Being unemployed - share your pain

[Thanatos]

Being unemployed is not just a practical issue like you can't pay your bills etc. It also causes emotional distress. You feel like you're burdened with a million cares, yet society feels like you're the burden, the leech. People take you for granted, think you're dumb or worthless, order you around.

People make you feel guilty (as if it's your fault that you're not working). Especially in primitive societies (where I come from).......At least in 'enlightened' societies (like Scandinavia) people are going to be more understanding, more mature - plus there is social security.

Point is, we all experience life differently. Even working a s****y job may give one a sense of satisfaction, some worth.

[Sinister Intents]

I'd hire any of you comrades! Then we could immediately turn the business into a co op if we get enough workers! An entirely communist business co op!

[sosolo]

I was unemployed for a year and a half and, although I did receive unemployment insurance, it was hard for me psychologically. People, at least here in the states, are constantly asking, "What do you do?", and it gets tedious saying that you're "between jobs".

After about a year, I became frightened of going back to work, and doubted my own ability to work full time. Now I have a job that I enjoy, for the most part, even though I CAN'T STAND the company for which I work. But that fear is still very real in my memory.

--sosolo

[tallguy]

I was unemployed for a year and a half and, although I did receive unemployment insurance, it was hard for me psychologically. People, at least here in the states, are constantly asking, "What do you do?", and it gets tedious saying that you're "between jobs".

After about a year, I became frightened of going back to work, and doubted my own ability to work full time. Now I have a job that I enjoy, for the most part, even though I CAN'T STAND the company for which I work. But that fear is still very real in my memory.

--sosolo
You keep your chin up mate. That fear has been planted there by design by a shitty system that needs to keep you and me in a constant state of fear. They have us by the balls and that's a fact. Don't let the fuckers have you by the mind as well.

[Ele'ill]

With the trend being hiring temp or part time only, or full time with weekly drop offs in hours, I finally got a job that's 40/w with a set schedule at state minimum wage but the work closes in the summer and winter for several months/weeks. Try affording an apartment with that. Will they rehire once work resumes? Nobody knows for sure until they get the call.

[Decolonize The Left]

I'm sitting on over 15 outstanding applications and resumes dropped off at restaurants. This waiting is tiring.

[Landsharks eat metal]

I've never actually had a job and I'm almost too terrified to even look for one because I'm not sure if I'm "good enough", whatever the hell that means. But at the same time, I really need one so I can get the fuck out of the shelter. As much as I pretend I'm making progress, I'm really not doing much at all. I guess the shitty situation I'm in is mostly my fault...

[RedAnarchist]

I left university in 2008 and didn't have a job until the summer of 2012, and even then it's just a part-time job. I felt bad about being a leech on other working class people, but having a job just solidified my leftist mindset even more.

[Thanatos]

Thanks, everyone. Really appreciate it.

The only good thing I can think of in my (nonwestern) culture is that one can fall back upon family. Unlike western cultures, there is no pressure to leave home, stand on your own feet, etc. One can stay with parents even after getting old - no stigma. It is normal here. So at least financially, there will be one less problem, although the emotional disturbance is always there (cuz people may gossip etc.)

[human strike]

Thanks, everyone. Really appreciate it.

The only good thing I can think of in my (nonwestern) culture is that one can fall back upon family. Unlike western cultures, there is no pressure to leave home, stand on your own feet, etc. One can stay with parents even after getting old - no stigma. It is normal here. So at least financially, there will be one less problem, although the emotional disturbance is always there (cuz people may gossip etc.)

I don't think there's that much emphasis on independence from family in western culture. Look at Italy, for example, where it's not uncommon for men to live with their mothers well into their late twenties. Perhaps it varies a lot across cultures within the West though.

I've been unemployed since graduating last summer. To be honest I've had no money problems and I've enjoyed it and am dreading the day when being on the dole becomes unbearable due to the hassle I'll receive from the job centre (I've been signing on since the beginning of November).

[Thanatos]

I don't think there's that much emphasis on independence from family in western culture. Look at Italy, for example, where it's not uncommon for men to live with their mothers well into their late twenties. Perhaps it varies a lot across cultures within the West though.

I've been unemployed since graduating last summer. To be honest I've had no money problems and I've enjoyed it and am dreading the day when being on the dole becomes unbearable due to the hassle I'll receive from the job centre (I've been signing on since the beginning of November).

Yeah, I understand, but over there at least it's possible because of the economy. Here, being a populated place and low wages, even highly educated/qualified people may find it hard to make it on their own. That's when family comes in handy, but of course it depends on how cooperative they are.

[Tenka]

I have never been employed and am technically unemployable (uneducated, unambiguously queer, disabled though I just look extremely clumsy at the present stage). I do a lot of housework, which is quite under-appreciated, and I write stuff, which is taxing even as it is unpublishable; I technically do a lot of work, but not any of it pays.

To survive, I leech off my mother's shitty wage. I feel well entitled to benefits and shit, but I don't get any (application is a hassle as I recall, and mother's too lazy to help with it; I should probably refresh my memory about the process before mother drops dead from being old and morbidly obese).

[motion denied]

I'm generally a leech too.

I used to "work" in some bureaucratic bullshit at uni. I stopped when it begun to get in the way of my studies.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

I gave up applying for jobs through university - for starters I'm not exactly starving or freezing on my maintainence grant and mostly it's a surprising amount of hassle trying to get a job

[Anti-Traditional]

Being unemployed ain't fun. It makes you feel like 'scum'. Not knowing what to say when someone asks you 'soo...what do you do?' is horrible, especially when you see their reaction. Hearing people telling you to 'just get a job' makes you feel worthless and inadequate and a leech on society whom everyone would be better off without. If your a young person then not working makes you feel like a child, and if your a man you feel like 'less of a man'. Stuff like gambling and drug dealing and shoplifting all appear as logical options.

Obviously none of these feelings are logical, but this is my experience.

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

When you're unemployed, you're no one. That's made quite clear by society. So while I was unemployed, looking back, the way I dealt with it was by not letting my goal of getting a wage share from and place in society be obstructed by any of the chauvinist and hate filled slanders about the unemployed. The only way possible for me to meet the systematic prejudice and remain completely unreactive and unprovoked was by cutting off my emotions when around anyone that does not have a scientific understanding of our society, that means practically everyone. That's how I dealt with it, not letting other people access your full human quality. Maybe that's the wrong way to handle it, who knows. I can afford a car now, hopefully can get to a better job somewhere else then. For those of us who have gotten out of the hole, it's our responsibility and in our strength now as humans with "status" to denounce any such slanders against our unemployed colleagues.

[Zukunftsmusik]

People make you feel guilty (as if it's your fault that you're not working). Especially in primitive societies (where I come from).......At least in 'enlightened' societies (like Scandinavia) people are going to be more understanding, more mature - plus there is social security.

Sorry to break it to you, but in the "enlightened" Scandinavia unemployed are viewed as leeches too. (not speaking from personal experience, rather from the sickening climate in the public debates in newspapers, internet etc.)

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

funnily enough the sole formally employed person in my house is the lowest fucking leeching scumbag I've ever met, it takes months to get bill money out of him and he blames everything, anything on anyone else from leaving all the lights on all the way to casually using other people's stuff. Utter piece of shit.

E:

he's a radiohead fanboy as well which is unrelated but seriously

[Thanatos]

Sorry to break it to you, but in the "enlightened" Scandinavia unemployed are viewed as leeches too. (not speaking from personal experience, rather from the sickening climate in the public debates in newspapers, internet etc.)

Are you serious? I am not doubting you, but I find it so hard to believe that such attitude would be prevalent in places like Norway, Sweden, etc. But maybe it is politics, media .... but what of regular people? They should be okay with it - that's what I am talking about.

[Sasha]

Never had much problems with being unemployed, but than I live in a country where the social safetynet is still kind of decent. I was just living cheaply in a squat and did lots of volunteer/activism work. Found it way harder when I was making even less by actually busting my ass off.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I'm sitting on over 15 outstanding applications and resumes dropped off at restaurants. This waiting is tiring.

Have you tried calling them after you dropped off the resume? Restaurants and retail places normally have a nice stockpile of resumes built up, so if you want yours looked at you need to be persistent. It helps to drop the resume off to an actual manager as well, that way you a have a minute or two to try to make yourself stick out. Plus I've worked at places where it was standard practice for staff to trash resumes when people were foolish enough to leave them with us (not to be malicious, just gotta do what you gotta do sometimes)

[Zukunftsmusik]

Are you serious? I am not doubting you, but I find it so hard to believe that such attitude would be prevalent in places like Norway, Sweden, etc. But maybe it is politics, media .... but what of regular people? They should be okay with it - that's what I am talking about.

I'm sure a lot of "normal people" with similar problems have some sense of solidarity with other people who struggle with finding jobs/being unemployed, but the internet debate forums are peppered with hate towards unemployed, coming from just as "normal people"

[human strike]

Being unemployed ain't fun. It makes you feel like 'scum'. Not knowing what to say when someone asks you 'soo...what do you do?' is horrible, especially when you see their reaction. Hearing people telling you to 'just get a job' makes you feel worthless and inadequate and a leech on society whom everyone would be better off without. If your a young person then not working makes you feel like a child, and if your a man you feel like 'less of a man'. Stuff like gambling and drug dealing and shoplifting all appear as logical options.

Obviously none of these feelings are logical, but this is my experience.

I get a sense of satisfaction out of antagonising those bigots by rubbing my unemployment in their faces. "I'm lazy and proud," I tell them.

[Tenka]

I get a sense of satisfaction out of antagonising those bigots by rubbing my unemployment in their faces. "I'm lazy and proud," I tell them.

I wish I had an EBT card to flash around, flaunting my ability to pay for breakfast without working a single hour of wage labour. For now, I think I eat enough leeching off my mother though. (and I'm uncertain if I'd even qualify for benefits of any sort anyway--I can still walk, after all)

[Rusty Shackleford]

Lost my job as a full time forkliftist a few months back, getting unemployment though. what sucks is i got some debt from repairing my car and a bunch of other bills so I cant take some shitty fast food or retail job that pays next to nothing. So here I am waiting on trying to get into a union job but there's no work for said union job right now, in fact, they shops are furloughing people at the moment.

The weird thing is thinking my current back pain has nothing to do with my old job, and more to do with the fact that I'm on my ass all day, waiting.

About to finish my fourth book though since I ended up without work.

The hardest thing is just trying to keep a normal sleep schedule though it feels like there is almost no point in getting up at a relatively decent hour. I shocked myself when I woke up this morning and to hear the first words that came out of my mouth were "goddamnit."

Like I said though, I'm getting unemployment that is keeping me afloat a bit on top of my bills, well, just above them barely... At least I'm cooking a bit more...

If anything I've become almost completely dejected.