I will not be making a discovery by saying that the major problem facing Armenia is unemployment. Unemployment has negative consequences economically, socially and psychologically. My goal is not to clarify all that, but rather, to do something else. However, at the same time, I am trying to connect that with the unemployment issue. Some people are forced to drawback from any opportunity in order to find a job, while others, or the so-called “companies”, try to find something useful.
The bait
So, you- the unemployed- start to find a job and one way of doing that is to follow up on the ads in the newspaper. For example, you read “Gind”. You focus on the most suitable job position in order to save time. That position reads as follows: “The company (in some cases “foreign” and “international”-B.T.) is hiring (or collaborating with -B.T.) smart people (in some cases you may read requirements such as educated, serious, progressive, literate, smart, etc.-B.T.). Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion and according to that person, he or she has all the requirements. So, you meet the requirements. There are also two other unimportant requirements. “Knowledge of Russian and university education are preferable.” You seem to be interested, especially when reading the follow up: ”hours are flexible and salary is high”. Where can you find something more suitable? What do you need to do? Of course, you have to pick up the phone and dial the number..
Body-1
Somebody from the other end picks up the phone and says the following after hearing you ask whether or not they were the ones who put the job position in the newspaper. “Yes, what do you want?” Perhaps it sounds like nonsense; however, the thing is that you may find the same announcement of the same job in different parts of the newspaper. The only difference is that there are different names next to each telephone number. It turns out that that name is very important. You will find out why later. You obviously ask what kind of job it is. The speaker may answer in the following way: ”information office”, or to be more honest ”network marketing”. It sounds appealing but at the same time incomprehensible. You want to know the job description, as well as know some things about the pay. You find out that the telephone conversation ends here. ”If you would like to know more about the job, please come to the office.” You think to yourself perhaps it is not worth it, but in order to evade uncertainties, you go…
Body-2
You enter the ”office”, which is not really big. There are some tables and some people sitting behind the tables. Those people are explaining some things to the unemployed sitting in front of them. They send you to the exact person who you talked to on the telephone. After greeting each other, you regret that you left your house. They tell you a history of some foreign organization, its successes, the biography of the ”successful” owners ( through the use of old, used catalogs) and products. Those products are usually cosmetics and/or medicine. They prefer to not use the word medicine because the requirements for that are pretty strict in our country. They mainly state that the products are ecologically clean and the majority of them is prepared by plants. Then they start to praise the plants, how good it is, where it grows (let’s say the tops of Tibet), how suitable it is, helpful…in a word, something like “immortal water”. Although you know that “immortal water” only exists in fairy tales, you keep your doubts to yourself and ask what your job is going to be. Here, the praise starts again, but this time, they are praising them. They try to prove how kind they are, how much they think about people, how much they care for their health and work for them so that they can help them understand what is good for them (now do you understand the meaning of “information office”?) They make it clear to you that your job will strictly be to do what they do and that is to “inform people”, but in our opinion, it is more like “ironing” people’s brains and selling them products. Basically, you have to become a seller, praise somebody’s “immortal water” and at the same time, include others (it would be better to say enlist) just like they include you. As for the salary, it follows a procedure: the company sells you the product at a discount (a big discount ranging from 30-40%) and the more you sell, the more money you receive. If you include others and they include their friends, then….maybe I should just make a reference to their expression which would seem to fit in their missionary propaganda. “It’s great, it’s interesting…in the end you will be a millionaire!” By now it is clear as to why they ask who you want to talk to. It is so that they know who has enlisted you. After all the abovementioned, they consider their work done and stare at your face with an interrogative look.
Culmination
How about you? Of course, this is not what you were expecting. You blame yourself for wasting your time and coming here in the first place, however, being the courteous person that you are, you respond by saying that you will think about it. This is so you can leave the office as soon as you can. This, of course, disappoints your “curator” a little, who was talking for half an hour without giving you a chance to talk about yourself, to let him know about your abilities and level of intelligence. The interviewer takes down your data, telephone number and before saying “good bye”, he simply “reminds” you that if you agree to join, you will have to bring a passport because the company will have to sign a contract with you. Here is where you find out what’s most interesting about the interview…the corner-stone for the contract is that you have to pay a fee for starters (the amount ranges from $50-350 in different companies), get the necessary brand name product, after which you may be considered a worker…Have you ever heard of someone who gets employed and has to pay a fee for getting a salary? If there were still some doubts up until now, this last “discovery” makes everything clear. You leave knowing that at least you are familiar with similar “workplaces” and will never make that mistake again. Keep you head up and move on.
Conclusion
Now let’s get serious. How important is the problem at hand? First of all, it is important in that these types of organizations have increased in number. Out of the 180 announcements seen in the newspaper, 65 are similar to this and the number of people who go after the bait is pretty large. Another important thing is that most of these companies are not even registered. For two days, we were trying to find the name of one of the company owners or talk with him, but the workers did not give us the opportunity and acted like watchdogs. It is quite possible that they don’t know or there is no owner at all. We only found out that one of the companies is a Chinese company, better yet, the Yerevan branch of the Chinese company’s Moscow branch. When we talk about consequences, we must first mention the health factor. I don’t wish to state the name of the company that we have talked about in order to not lower its “reputation”. I can only say that they don’t sell their products at drugstores, but wherever else they can. I don’t want to state the name of the product, but what I can say is that it is not registered in the Drug Agency of the Republic of Armenia. According to the vice-director of this agency Lilit Ghazaryan, there is no legislation in this field. These companies sell their product as an extra biological drug and registration is unnecessary. All the company has to do is receive a “hygienic certificate” from the Ministry of Health in order to sell its product. The “company” workers claim that if the product is not sold in drugstores, then they just falsify. They raise their reputation; after all, they are only falsifying the products that are accepted by the people, trusted products in high demand. In this case, we don’t know whether or not that plant is grown on the tops of Tibet, or near someone’s property. However, even if it is “from Tibet”, that does not mean that you have to believe that. There are many examples of negative consequences (especially with drugs that make someone get thinner). The reason that we evade drugstores is because illegal sale of products is revealed after check-up. So, I recommend people to find out whether or not the drug is registered in the Drug Agency and if it has a hygienic certificate before using any drug.