At 5 p.m. today I will have completed fourteen weeks of unemployment. Although I've had three interviews in that time I've got nowhere near getting a job, not being invited back for second interviews. I'm guessing I was too old and too experienced for the jobs, they wanted some keen young thing to concentrate on a few repetitive tasks all day long. I can do that. Gizza job!
I have plenty of experience but not qualifications. I was never interested in studying such a boring subject. They tried to get me motivated to study in my first job but I gave up after a week and handed my notice in. If only I had those qualifications I could be getting rejected for better paid jobs than I am presently.
People give you advice. "Go down the entrepreneurial route, set up your own business, get yourself some clients." As if there aren't hundreds or thousands of people trying to do that already. "Don't worry if you haven't got the qualifications, apply for everything!" Ok, so what do I write in my covering letter? I'm not qualified to do this job but I make a nice cup of tea?
Maybe I need to think about what I really want to do and go for it.
Well, there is nothing I really want to do that will earn me money, never has been, never will be. Everything I have ever done to make money has been done with absolutely no enthusiasm.
I don't feel bereft now I'm out of work. I'm not depressed. I don't desperately need the company of others. I haven't lost my confidence or my sense of self-worth. I still think I'm better than those bastards. You know who they are.
It's poverty that fucks people up, not unemployment. But there aren't enough jobs to go round and unemployment can cause poverty because benefits are so shit. Benefits are so shit because of the attitude of the majority of well-off people who actually believe there is a job out there for everyone. "All you have to do is get off your lazy arse. If I was unemployed I'd do anything, I'd even stack shelves."
So there are shelves out there waiting to be stacked, are there? Dickhead.
Layering up
15 hours ago
I plonk for the 'think about what you really want to do and go for it' answer. Now's your chance.
ReplyDeleteSx
I've totally loved being off the grid/treadmill since the late ninetites.... and I decided to hire myself out as a spy, all kinds of foreign countries are looking for spooks.
ReplyDeletePlus I enjoy all sorts of benefits.
I can set my own hours, learned how to hack into anyone's bank accounts for some walkaround cash for the weekend, and if a neighbour's dog won't shutup in the middle of the night, I now have all kinds of quick chemicals that I can quietly deploy from my bedroom window!How sweet is that?
If I had stayed in commercial real estate I'd be on my 3rd wife and my 4th heart attack.
I'd like a nice cuppa, ta very much, Geoff.
ReplyDeleteI've been unemployed at different times in life and I remember this so well. It's not actually that easy to get even a shit job. You can apply, but that doesn't mean they will employ you as a shelf stacker (for example.) That's why so many people are unemployed. Duh!
ReplyDeleteFor the 9 months after I left college I got 'you're overqualified'. Happily I eventually found someone willing to exploit me for minimum wage & I finally got a job.
I know what you mean about poverty, not unemployment. The upper classes are unemployed, aren't they, but no one berates them for laziness...
Scarlet - Retire?
ReplyDeleteDonn - You'll have to let me into the secret.
MJ - The kettle's on.
Annie - I wish I'd been born upper class. I could have been the new David Dundas.
I've been unemployed several times, partly through an unconscious knack of have of finding work in companies that are about to go bust. It's very very difficult and stressful. The housing situation is the most worrying thing.
ReplyDeleteI honestly would counsel anyone trying to live on benefits to see if they can get a bit of work on the side and keep quiet about it. The unemployed face marginal tax rates way higher than the highest-taxed people in the land.
We should have a social income, payable to everyone, without an application procedure. You get to keep this, no matter how much extra you earn.
I got made redundant in 2009 and after a *very* worrying time, which got as bad as a fellow blogger offering to let me sleep on her floor for a bit, I now look back on it and thank my lucky stars.
Good luck!
Thank you. I'm lucky in that the house is paid for and I've got savings. I can't see a job on the horizon, though.
ReplyDelete