Online Teachers and Cash Issues

Online Teachers Keep the Cash Coming In

The Traveling Online Teacher recently ran across a document that he wants every Online Teacher to read and digest. It is simply amazing that an educated American could not know that he or she had been laid off from an academic job, but just such an instance is documented in Ethnography of an Unemployed Ph.D. by Kristen Wallingford.

Online Teachers May Need This Cash

Dr. Wallingford finished a two-year academic contract in 1994. The good Dr. found herself without a job, but she was unaware that she had been laid off, according to the definition provided by Department of Labor, and did not know she could apply for and collect unemployment benefits. The Traveling Online Teacher is simply floored by such ignorance.

It does not matter why Wallingford did not possess this information; what is important is that you, an Online Teacher, possess this information. There is no reason for you to do without at least some income if your online teaching contracts are not renewed. Please do your homework!

Online Teachers Can Collect Unemployment Benefits

The Traveling Online Teacher recommends Unemployment Benefits as a necessary resource in every Online Teachers financial tool belt. Since the economy is going through some sort of seizure now, it vitally important to understand how to protect one’s income.

Please don’t be lulled into thinking you can’t find yourself laid off just because you have an education. It can happen.

Wallingford kindly supplies the following links for further reading about Unemployment benefits:

http://chronicle.com/jobs/2004/09/2004092301c.htm

http://www.dol.gov/dol/location.htm

In addition, here is a very interesting thread that discusses adjuncts and unemployment benefits:

http://chronicle.com/colloquy/2004/10adjuncts/

Online Teachers May Be Surprised

Please understand that Online Adjuncts are viewed in the same light as on-ground adjuncts. If your contract has come to an end, and you do not have another contract in hand, then you are laid off. In fact, even if you have been promised another contract, there is every reason to believe your contract can be canceled simply because a full-time faculty member wants your promised class in order to make the extra money needed for the payment on a new car. Online Adjuncts and on-ground adjuncts are not employed until the day they start teaching class. It is that simple.

Please take the time out of your busy schedule to investigate the Unemployment Benefits available to you as an Online Teacher in your state now.