Life in the Time of Coronavirus
I’ve Been Applying for Unemployment for a Month and Can’t Get Through
Kathleen Mills has been navigating Florida’s unemployment bureaucracy since March 19. She’s still on hold.
Life in the Time of the Coronavirus is a GEN series where we are interviewing people across the country who have had their lives upended or are experiencing the stress of the unknown.
Kathleen Mills, 61, was laid off on March 17 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Her 20-year-old son is in college, and her husband is currently on disability while awaiting back surgery. For the past month, Mills has been trying without luck to file for unemployment benefits in the state of Florida.
I turned 61 five days after I was laid off. I had a really good-paying job at a small company that had a contract with the Orange County Convention Center. Whenever a big convention or trade show would come in, I sold the big digital signage in the center. But there is no job if there are no events.
I was one of the first people to be let go because of the type of industry I was in. On March 16, I got an email from my home office that they needed me to come over the next day at 4 p.m. That is never good. We were already…
