My career is a search for opportunities to use my talents to help make a difference in people’s lives. My resume does not adequately make that connection. Much of what I enjoy writing involves connecting the dots between related but nonlinear ideas, so today I apply that to my own story:

I began with an interest in politics and ideas when I was inspired to go on the road with the Gary Hart campaign while I was an undergraduate at MIT in 1988. “Democracy, not Media-ocracy!” A similar motive led me to organize and lead Paul Tsongas delegates in Washington State in 1992 while I was in law school. In between, I created or improved student publications like the law school newspaper or the MIT Course Evaluation Guide. The common thread of my engagement was that I threw myself into–I committed myself 100%–to causes where I combined the tools I already had internally (communication, empathy, passion) with skills I rapidly developed (technology and presentation) to advance ideas for making something better.

Now that was a long time ago. But throughout my career I made choices based on my unique combination of talent and skills in pursuit of creative, innovative ideas that I believed would change the world.

At Smart Valley, Inc., I used technology to improve quality of life in Silicon Valley. I created an online database of volunteers to wire the schools to the internet, then build PCs for low income schools. I brainstormed the idea to create a voter information site–SmartVoter–that is still active today.

At Decisive Technology, we believed we could do surveys better online (instead of phone-based surveys). We could more accurately serve the needs of customers and employees by giving executives a way to hear those voices effectively. So I built a team of web engineers and we created EnterpriseView–a web-based analysis tool for survey management.

At ConsumerReview, we had dozens of websites driven by passionate enthusiasts like mountain bikers (MTBR.com) and audiophiles (AudioReview.com). To scale the company down to a survivable state, we need to consolidate. So we learned C# and .NET and rolled out a new publishing platform. Many were laid off, but the consolidated company has kept those user communities going for over a decade.

At QuitNet, we supported thousands of people trying to quit smoking by building, maintaining, and pioneering the online delivery of smoking cessation services through www.quitnet.com. As the business grew to serve a complete wellness and behavior change model, we managed the technology and community–from “servers under a desk” to a virtualized hosting facility and geographically-distributed telephone counselors. Now the service is part of a national health care company.

At Spire, I stepped into a role that quickly turned into the launch of a “spun-off” startup company. The core challenge was to provide a publishing and interactive experience where members could help one another. I improvised technology, integrated workflow, and promoted social media to support our efforts in growing the community.

Along the way, I acquired tech skills and titles. But I was always jumping into the trenches. I faced a challenge and I learned what I needed to get through it. I am not constrained by what cannot be done or what I lack experience in today.

So when people look at the individual items on the resume…and ask me if I am a manager, engineer, writer, marketer, or lawyer…I have trouble answering that. Yes. Well, OK, which one do you want to be? It depends on what I need to be to solve today’s challenge.

A number of people who are unemployed in Massachusetts and have lost their benefits due to situations with part-time employment, freelance income, and problems accepting or refusing employment have commented on my blog or sent me emails asking for help. I made some calls today and decided to post some information here in the hope that it can help…

Disclaimer: I have not gone through this process myself (and hope I will never have to) and I do not have personal knowledge of the facts involved in any individual case. I am not representing anyone as an attorney; just reporting what I understand the process to be. If you know better…please comment appropriately and help everyone…

The most important thing you can do if you believe your benefits are being wrongly denied is to continue to file your weekly claim by phone or online. If you don’t file those weekly claims, even if the original denial is reversed, you will not be able to collect benefits retroactively.

When your benefits are canceled or denied, you should receive a letter informing you of this decision and your right to request a hearing. I get the impression that some people are told on the phone that they no longer qualify for benefits and then they just give up. Don’t do that. If you receive this letter, it should include instructions on how to request a hearing which initiates the process described on the DUA web site.

Make your appeal timely–you have 10 days from the original letter to contest the determination.

If you do not receive a letter, you can contact the Adjustment Unit of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Unimployment Assurance to state your claim and request a hearing. These hearings can take weeks or months to schedule, during which time you should keep filing your weekly claim.

Write a letter, identifying yourself, including your Social Security Number and any case/claim number information you have, and stating that you would like to request a review of your eligibility for benefits. State the facts about your claim–when did you file, what conversations did you have on the phone, what the current status of your benefits are as you understand them… It is best to state the procedural facts clearly and unemotionally to make it clear what you are asking for and what actions have been taken by DUA up to this point. Then, you can describe your circumstances–why you did what you were told disqualified you.

The purpose of this letter is to get a hearing, not to win your case outright. So don’t tell them your life story and don’t provide extraneous facts about your employment or other information that they don’t know about that might raise additional issues!

For example, if you were told that because you quit a job, you can no longer claim benefits, you should say something like this: “The Tele-Claim representative told me that because I had stopped working as a dishwasher, I was no longer eligible to file for weekly benefits. I stopped filing my weekly claim but never received any formal notice of this decision.” As you relate the facts, focus on “what” happened, not what you believe, think, feel, desire or wish. Then, request a review very explicity by saying, “I would like you to review my denial of benefits and give me an opportunity to appeal the decision.” Then, you go into the consequences: “Based on what I was told, I stopped filing weekly claims. I was never fully employed and [rest of story.]

That’s just my advice on writing a persuasive letter–obviously eveyone has their own situation, but the important thing is to lay out the procedural facts as accurately as possible and ask for an opportunity to provide additional information to help them make a more accurate determination of your status.

Send this letter to:

Adjustment Unit, DUA
Department of Workforce Development
Charles F. Hurley Building
19 Staniford Street, 2nd Floor
Boston, MA 02114

Then wait. Unfortunately, there is a backlog and it could be 6-8 weeks before you hear anything. However, after 3 weeks, you can call the Hearings Department at 617-626-5200 to verify that the case has been opened/entered into the system, at which point you would receive a docket number that can be used to check status on the phone.

Don’t give up. If I were in the situation described by some of the people who have contacted me, I would send a letter and start filing my weekly claim immediately AND argue that my failure to file previous weeks was not my fault because I was told to stop claiming. If the online form will not allow you to file a weekly claim…call the Tele-Claim center at 617-626-6338. If that person says “you’re not eligible,” then you should say “I am filing an appeal and want to certify that for this week, I was available for work, looked for work, and did not earn any money.”

Pace yourself. You still need to find a job, but these benefits–if you deserve them–might be the difference between digging out of debt for years after you find work. So:

1. write that letter and mail it
2. do your weekly claim – keep the work search log going too so you have documentation of your efforts to find a job and you don’t create another problem
3. wait 3 weeks, then call the Hearing Department at DUA to verify the hearing process is initiated. If it is not…hopefully they can help you on the phone to know what to do next.
4. go to the hearing and make your case

If the hearing results in an adverse judgment…you have the right to appeal the hearing as well.

As with any bureaucratic process, it would be nice if someone told you all this up front…or if someone acted as your advocate/guide/counsellor along the way. But that’s not how it works, so live, learn, and share.

The fact is, when you are laid off, you can lose your health insurance immediately, despite the so-called protections of COBRA. The only thing COBRA does is entitle certain qualififying persons (most people who are laid off) the opportunity to continue their health insurance under the same group plan they were eligible for when they were employed.

I’ve blogged here before about how to maintain health insurance while unemployed–essentially, you should 1) elect COBRA immediately because the Federal Stimulus subsidy means you will have at least 65% of the premium covered for 9 months, and 2) apply for the Massachusetts Medial Security Program and other resources which will subsidize an additional 80% of your out of pocket expenses through a reimbursement as long as you remain unemployed and enrolled in the MSP. These are generous benefits that all unemployed, eligible persons should take advantage of immediately.

Immediately is the key word. I thought I understood it all, but the learning process continues as I recently ran into difficulty confirming future doctor’s appointments for my kids. I was told my insurance had been canceled immediately upon termination from my last job–before I even received the paperwork for COBRA. This is at the discretion of the employer.

Technically, under COBRA, you have the right to choose whether to elect continuation coverage for 60 days following termination. Then, you have 45 days to make the first payment. In every employer I’ve worked for in the past, this was explained to laid off employees as “don’t worry about health insurance; you have 3 1/2 months before you’ll have to pay anything.” But it’s not that simple. The employer may decided to wait 60 days–during which time they are actually continuing to pay for your health insurance and the insurance company does not even know you have been terminated. But they are not required to be that generous. If instead, they terminate your coverage immediately, then you will lose health insurance on the day you lose your job.

I was advised by my insurer, Tufts, to simply tell the doctor that I’ve applied for COBRA…hopefully that will be sufficient to enable us to continue receiving medical care until my former employer processes the paperwork of my COBRA election form and reinstates my health coverage. But it illustrates how important it is for you to NOT wait and to IMMEDIATELY make your COBRA election on the day you are laid off. The law only provides you the opportunity to purchase health insurance; it does not automatically provide continuity of coverage. As I’ve noted before, given the Federal Stimulus benefit, this is a “no-brainer” now, but that benefit will go away in a few months and then, once again, the unemployed will face the very real fear of the immediate loss of health care and difficult choice to being paying over $1000/month–while unemployed–to keep their families covered.

My posts on unemployment in Massachusetts have drawn commentary here and attention from the media and government. A producer from WBUR called me last week to set up a panel discussion on Friday where I will join an economist and the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, Suzanne Bump to talk about the situation in Massachusetts and respond to listeners who call in with questions. I’ve also been talking with a staffer at that agency, where they have started a blog about jobs and unemployment.

I would like to invite people to post questions here…to relate their experiences…to say things you would like me to think about while I’m on this radio show. I can’t answer specific personal detail questions, but it would help to be able to pass along the kind of real questions and stories that people have.

When I talked to Secretary Bump in person after the Town Hall Meeting, I learned a few things:

• The reason initial claims are not online is due to the complexity and age of the existing system–which is being overhauled. Now, I still don’t understand why a simple web submission form could be deployed, but I did not get into all the details with her…
• My situation is not typical. Many people have complicated claims where they did not work for the same employer all year or their employer disputes their eligibility, etc. The claims process is much more complicated for many than it was for me, so it is a mistake to assume everyone’s situation is simple.

Update: As I was writing this post, I noticed a tweet from my friend Rachel Levy, who was also interviewed by WBUR and quoted in a post just now. It does make me pause to ask myself why I am putting myself out there and whether I’m developing an unintentional brand as “celebrity unemployed.” Does this press help or hurt me?

I don’t know. What I do know is that dozens of people have contacted me about my blog posts and have asked me questions I’m not qualified to answer regarding benefits. I do know that I spent a lot of time and frustration on the phone and I believe there are ways to solve these problems. I am excited that my writing about these solutions has drawn the attention of the media and people in our state agencies who have the power and resources to do something about it. So I keep doing it. I feel like there are thousands of people who feel no one is listening to them and if I get the attention of somebody, I should make the most of it.

After waiting on hold for 40 minutes, I obtained some answers to questions that I hope will clarify how unemployed people who have some temporary income can maintain uninterrupted health coverage under Massachusetts Medical Security Program (MSP).

This is an update of my prior post on how the Medical Security Program coordinates with the Federal Economic Stimulus and Recovery Act.

The Medical Security Program provides 80% reimbursement of the amount a laid-off worker pays their employer for COBRA continuation benefits. If you meet the income requirements–400% of the Federal Poverty level. You must apply for MSP separately. See my prior post for information about the initial application process. That will take a couple months to process…the information below is all about how you keep eligible AFTER you have initially qualified and BEFORE you find a new, more permanent job.

• The current processing time from submitting a claim for reimbursement to receiving a check is 4 weeks. The forms I mailed on 4/15 to be reimbursed for my COBRA payments for January, February, March, and April should result in a check by 5/15 or so.
• If you earn more than 1/3 of your base unemployment benefit amount during a given week, your benefit amount will be reduced until you earn 1/3 + the benefit amount. If you reach this limit or fail to file a claim for that week, you will stop “earning” unemployment benefits AND you will be discontinued from MSP temporarily. If you are employed for 90 days, you will be discontinued from MSP and would need to formally re-apply.
• If you stop earning income, you can restart unemployment and MSP–but you have to make two phone calls: one to DUI and one to MSP. The call to MSP must be AFTER your unemployment benefit has been issued for the new week. See my example below.
• As long as you are receiving unemployment benefits for any time during the month, you are eligible for MSP benefits. If you receive an unemployment check for at least one week, you are eligible to have your COBRA payment for that month reimbursed 80%.

I find this confusing, so let me illustrate with an example of exactly what I am doing to ensure my health coverage is uninterrupted.

Last week, I had a small amount of freelance income. When I filed my claim online yesterday, I said yes/yes/yes to the 3 questions on the form. Then, on the next page, I reported the $150 I earned last week. I will recieve a direct deposit of my full benefit amount and my MSP coverage continues.

This week, I have more income. I will file a claim on Sunday that is yes/yes/yes and “too much money.” The system will make me ineligible, but this will not affect the COBRA reimbursements already submitted because I already received a payment for an unemployed week in April (and the other months).

Next week, I will have less income. I will need to start things up again:

• Tomorrow, before May 1, I will write a check to my former employer and obtain a receipt for payment of May COBRA. The amount I owe is 35% of the full payment thanks to the Federal Subsidy.
• Friday or Saturday morning, I will call the DUA teleclaim center and eventually speak with a representative to say, I need to re-open my claim. If I have any income, I will report that it is 1099 income/self-employed; I did not work for an employer. They will re-open my claim if I have less than the maximum allowed amount.
• Sunday, I will go to the online claim form and file my claim. I needed to make the phone call the day before; otherwise, when I log in, it will say I’m not eligible and I will be stuck.
• Wednesday, allowing time for the direct deposit to happen, I will call MSP and wait on hold for another 40 minutes, then say I need to re-activate my participation in MSP.
• After that call, I will mail my recipt and reimbursement form to MSP for the May COBRA payment.
• Sometime soon, I will receive a job offer or land an additional consulting gig that will permanantly remove me from this process!

The key points to remember:

• Don’t forget to pay for next month’s COBRA tomorrow!
• Get a receipt!
• Download a reimbursement form if you need it.
• If you earn some money that makes you temporarily ineligible for unemployment benefits, remember to make 2 phone calls and resubmit your claim–in the order described above–to maintain eligibility for MSP.
• You are required to report your weekly earnings. This means you should report income in the week it was earned, not all-at-once when you receive a check at the conclusion of a consulting engagement.

Don’t let skills define you. This past Friday, at my Salty Legs Career Club, Stephen Balzac of 7StepsAhead presented what he has learned about how to “Interview for Success.” Steve did a particularly effective job illustrating how to avoid being trapped in debates about skills.

It’s hard to convince an interviewer you have the best skills, because if you allow skills to define you, there will always be someone better. I’m looking at a job posting right now that calls for a mysql DBA–and despite the fact that I have been working with databases since 1986–on an ancient system known as Ingress…despite the fact that I walked into one company and migrated their mysql database to Oracle…despite the fact that I set up Microsoft SQL Server replication, stored procedures, triggers, log shipping…and then transfered my knowledge over to mysql in my last job…I just KNOW there are tons of people out there who would make better mysql DBAs. I never took a test.

My skills do not define me. They are tools I use to solve bigger problems…problems like how to keep the business running without hiring more people. Or how to get a prototype from a developer’s laptop onto the first two enterprise customer’s websites before they run out of VC money. Or how to launch a startup within a big company without paying licensing fees for Microsoft SQL Server. Oh, yeah, needed to relearn Linux systems administration and virtualization too…no problem. Point is, I now realize my resume is TERRIBLE…listing all those skills I picked up when really, what I should be talking about are the incredible results I achieved–how I was an unstoppable force of technological scrappyness…but I digress.

Steven’s talk is worth watching. You may disagree with some of his more “aggressive” recommendations insofar as questions to ask or the willingness to walk away from some situations. But the perspective is helpful to think about how you present yourself and how you can take control of an interview to present your strengths most effectively without becoming entangled in a debate over technical details or making the mistake of jumping in and solving problems before you know what the interviewer is really looking to solve.

I had the opportunity tonight to ask questions of our Governor and talked at length with the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development afterwords. This clip from NECN features my questions and the responses:

Starting in March 2009, unemployed Massachusetts residents who qualify for premium assistance under the Medical Security Program by having a family income below the 400% Federal Poverty Guidelines level, will be able to continue their health insurance coverage through COBRA with a 93% subsidy. If the full cost of family coverage was $1300 according to the separation/election notice you received, your cost will now be $91.

The Medical security program is reimbursing participants 80% of their costs. The Federal government, through the Economic Stimulus and Recovery Act, is subsidizing COBRA by 65% after March 1. This means the employee will write a check to their employer for 35% of $1300 = $455, then submit a claim to MSP and receive a rebate of $364, making their ultimate net cost $91.

The state policy is described here.

Now there are MANY problems with the administration of unemployment benefits in Massachusetts that I have blogged about here before. I’ll mention those again below with links–this is an email I’ve shared with the Governor’s office and my Representative. So while the policy above is GREAT, I am not saying it will be automatic.

Unemployed residents should file for benefits immediately and apply to the MSP program, then keep up with the application as best they can to ensure they get processed. Follow the links below for more information I’ve written about these topics, but the bottom line is:

Go, in person, to apply for benefits and send in the MSP form ASAP.

For those who want to do something about the frustration and difficulty associated with the process, here is what I propose to the state:

I’ve been blogging about my experiences with the DUA including a number of constructive suggestions. I tweeted about this and @MassGovernor said I should email the suggestions…

1. Change the phone tree to allow re-activation of claims from the menu
2. Determine MSP eligibility at time of filing initial claim.
3. Make health insurance policies that fail to meet minimum creditable standards ILLEGAL to sell in MA.
4. My original post about advice to the unemployed…7 tips

I have heard that DUA has hired more people to process claims on the phone and that eventually, the process will be moved online. But I have also heard from many people struggling with the frustration of not being able to get through to a person. No one was ready for this crisis but I believe efforts are underway to improve the situation.

I was asked to summarize my situation as a potential “human interest” story…so I wrote the following copy. Some of this is clearly redundant with previous blog posts…

Dave Atkins is a veteran of the up and down world of start up companies. Prior to his current job, he worked in Silicon Valley during the dot com bubble bust and as a Director of Engineering, he went through multiple rounds of layoffs, deciding who to layoff and delivering the news–in one case to a returning new mom. But when the economic downturn hit his current company, Dave and his team members faced a sudden rude awakening.

As of early November, the company had funding adequate through May 2009 and began talking to VC firms about another round. But his CEO quickly learned there was no money to be raised. The company decided that in order to preserve any possibility of a future, drastic measures were needed. Nearly all senior personnel–8 out of 17 people–are to be laid off effective December 31.

What’s surprising about these layoffs is how the team continues to work. Dave and another “short termer” were up at 6am last Thursday morning to deploy a major upgrade to the website. As the Technical Operations Manager, Dave is responsible for setting up and transitioning the systems the sole remaining engineer will have to manage. The 3 of 4 technical people to be let go are planning the termination process–how to change passwords, disable accounts, and ensure that the remaining team members are “positioned for success.”

“I can’t deny it’s not weird,” Dave said. “But I think we all feel a certain personal loyalty to one another and we all recognize that this is a business decision that was not easy or made lightly by our CEO. She trusts us to continue functioning as professionals and we respect the choices she made.”

Dave, the sole income earner for a family of 5, is making the most of his time before the layoff. As the company meeting unfolded, Dave began texting his friends on twitter, getting an immediate job lead. That night, he blogged about the start of his job search, optimistically observing that because of his involvement in social networking sites, he knew hundreds of people he could contact now–a far cry from only two years ago when his role had been very isolating in another company. One of his connections is a personal coach who offered him advice and support; another connected him to the Salty Legs Career Club.

Dave balances his “finish up” tasks at work with networking meetings and an all out effort to meet new people and find work. “My employer is very supportive. Our CEO has offered to connect us with anyone she knows and help in any way possible. And if I need to go to a meeting or interview, of course no one is going to question that.”

“This whole experience finally woke me up,” Dave observes. “I should have found a way to be doing this months ago. A career club is much more than a place for job seekers to exchange leads, it’s a mechanism to connect with people outside your company and to develop new leads. I think we all need to stop thinking in terms of “jobs” and start thinking about finding work and connecting with real people in as many channels as possible: social media and face-to-face. No job is ever going to satisfy the many things we want to do in life and working for a single employer is just too risky to do without some kind of network for when the work runs out.”

This economic downturn is different from 2002, especially in the tech/internet space because of how people are responding to it. I was speaking with a reporter from TheStreet.com yesterday who was interviewing me about my layoff situation, and it struck me that perhaps my outlook is not uniquely optimistic, but shared by many others. I’m sure there is plenty of negativity to come and that we are only beginning to experience the disruption, but I know my response has been fundamentally different.

In 2002, the website everyone I knew was following was F*ckedCompany.com. Every day, that website published “insider stories” about the unbelievably idiotic things that were going on in companies. It also served as a bellwether of discontent and early warning of impending layoffs. Companies lived in fear: “I hope we don’t end up on that site!” Employees could not wait to post their stories of incompetent managers, wasteful company largess, and the doom and gloom stories of dotcom bust and failure.

I visited that site just now and, “Pud” reports, the site is “sorta [F'd].” Good. Who’s got time for that kind of self-pitying crap now? I’m sure it’s out there, but it is not what I’m seeing.

In 2008 I see people of all ages networking like crazy, emphasizing their positive aspects, working together to help each other, and being optimistic about the future. Maybe it is driven by Millennial enthusiasm and entrepreneurship, but I see it from my generation (X) as well as we go to networking events, join career clubs, and use social media to connect and learn.

It is early in my own quest and I’m still finishing out my time at work until the official layoff happens. But it feels like a much better world than the last time around. I tell people I see massive disruption…whole industries may be lost and millions will lose the jobs they have today. But this is the moment of change. Books like Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat described how things were going to change and Nicolas Taleb’s The Black Swan warned us that the future would be unpredictable. There will not be a gradual change, an evolution in the way we live and work…instead change is coming in waves we cannot control, but must struggle to navigate as best we can. There is no time to spend worrying or wishing about what might have been. We must embrace the future and make it ours. That is what I see happening.

I had the opportunity to speak with a local reporter about my layoff and search for work. One of his questions was whether I had advice for other people.

I was hesitant. I don’t have a complete success story to tell yet, but I can describe what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I think social media gives us a far more authentic and easier way to establish and maintain a personal network.

A friend asked me if he should “post something on LinkedIn.” As I’ve connected with people I know, I find there are plenty of people who are not on LinkedIn, many who have never heard of twitter, and few who would consider Facebook as part of a job search. So, while I do not have a ready-packaged story of how social media got me a job, I thought it would be helpful to give examples of what I’m doing, on the chance that it would give other people ideas.

Dan Schawbel wrote a great piece a few weeks ago on the real way to get a job using social media that mirrored what I’m already doing. But there is an almost overwhelming amount of such advice out there and I hope that by describing my specific case, it may help people better visualize what they can do…to see the value in these activities…

Let’s start with LinkedIn. There are some great tips at ImOnLinkedInNowWhat, a blog that complements a book, but here’s what I’m discovering…

At a bare minimum, joining LinkedIn will allow you to:

• put a version of your resume online so you can send people a quick link in an email like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/daveatkins
• keep track of co-workers who may change email address/company/etc.
• give you an opportunity to have past and present co-workers write recommendations for you that show up on your profile. Not heavy duty recommendation letters, but just short positive statements…then, other people will see your profile linked in from your friend’s profile.
• allow you to research people you may be interviewing with.

To illustrate this last point, here’s what I did recently: I saw an interesting job that seemed like it might be a good fit on Startuply.com. Before sending in a resume, I looked over the list of founders and searched for their names on LinkedIn. From viewing their public profiles, I could see that one was an MIT alum like me. Then I searched for him on twitter and started “following” him. In addition to sending my resume, I sent a message directly to this person and arranged a phone call–not necessarily to interview for the position, but to connect for networking. When I spoke with him, I had his whole resume in front of me. I also noticed another company he had founded that sounded very interesting…which led to my discovery of BlitzTime.

I did not get the job. But I did make a good connection that led to connections with more resources (see my blog post about BlitzTime). I did not see my phone interview as a defeat, but rather a step in the process. I was learning. I was expanding my knowledge and increasing the probability of finding opportunities.

There are many more uses for LinkedIn…I’ve only scratched the surface here…but my point is to answer the question of “why bother?” and perhaps fire up a little interest in learning more. I too had read advice about using LinkedIn, but I had to take action to start to find value. There is a certain leap of faith and comfort without concrete returns that should be a part of any job search strategy.

The best advice I can give is to stay positive. An article in US News offers 7 Reasons You Won’t Get a Job in 2009, but it’s worth the read to recognize some old ideas that are DOA today. Most of the things they talk about don’t even make sense to me–e.g. who sends copies of “recommendation letters” to a potential employer? But two “mistakes” stood out for the value a positive perspective lends to your efforts:

1. You’re using your connections to find a job. Their point is that that you don’t get a job from your direct connections, so don’t waste your energy there. If your friends have a job for you…you would already know. The point is to use your connections’ connections…to have your friends and colleagues thinking about who they might know who could help you. So when you talk to the people you already know…you ARE NOT begging for a job. You are giving them an opportunity to help you through who THEY know. When you think of it this way, I think it removes a lot of pressure…but it does force you to think of what to tell them so they can effectively help you.
2. You see your job search as personal and private. For many people, being laid off is a personal defeat, an embarrassment. When I had to lay people off in a previous job I told them it was not the same as being fired and that they had done nothing wrong…but I think they thought it was just BS. Others got to stay, so they must have been better. Whatever. We don’t have time for that kind of thinking now. I’m telling everyone who will listen that I was laid off and am looking for work. I say “looking for work” because while I did recraft my resume to empahsize my 13 years of internet technology operations experience, I am also launching an interactive media consulting business and looking for work where I can sustain myself independently.

As you can tell from the links in this post, I’ve spent a lot of time writing. I don’t recommend people start there unless they are already doing it. I’ve been blogging here at DaveWrites for over 2 years and have written probably over 250 thousands words on topics as diverse as religion and economic development. It’s my way of finding structure and purpose to what I feel I must do.

Landing the next gig is all about possibilities. It would be fair to criticize time spent on unproductive tasks, but in previous job searches (albeit where I was already employed and had more time luxury to wait for results), I think I limited myself by some self-analysis. In this quest, I do feel there is not enough time in the day, but I am not at all frustrated–I feel I have a million things to do and try…and of course I will adapt as I go along. The enemy of success here is to cut off possibilities by being prematurely critical. I feel that much of what I’m doing is “building a sail” or a “spreading a net.” I don’t know how a newspaper article about my being laid off will directly translate into opportunity…but it is all part of doing what I can do, utilizing all the tools, resources, skills, people, contacts, connections, and ideas I can to ignite a fire of interest in Dave Atkins.

Update 2/20/09: The policy I purchased, after the long analysis below, turns out to not satisfy the minimum requirements of Massachusetts law. It fails to provide insurance adequate for an individual to avoid paying the penalties Massachusetts imposes on individuals who fail to purchase health insurance. If you are willing to pay those penalties, you might still elect to purchase such a plan.

I have canceled the policy. I am pursuing MSP still but may end up opting out of COBRA now so I can opt-in again in March when the Federal benefit kicks in.

Update 2/19/09: It now appears the benefits provided under the stimulus bill ARE NOT retroactive. This means if you start COBRA coverage on 3/1/09, no problem, you should only have to pay 35%. But if you already paid the full rate for January and February, you are stuck. If you were laid off on 12/31/08, your option to sign up for COBRA expires on 3/1/09, but this bill is supposed to extend your eligibility period. However, the big question is whether, if I elect coverage on 3/1/09, I will pay 35% of March or if I will also be on the hook for $2600 for January and February. It would seem ridiculous to have to pay for coverage I did not use.

Update 2/16/09: The Economic Stimulus Package signed by President Obama includes provisions for the Federal Government to pay 65% of COBRA. This benefit is available for individuals who make up to $125,000/year and families at $250,000. That means, for most unemployed persons with higher base incomes, if they are not eligible for Massachusetts’ 80% coverage, they will be eligible for the Federal subsidy which is better than any private insurance option.

The discussion below remains relevant for the self-employed, but if you can get COBRA under these terms, you are probably better off doing so.

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The most disturbing aspect of being laid off is losing health insurance. I found a solution for my family, and while it is not necessarily for everyone, I wanted to describe it here and help educate others facing similar choices.

Federal law allows you to continue participation in the group coverage you had while employed through COBRA, but:

• It’s expensive. Like ridiculously expensive. Do you realize what health insurance is costing your employer? Well, prepare for a rude awakening when you find that to continue the economy/value plan your employer was purchasing to keep costs down will cost over $1300/month to insure your family.
• If your company goes under, COBRA stops. Yes. If your layoff is a prelude to the company being dissolved, you should realize that when that does happen, you will lose your health insurance.

When you are laid off, you have some breathing room because you have 60 days to elect COBRA, then another 45 days to make the first payment. But this is not helpful, because you will spend those 60 days in an uninsured mindset, especially if you have a family.

The baby has a fever. Is it an ear infection? Do we have any amoxicillin left over from the last time? Let’s try that first. Looks like his eye is getting infected–conjunctivitis again. OK, we have a couple of different types of eyedrops left over; we’ll try the erithromyacin ointment first, then the ciprofloxacin drops. It would be nice to take the baby to the doctor but that $25 visit is going to cost $1325 because once we do it, we will have to elect COBRA. Fortunately, the fever passed and the eyes cleared up. (note: see comment below; I am not recommending this as a course of treatment, just relating my own personal experience.)

Now the kids are vomiting and have diarrhea. Me too. Crap. Well, put them on the BRAT (Banana, Rice, Applesauce, Toast) diet, stock up on Pedialyte, and hope for the best.

Experience has taught us that these situation are not emergencies and even if you go to the doctor, they will just tell you to continue what you are already doing. But when it starts, you don’t know that for sure. And of course, if things did get bad, we’d go to the doctor and be glad we had COBRA. But the uncertainty is maddening.

I wanted to get out of this cycle quickly, so I investigated my options.

Massachusetts Medical Security Program

If your are receiving unemployment, you can apply for the Medical Security Program and, if approved, receive 80% reimbursement for COBRA premiums paid. In my case, this means my expense would become about $260–a pretty good deal, right? OK, but…

Eligibility is based on an annualization of the past 6 months income plus projected income (your unemployment benefits). If you are at the 400% Federal Poverty Guidelines level, you qualify. Most people will qualify, but if you had a six-figure income or did not have a big family of dependents, it could be close. For a family of 5, the maximum income is 99,200. So, you’d have to be making 200K to be completely ineligible.

But am I eligible or not? I spent 30 minutes on hold today waiting for a person to answer the phone and had to give up because someone was calling me about potential work. I think I qualify, but if I don’t, I’m out $1000 or more each month.

How does my freelance income affect my eligibility? I did a project last week that blew away my eligibility for unemployment benefits, but this week, I am probably eligible again. Does my freelance income go into a recalculation of eligibility? I am not comfortable with this level of uncertainty–I suspect I will end up ineligible, but I have to elect COBRA and put $1300 on the table each month, then hope I get reimbursed.

Massachusetts Health Connector

The Massachusetts Health Connector has a website that helps residents find health insurance. If you are poor and not eligible for unemployment, you may be able to take advantage of the Commonwealth Care program (see the Connector website–I could not link to it directly). If you are not eligible for Commonwealth Care, you can use the web-based tool to generate a list of private insurance options.

Most of those options will be less expensive than unsubsidized COBRA, with costs for family coverage ranging from $775 to $1800/month. But at this point you must educate yourself on how health insurance plans work and why the premiums vary so widely.

Why we buy insurance

We buy insurance to manage risk. Risk, in a financial context, is all about timing. For healthy people, it is typically about insuring against catastrophic risk and then managing the timing of unpredictability. But for many insurance products, if the risks are low, what you are essentially doing is “pre-paying” your medical services.

Each month, you pay a premium and co-pays for when you utilize health care. So, for a healthy adult like me, I would pay the premium all year, then a $25 copay for my annual checkup. So that annual checkup really costs many thousand dollars. For the kids, there are more doctor visits, vaccines, well-baby and sick-baby visits, etc. but the bottom line is that for 2009, electing COBRA, I am guaranteed to pay over $15,000. That’s some pretty expensive doctor visits.

Of course there is the chance of catastrophe. That’s what we are really paying for. What if someone has cancer? What if I had a heart attack or stroke? That’s why you CAN’T go naked with no health coverage at all.

The other reason we buy insurance is to get into a negotiated fee network. If you do not have health insurance, doctors and hospitals will charge you many times the rate they charge people with insurance. For those outside the US, perhaps all of this is bizarre, but that’s how it works here. People without insurance who have catastrophic medical problems quickly amass huge medical bills, then make partial payments until they lose their homes to foreclosure and declare bankruptcy.

Deductibles

I was prompted to think about insurance differently because of my review of plans with high deductibles. At first, I thought this was a bad idea…you have to pay out of pocket up to a certain amount. But you are already doing this when you pay that high monthly premium. A component of the premium is really your prepay of a deductible.

I met with Stevn Gubb, an insurance agent from the National Association for the Self-Employed who showed me a plan with a $10,000 deductible and monthly premium under $500. I had some reservations…and found some websites calling such deals scams…but most of the complaints I could find were by people who did not understand how this works or for whom the product was not really appropriate.

If you and your family are healthy–you do not routinely use health care except for scheduled doctor visits–then it does not make sense to pay a high premium to keep your copays low. Why pay $800 a month to save $100? You can absorb a deductible fairly quickly from the savings in premium payments. Another way to think about it, if you are risk averse, is to put aside the difference between a high deductible plan and a no-deductible plan in savings so that when expenses do come up, you have savings to cover it. If the expenses do not materialize, you bank the extra money.

Plans like this give you the two things you need most:

• protection against catastrophe, and
• negotiated fee structure

Now I am not ready to fully recommend this plan because I have not actually used it yet. I don’t know what the actual doctor visits are going to cost when we have to pay for various tests and things that we never saw on the bill before. But I am willing to take the money risk of more expensive doctor visits over the potential failure of the state to pay my COBRA benefits.

Caveats

This type of plan is primarily for the self-employed. In the future, if I take a full-time job with benefits, then I will happily go back to paying $200-300/month for a no-deductible plan. But as I develop my business, I’m seeing many things with a different perspective and I hope I can make this work.

There is no prescription drug benefit. We get a discount card, and I don’t really know exactly what the costs will be, but we are not big drug consumers. I did some price checks on the drugs we have in the house, and it was not bad.

This plan is not for people who have chronic conditions or at risk for developing such conditions. I’ve seen my doctor fewer than 10 times in the past 7 years. I went without health insurance when I was single. Having kids changes things, but they are healthy and do not have any conditions that require monitoring or treatment.

Other Options

Internet Insurance Brokers. When I first started looking, I went to a friend’s website and followed a link to http://www.online-health-insurance.com/ But this is just a marketing vehicle for agents. What happens is you submit your information then random agents start calling you. No thanks.

MSP Direct Coverage. Ari Herzog commented on my post about unemployment with his solution–he was able to demonstrate sufficient need to get direct coverage from the Medical Security Program.

Final Thoughts

This is a big topic and all I can really write about is my experience. I think it was helpful to meet with Steve, a person I knew personally and developed some trust with, before purchasing his plan. Time will tell whether the plan gives us what we need, but it is our best effort to manage these risks and control costs.

Massachusetts has some of the best social insurance programs of any state, but a confusing array of choices and misinformation makes it impossible for many to get the help they need. The process is needlessly complicated, but could be fixed with a checkbox.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about what I’ve learned about the process of collecting unemployment in Massachusetts. I followed that up with a post about my decision to purchase high-deductible health insurance instead of paying for COBRA.

That plan went awry when I discovered that the insurance policy the agent sold me failed to meet minimum creditable coverage standards in Massachusetts. He refunded my money, but somehow, these policies remain legal to be sold in Massachusetts. Families who purchase such policies will be required to pay the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a penalty that could exceed $1000 when they file their taxes next year.

Since I was laid off on New Year’s Eve, my family has postponed our 1 and 3-year old’s annual checkups. Last week the entire family was sick with a wheezing cough and nasty cold. If we had been covered by health insurance, we would have paid the $25 co-pay to obtain a little peace of mind. Happily everyone is improving.

Instead of going to the doctor, I spent hours on the phone trying to find out if we were eligible for assistance in paying the $2624 worth of premiums for January and February COBRA. Although I had applied for the coverage in anticipation of my layoff, my application was never processed and eventually lost. An agent qualified me today in about an hour. I also wasted an entire evening being sold a bogus insurance policy and then undoing it. Instead of looking for work and concentrating on the part time work I have found, I spun myself into a fury of frustration against a backdrop of unhappy housebound kids.

All of this could have been easily avoided.

Eligibility for the Massachusetts Medical Security Program is based on income–the past 6 months plus a projection of the next six months. All of this information is available at the time an unemployment claim is filed. In fact the benefits determination that calculates your weekly benefit must verify your salary history. The weekly benefit amount is, presumably your only income source at the time you file your initial claim. Why not add a checkbox: “Apply for Health Care Assistance” to the form?

In fact, because Massachusetts requires residents to maintain health coverage, why make it an option at all? For laid off workers who qualify for MSP Premium assistance, especially those who have families, why not require us to declare our health insurance choice as a condition of benefits? Health insurance is a fundamental requirement. No public purpose is served by giving laid off workers a choice of doing nothing and hoping for the best.

When I filed my initial claim for unemployment, I watched dumbfounded as nearly everyone in the room filled out tax witholding forms to request Massachusetts withold income tax from their unemployment benefits. I plan to file quarterly–there is no reason to give back any cash until absolutely necessary. Instead of witholding taxes, we should be witholding health insurance premiums and ensuring that laid off workers do not go without coverage.

I’m not asking for increased benefits. I’m just asking that the system be made to work.

This is not a blog about unemployment. But many laid-off individuals have told me they found my posts helpful, and I hope that has made things slightly better for them. I want to illustrate another problem and solution here that I hope gets the attention of someone who can do something about it…

This morning, I recorded one of the half-dozen calls I made to the Department of Unemployment Assistance to re-open my claim. The problem is, when you call the DUA, you get a message that says they are too busy to take your call. That wouldn’t be so annoying if it did not come 3 minutes into each call, after you have punched your way through a phone tree of questions and typed in AND CONFIRMED your social security number and year of birth. Listen to the call to see what I mean.

Legal note: It is a crime to record any conversation, whether oral or wire, without the consent of all parties in Massachusetts. The phone call above was never answered;I would have terminated the recording had a person answered. An unanswered phone call is not a conversation; there is no person’s privacy to violate, and no intent to record a conversation, since the entire purpose was to document the automated system.

For a person who is trying to file a claim over the phone, this is what they must deal with. I’m not exaggerating when I say I called them 4 times today, 3 times yesterday, and several times the day before.

Apparently, the 4th try was the charm this morning…I was then greeted by “the average wait time now 42 minutes.” About 42 minutes later (at least the system is accurate!) I got through to a person. The conversation when something like this:

Me: Hi, I need to reopen an existing claim.

DUA: I see you had income last week. Did you work for someone or are you self-employed?

Me: Self-employed.

DUA: Ok, your claim is now re-opened. You can file tomorrow online.

Me: Thank you.

I’ve got a novel idea. How about adding this to the phone tree of questions. “Press 1 to re-open your claim.” Or, even more radical, how about modifying the online process to allow submitting the information online?

An even better idea would be for the Commonwealth to hire me as a CIO for resolving some of these issues. I KNOW the problem is not technical; it would not take an MIT engineer to figure out how to optimize the process. But someone needs to want it badly enough to push through the bureaucracy and make small improvements here and there–to look at this from the perspective of the people using the system, and realize that it’s not just about making my filing easier, it’s about getting me off hold so other people with more urgent claims can get through.

Here’s my updated resume.

This article provides advice and tips for residents of Massachusetts who are unemployed. It is the most popular post on my blog. Please read the related posts in the category “Navigating Unemployment” and the comments below.

Please consult the Mass.Gov website for improved information regarding unemployment benefits.

No legal advice. This blog post relates my experience only and the information I researched in January 2009. I have attempted to keep it current, but no one should rely on this blog post as legal advice.

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Rachel Levy and I have both been blogging about our searches for work. If you know anyone looking for a marketing professional, please go visit her site and hire her. My blog is not only about looking for work–check out the archive to see the breadth of things I’ve covered in the past two years…but today, I want to talk unemployment.

The Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance website has a great deal of information, but there is very little to answer the specific questions real job seekers have and no way to actually do anything of value there. Once you have filed your initial claim, you will be able to go online to file your weekly claim. But in the beginning, there are so many simple, basic things they do not tell you. So I’m going to list what I’ve learned here and invite people to comment and fill in the details…

Top 7 Tips for the Unemployed in Massachusetts

My purpose here is not to tell you how to find a job. It’s just about the hoops you need to jump through to get the insurance benefits you are entitled to receive while you are looking for work. I recommend you just do these things and don’t get hung up on lots of questions or debates about why the system is the way it is. We have a pretty good deal in Massachusetts compared to other states, so check your attitude at the door and don’t let the bureaucracy and cesspool of negativity you may encounter distract you from finding a job.

1. Go stand in line. Or, more accurately, sit in your car holding a number. Do not bother with the phone; it is busy. There is no way to register online and no forms to print out. So rather than call and wait on hold for hours, what you should do it go down to your local “walk in center” in the middle of the day and ask them when the line forms, then come back the next day at 7am or so to get a number. Then go get a coffee from Dunkin Donuts and come back at the right time. Make sure you bring all the information you will need to fill out the form. When I filed my claim, the center was experimenting with a group filing approach; we all filled out our forms together and I was out of the building within half an hour. Then, later that day, I received a call from the intake person to confirm he had registered me in the system. Easy. Painless. No frustration.

It would be nice if the form were online so I could fill it out in advance, submit it online, or even just mail it in. It seems ridiculous to have to stand in line to get a form that you fill out and hand to a person, then leave.

2. File your Medical Security Program application ASAP. If you are receiving unemployment benefits, you may be eligible to participate in the Medical Security Program. Download the application form, fill it out, and send it in before you file your initial claim. If you are eligible, MSP will reimburse you 80% of your COBRA premium up to a monthly maximum of $1080 for a family plan or $440 for an individual plan. My COBRA plan would cost me $1312.92 per month for Blue Cross HMO Blue Enhanced Value.

Are you eligible? Probably, especially if you have kids. But the determination of eligibility is complicated so rather than try to figure it out, just get the application completed and filed ASAP along with any required supporting materials…like the letter you need your wife to write saying she is a stay at home mom.

Download the brochure and application form and read them carefully. The website itself does not give the details you need. But get the application in so have it ready if you need it. If you fail to submit the application right away and find you need health care, the state will not pay retroactively; a friend I know is already in for $2600+ with the state refusing to reimburse the COBRA payments he made before his application was processed. You can file an appeal–another great use of your time when you could be looking for a job.

3. Wait for your first unemployment check to arrive before you try to call MSP. I burned through 45 minutes of cell phone time (I do not have a land line) before I got to a person who said she could not help me until I had received my first check. It will probably be a month before you get a check and maybe 6 weeks before you learn anything about MSP. In the meantime, you will be hoping you don’t get sick, avoiding going to the doctor, and not electing to use your COBRA “benefits.” You have 2 months from the date you are laid off to elect COBRA and it can be retroactive. So, if you have an emergency, you go to the doctor then pay COBRA.

If you do qualify for MSP, you will have to front the money for COBRA premiums and get reimbursed. And I do not know how part time work affects your eligibility for participation in MSP, but I suspect it is not good.

Please see my more recent posts on health care

4. The Commonwealth Care program is irrelevant to you. If you are eligible for MSP + COBRA, you are not eligible for Commonwealth Care. You can use the Commonwealth Connector web site to shop for private insurance, but you will not get the low-cost or free health care that is available for people who did not just lose their jobs. It is interesting to note that this site shows me many options cheaper than COBRA, but none as good as the NASE plan.

5. If you find part-time or consulting work…manage your time strategically. It is a crime to fail to report that you worked and earned money while unemployed, and you are allowed a pittance of earning (1/3 of your benefit amount, e.g. a couple hundred bucks), but what typically happens is if you make any significant money, you lose your benefit for that week. So if you do manage to find some freelance work, make sure you do it all in one week. Don’t do something foolish like work 10 hours a week for 4 weeks. Schedule your work so that if you have a 40-hour project, you can do it all in one week.

6. Stay positive. It is easy to get upset when you are on hold forever and then the phone hangs up on you or the person who answers refuses to help you. It is frustrating to click on website links that claim to give you information on how to apply…but then don’t link to the forms. And it is terribly frustrating to listen to repeated hold messages telling you to go to the website…when the website is telling you that you have to call the phone number. But just do what you need to do and get back on track looking for a job!

7. Don’t feel like a scumbag. I try to laugh at the movie Office Space and recall the line from one worker who is afraid of being laid off:

I’m going to be the first one they’re gonna lay off. Just the thought of having to go to the State Unemployment Office and having to stand in line with those scumbags!!!

There is no shame in collecting unemployment. We’ve been paying into the system for years–or at least our employers have been paying for us. It is social insurance, designed to cover just this situation. It’s not a government handout.

In the 1930s, perhaps our grandparents gave up their dreams to provide for their families during the Great Depression…they put their college degrees away and found jobs doing laundry or whatever it took to keep their families fed. There was no safety net and dreams were deferred out of necessity. But that generation enacted social protections to help prevent that kind of thing from happening again. For a few minutes, the lucky among us who had good jobs, stand in line with the laborers and attorneys, ironworkers and accountants, in these challenging times, and focus on building a better future with a least a few months protection from losing our homes and freezing in the cold because we were only a paycheck away from disaster. If there are some hoops we must navigate, we do it, and we move on.

If you have specific, useful tips on what people should do to make their experience with the Unemployment Insurance go more smoothly or constructive suggestions for how to improve the way these services are delivered, please comment here. Don’t post links to business opportunities. Even if they are well-intentioned, I will delete anything that is not directly relevant to the topic of navigating the unemployment bureaucracy.

I need your help to find a new job. Confronted with the nonexistence of venture capital funding in our troubled economy, my company has made the understandable and right decision to cut staff down to the core contributors who will execute on the plan and vision our team built. I have been here before.

There is a certain clarity when the “what ifs” go away. Even though it is unpleasant, I find myself in the same personal calculus our company faced. There are many things I could do. I am fortunate to have skills and potential–and a broad range of experience that, in times of stability, can be overwhelming as to “what should I be doing?” But now, with at least the warning of 5 weeks to work with, it’s not so much about what do I want to do with the rest of my life, but what can I do that people want to pay me for and hire me in a job that includes health care for my family and enough money to cover the mortgage?

There are two types of opportunities that I will pursue:

First is the role of early-stage startup technology leader. I can do whatever it takes to get a company online with its technology. I am fearless and stubborn in my assault of challenges. I have a strong intuitive sense of the path that works and teach myself whatever it takes to get there. That sounds like vague generalities and it will certainly not cause me to be found in a resume database search, but I have found again and again there is some combination of optimistic high-level strategic thinker and pessimistic operations admin that allows me to know what details to sweat and have faith that we can get it done.

The second is strategic consulting. You can read my blog and understand that I can synthesize ideas well. I can write a good story and frame the issues decisively whether it be technology-oriented (e.g. how to develop a social media strategy) or economic development, public policy, book reviews, etc. So I will be looking for opportunities to analyze and recommend solutions–and I have the skills to implement those solutions.

But option 2 is not “fully-baked” is it? So I think we are back to option 1, really. The bad part about option 1 for me is that it really is for “early-stage” companies…and once I have things set up…it is time to move on to new challenges.

My current employer is typical of that pattern–we have a technology infrastructure in place that could be left on auto-pilot for years. My contribution is done. I don’t engineer job security; I engineer for unpredictability and do what works.

At my previous employer, QuitNet, it was a similar story…we had the operations managed…then what? The “what” for me was to start a blog on economic development. But those pesky bills keep coming…

At ConsumerReview, I could have stayed on board, but I had found a new job just in time. When I left, the work of a department was handled by 1 person.

I’m not trying to brag or complain, but to describe the role I fit well. My resume will not show 5-10 years of specialized expertise–it is always zero to sixty in a few weeks–and I thrive on that. In my current job, when I was interviewing, I sold them on my “swiss-army knife” skill set and they entrusted me to manage some linux servers–I had not touched linux in nearly a decade. Two years later and I’m ready to buy an “I love vi” t-shirt. And I leave behind a wiki full of detailed instructions on how to do everything I learned.

One thing is different for me from the last time I went looking for a job. I know people now. My job at QuitNet was a bit isolating…or maybe I just didn’t make any real effort to go out beyond my role there. I hadn’t started blogging and I knew maybe 2 people outside of work. Today, I know hundreds of people from many walks of life. I really believe my biggest challenge is how to describe the role I am looking for in a way that people can help me. So this blog post is a start. And the war begins in earnest on Monday.