Unchanging state of affairs

I don't want to dwell on this topic, but just recently I saw new facts, new evidence, explanations, just what I need to explain the inexplicable situation I find myself in. Even something like an apology. But an apology in front of who? This excuse does nothing for me personally. But it needs to be recorded, noted, archived, just like any important evidence of something. And as I said, I haven't written with a pen and hand in my diary for so many years, so here is the place for this note. Perhaps of something that is of utmost importance only to me.

Not too long ago, I don't remember when exactly, maybe last winter, I saw a job advertisement published in a local media, advertised in the employment office. The position referred to the historical museum and was some sort of auxiliary, assistant, administrative, secretarial, I don't remember anymore. Maybe I forgot it on purpose, because the rejection about it was strange, awkward and quite unexpected.

I opened the ad several times and read it. I was assured explicitly by the employment office in the city that I would not be able to find a job in the region that would suit me. And even if I find something, the salary or something else will be the problem. I think in this particular case it would be the salary. An aide position at a small-town history museum tends toward minimum wage.
But I read and read the offer, thought about it, and still thought it wouldn't be a bad idea if we met the director of the museum, who we happen to know, more my partner than I do.

I remember we even met her by chance somehow on the steps of the museum, she was in a hurry, I told her that I wanted to ask her about this position and maybe that's when she decided that she was in a hurry, lol.

Actually, I don't remember exactly that, but I do remember how she changed her attitude and demeanor when I mentioned the position and the job posting - about a person who would report directly to herself.

I think she needed a split second to think about what to say and how to present things, but in her haste she somehow got confused and it was the first time I've seen this otherwise self-controlled woman act like this.

She first asked me the ridiculous question of whether I even had a university degree for asking about this position. I guess she was hoping I'd say I didn't and that would be the end of the matter. But this question was so unexpected for me that I even took offense. I couldn't understand how this woman could think I had no education. I didn't think at all that this was just a way to end the conversation, a hope for that, however unfounded.

I told her, "Of course I have a university education."

"Well, ok then, the position is already taken," she shot back, and that was where the conversation really ended.

Then in a second she started asking other questions, turned directly to my partner, ignoring me, making it clear that the point was final.

I did not try to resume the subject, but the feeling was strange, everything was somehow rather cloudy, unclear, inexplicable - her whole, as if worried, demeanor.

I was standing in front of this woman, taking in her appearance as she faced my partner, and wondering what was going on. I didn't pay much attention to how she was dressed, but her rigged handbag made an impression on me. And I wondered why a person in her position does not carry not expensive, but just new and neat handbags. She is the director not only of the historical museum, but also of the art gallery and several other local state institutions.

But the mysteries here really have no end.🤷‍♀️😂

So when we left and I asked my partner: "What the hell is going on here?", he said: "Didn't you realize that this ad was only pro forma, the place had long been taken?"

Honestly, I couldn't figure it out just from one inadequate behavior. Maybe because then, for the first time in my life, I had consciously encountered this - to come across a job advertisement that is for a real position, but already occupied.
It wasn't until later, when I subsequently applied for multiple positions, and was never even called back for an interview, or told I didn't fill out anything on my tests, or otherwise rejected, that I became aware of these proforma hollow job postings again, behind which there is nothing.

And so we come to the present day (again after the long backstory 😄) when I saw an article with information from the labor office of the district, larger city nearby, where there were vacancies for teachers that were not filled 10 days before the school year started.

I'm not interested in the teaching profession, but all local job news directly concerns me, and this article had more than 40 comments from local people below, and this was actually the most important thing to read. And all the local people had written the same thing: "Don't lie to the people and don't give them any hope of employment when these places are already long taken. The same applies to kindergartens. Even cleaners there get jobs with connections and normal/casual people can't get such jobs."

---

---

---

Here I already needed time to make sense of what I had read. Probably you too.

The teaching profession in Bulgaria is not particularly desirable. I recently spoke with an acquaintance who is younger than me, she was a teacher of Bulgarian language and literature for a short time, and she said that she just couldn't last much longer from a mental point of view. This profession is not for everyone. Or maybe the conditions in the country make it not for everyone.
On the other hand, perhaps it turns out that it is still for everyone, after the positions are settled, reserved, for certain people with connections to other certain people. They are unlikely to be the greatest talents and most capable people, if they were, perhaps there would be no need to reserve seats for them.

But think about the other thing - the employment office advertises positions that must be advertised there by law - those that are sponsored by the state budget, long-term positions. These positions are always arranged in advance. Everyone knows that. It is visible, it is obvious. I have thousands of examples of this that I could give. Every government institution where things are supposedly not working is full of such people - people appointed with connections. People who do not understand anything about their work, people who do not even want to learn, you know what the mentality of such people could be, who think that everything is allowed to them, especially not to work.

The images of so many people can pop into my mind - the well-groomed chicks in the main administration of the National Health Fund, who are in charge of relations/documents with other countries, who could not translate a word of German and refused to recognize my insurances for a few years abroad, the head of the office of a regional branch of the national revenue agency, who talked complete nonsense to me, utter falsehoods about several matters I tried to discuss with him a few months ago, why not the emergency operator of the water supply company that I told you about in the previous post. All these people are appointed with connections, an absolute lack of competence, even of desire to work. And you know, as I told you in the last post - this is my insight into the whole state of affairs in the country, that's why things are not working. There is no way they can work since these people are everywhere, everywhere in state institutions where other people depend on them, on their incompetence and unwillingness to work.

Posting such ads, on the other hand, is inhumane, believe me. Giving this false hope, which then turns out to be a lie, is not correct, not human, moral and everything. I say this as someone who has already been in this situation, as a person who has experienced it, realized it and made sense of it.

And can I find a job in the region? I think the answer is more than clear, now definitively. And that needed to be written down. Final.

Thank you for your time! Copyright:	@soulsdetour
	Soul's Detour is a project started by me years ago when I had a blog about historical and not so popular tourist destinations in Eastern Belgium, West Germany and Luxembourg. Nowadays, this blog no longer exists, but I'm still here - passionate about architecture, art and mysteries and eager to share my discoveries and point of view with you.

Personally, I am a sensitive soul with a strong sense of justice.
Traveling and photography are my greatest passions.
Sounds trivial to you?
No, it's not trivial. Because I still love to travel to not so famous destinations.🗺️
Of course, the current situation does not allow me to do this, but I still find a way to satisfy my hunger for knowledge, new places, beauty and art.
Sometimes you can find the most amazing things even in the backyard of your house.😊🧐🧭|