John was laid off. Some of these were contained in a very helpful
unsigned email forwarded to John by someone who left Sun last year, called: “Things I Wish I’d Known The Day I Was RIFd”. (RIF stands for “Reduction in Force”, also known
as a lay off or restructuring.) However, we have also found some of the information
in that email is out of date.

I am writing this to share the benefit of our family’s recent experience with
Sun staff who may be caught up in the company restructuring announced on

14 November 2008. Here are my opinions of some good actions to
consider after the termination notice but before you leave Sun and lose your
SunWeb access (and some actions to consider after). Some of these
actions may only be appropriate for Sun staff in California since circumstances
will differ from state-to-state, and country-to-country. Some actions –
like joining LinkedIn – are
good ideas whether you are staying or leaving. Your mileage may vary.
May contain nuts.

1. Before your SunWeb access shuts down, print out copies of key records:
   
   – Current and last year paycheck history
   
   – Company training history
   
   – Stock option history and status
   
   – Health benefit elections
   
   – Vacation balance
   
   – Past annual performance review documents
2. If you have not already done so, use your Employee Giving matching grant for the current year.
3. If you have a blogs.sun.com account, post a brief and professional
   going away message including at least your LinkedIn reference. Your
   blogs.sun.com postings stay available after you are gone.
4. Change your Sun voice mail outgoing message with a new professionally
   phrased reference to your home phone or other non-Sun phone number.

Resources which may help and actions to consider later:

1. Sun provides some very good benefits to RIFed staff.
   Use any coaching services offered as part of your package
   (such as the excellent
   Right Management service). Let the service review your resume before
   you send it out. Join their networking groups.
2. Think through your health, dental, vision, and life insurance choices
   and application timelines. Read your RIF package carefully. If the staff
   member who is laid off is the spouse of a continuing Sun staff member, talk
   with Human Resources (SunDial) soon about when and how you can initiate a
   “Qualifying Life Event Change” to provide insurance coverage to the RIFed
   spouse. We had to submit a “Life Insurance Evidence of Insurability (EOI) Form”
   which is still going through formal review by the insurance
   provider. It may take weeks before our coverage is reestablished. However,
   John’s other insurance benefits (health, dental, vision, etc.) were reestablished
   right after his employee coverage lapsed.
3. Immediately locate all personal accounts, groups, billing, etc.
   that you have linked to your @sun.com email address, and change them
   to your personal email address.
4. In California, you can apply for
   Unemployment Insurance
   from the day of your notification (while you may still have months yet to
   receive Sun paychecks).
   If you are asked by the California Employment Development Department, do not
   call money Sun provides you after the notification period “severance”.
   It is accurate to call it “payment to forestall legal action”.
   
   Here is Sun’s address and phone number which you will need for
   the EDD paperwork – from Sun’s 2008 Annual Report:
   
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.
   
   4150 Network Circle
   
   Santa Clara, CA 95054
   
   (650) 960-1300
5. In the San Francisco Bay Area, there is a networking and lunch group
   called CSix where job hunters share ideas
   and leads. Similar formal or informal groups probably exist elsewhere.
6. Buy a current-year copy of the book What Color Is Your
   Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles. This book is available in
   many languages (French, Korean, Russian, Turkish…). Also check out the
   resources on Dick Bolles’ web site:
   JobHuntersBible.Com
7. Join LinkedIn – a social networking
   web site for professionals who want to extend their contacts. Be diligent
   in linking to your former Sun coworkers so that you don’t lose each other
   once you are no longer @sun.com. Use LinkedIn to recommend people you think
   highly of and ask them to recommend you. There are several LinkedIn Sun
   Alumni groups, including SUNAlumni. Sun Engineering SEED mentoring program
   alumni can join the SEED LinkedIn group.
8. Join the
   Sun Microsystems Alumni Association
   “The network is the people”
9. Consider other social networking sites such as
   Facebook which has several Sun Alumni groups, including:
   The Sun Microsystems Alumni Group,
   Sun Alumni on fb, (& several others).
   Plaxo is another good networking, address book site.
10. Participate in
    Sun Alumni Blogs
11. Make your own business cards so that you can easily tell contacts
    your new email and phone.
12. Make doctor, dentist, and other health care appointments soon, so you
    are seen while you are still insured. Renew prescriptions that are close
    to refills. COBRA continuation insurance coverage isn’t always the same as
    the coverage you had before.
13. Get a special job seeking email address at yahoo.com or
    gmail.com. Make it professional, not cute.
14. A job searching and recruitment web site:
    http://www.dice.com/
    – “career website for technology and engineering professionals”
15. A job searching web site:
    http://www.indeed.com/
    “to search job sites, newspapers, associations and company career pages”

Don’t lose touch with Sun people you care about. As John says, there are
only really 100 people in the Silicon Valley, everyone else is just there
to create traffic jams.