And so comes the reality check...

Last night I had the joy of returning to a volunteer role with the Multicultural Refugee Coalition here in Austin. I get such joy from working with refugees. But, I also get a renewed perspective of the realities of this world and how easy I have it.

The reality check always starts off innocently.

Last night, I was helping a man from the Congo find job openings and fill out applications on line. He's been in the US for 3 years and recently lost his job at a warehouse due to layoffs (he is supporting a family of 7). As we found appropriate jobs and filled out the applications, I became painfully aware of how something as "simple" as filling out a job application can be quite challenging for a refugee -- even for one who speaks English well, as this man does [in fact, he is fluent in 5 languages (while I just work on mastering English)]!

This was frustrating, but not surprising -- the reality check had not yet arrived.

Admittedly, the online application processes are, well honestly, pretty stupid. You can't just upload a resume -- each application is unique unto itself, so for every single job it was necessary to redo the process we had just spend 30 minutes completing on another site. And, most of these sites are not user-friendly or intuitive. So, if you are slightly older or if English is not your first language, well... good luck. It has nothing to do with whether or not this man is qualified for the actual job. It was merely that someone had some great ideas about how to turn what used to be a simple process of filling out a one-page application and attaching a resume into a electronically "enhanced" (using term very lightly here) process that features a multitude of questions, pages of forms and the possibility of having the site get hung up at a variety of stages, losing some or all information painstakingly provided over the last 30 minutes (which happened to us twice).

But this wasn't the reality check. It was still hovering. Waiting....

Admittedly, I was saddened that in the course of 1.5 hours we were only able to make it through 2.5 applications. I know full well that this is only one of the challenges refugees face when trying to provide for their families and learn the ropes, so to speak, of the U.S. And, I'm sure this challenge is not only faced by refugees but thousands of Americans who are out of work right now and just trying to apply for jobs. It really should be easier.

But, honestly, this was not the actual reality check for me either. That came while we were filling out the third online application...

On this particular application, each previous job had to be entered separately. For each we had to indicate why he no longer worked there. This question had a drop down list to select your answer from. The list included many options, e.g., lay-off, dispute with manager, took better opportunity, etc. We input his most recent job -- reason for leaving: "Lay off". We input the one before that (reason = better opportunity), and so on. We were required to account for his employment over the last 10 years, which included, in his case, 5 jobs.

So then came the perspective...

As we got to the job he left in 2002, we came upon the inevitable question we had reached on the previous 4 jobs I had entered into the application for him:

What was your reason for leaving this job?
His answer: "War".

That option wasn't on the drop down list.

Reality check. Perspective. We have it so good and, most days, we don't even realize it.