Lessons from Unemployment: The Good, the Bad and the Philosophical
There’s no question about it: being un- and under-employed for more than 2½ years teaches you things about life.
I was pondering this in between applying for jobs (I’ve been extra busy with these recently) and wanted to write about it. But the more I thought about it, the more I saw that my “lessons learned” were sorting themselves naturally into positives and negatives.
So instead of writing a perky piece about all the great things I’ve discovered while being jobless, or a depressing one about all the bad stuff I’ve come to realize while out of work, I’ll be accurate and combine them.
I will start with the positive, though.
Long-term involuntary unemployment has taught me:
- Taking care of one’s personal health is important and, in fact, should be a priority.
- Life is short and unemployment gives you more time to attend to your loved ones.
- Volunteer activities for causes that are important to you help you keep your skills sharp. In addition, doing good for others is good for them and for you.
- Exploring a variety of freelance opportunities helps you gain useful experience.
- Some things are outside of your control, no matter what you do and no matter how much you wish it were different. So you may as well accept those things.
- Networking activities enable you to meet many nice, interesting people whom you may never have met otherwise.
Gee, I really feel like I’m reaching now. I mean, if I were at a job, I would have met a whole different set of “nice, interesting people” too.
Let me take a stab at some of the negative things I’ve learned while being out of work.
- There’s a stigma attached to being jobless, especially the longer it lasts. Unfortunately for us, it’s a stigma often held by our potential employers.
- Employers aren’t willing to “take a chance” on you. They’ll hire you if you meet every single requirement they want; but the days of “on-the-job training” are over.
- There really are no “quick fixes” or “magic solutions” to unemployment, despite all the hopeful things you read and hear on the Internet and elsewhere. Once you’ve corrected the obvious things (bad resumé, clothes, attitude), there’s not much more you can do, other than being the right fit in the right place at the right time.
- Despite the fact that it’s illegal, I have no doubt that there’s age discrimination in hiring. For some reason, though, this seems to be the only form of discrimination in the U.S. today that’s acceptable. Anyone heard from the ACLU?
- Millions of people have suffered needlessly because of our government’s ineffective economic policies. I’m convinced that many more of us would have jobs today if policies that led to vigorous economic growth after past recessions had been put into place this time around.
- Prolonged unemployment can adversely affect your mental and physical health.
Looking at these on paper, I think that all the positives are things I already knew. All the negatives are things I didn’t know and would have been perfectly happy never to learn.
No. On second thought, I don’t mean that. Although I’ve had to learn some of them the hard way, I’ve gained wisdom as a result of all these lessons. Perhaps I’ve gained a little more empathy too.
I’m feeling philosophical now, but I think this is really the whole point of life: to grow – I’m avoiding the word, but yes, to mature – into better human beings, ones who can use our experiences to help make life a little better, maybe a little easier, for others.
I think that's hard to do unless you’ve known some tougher times yourself.
Lenny Eng
8:37 pm on Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Like you, I've been in transition since 2011.
Totally agree with item 1. I've been doing daily exercise in the morning, Monday to Friday.
2. Life is indeed short.
3. I've been volunteering to facilitate Neighbors-helping-Neighbors meetings, a peer support group of folks in transition.
5. I do not worry things that are outside of my control, such as weather, traffic, my lack of hair due to maturity or age discrimination. Let it be and move on to greener pasture.
6. Networking effectively is critical. 4 out of my last 5 jobs in the last 14 years were from referrals.
On the down side, our unemployment is structural rather than cyclical, i.e. our economy would not produce enough decent paying jobs regardless who will be running DC in the next 3-4 years. It is time to pay the piper after years of neglect and lack of cohesive long term vision from those in DC.
Think positive and stay healthy, both mentally and physically,
Cheers.
Fran Hopkins
5:53 am on Friday, September 28, 2012
Hi Lenny! Thanks for your comments. I'm not giving up and I plan to stay healthy. I just hope you're wrong that the job picture won't be improving any time soon! You stay positive too.
Nancy
8:38 am on Friday, September 28, 2012
Thank you for the piece! I've been unemployed for some time now, and the #1 thing I've decided to do was take care of my physical and mental health. I go for 4-5 mile walks, meditate and have quiet time at the park and pray. This keeps me grounded and somewhat at peace. I do have my days when I wonder when I'm going to get out of this nightmare, but like you Fran, I remain positive and hopeful that there is a great job out there for me. I am thinking of volunteering to stay busy.
Fran, I'm so happy that you reinforced the point that after you've tweaked your resume for the 100th time, told everyone under the sun that you're looking for work, and decided to change your attitude, etc, there's really nothing you can do. Although I wake up every morning at 6:00, feed my cat, put on the coffee and hit the Internet to do my jobhunting, I find myself asking if I'm doing everything I can to find a job and feel I should be doing something else. I know in my heart that I'm exhausting all avenues to find a job. It's all a waiting game, it's exhausting, and at times , disappointing, but I remain hopeful. Thank you!!
Jennifer C
2:28 pm on Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Yes staying healthy is the most important! I lost my job this January... I have two kids and could NOT afford the Cobra insurance offered to my at work (monthly costs is more than a full month's worth of unemployment checks!) Worst feeling for me was (is) feeling that I could not provide for my kids, panicked as they ride their bike that they not fall and get hurt becuase I have no health insurance! It took me 6 months, but I finally have health insurance for kids only (thru NJ medicaid program called Family Care)... as for me, well, trying to stay positive & stay healthy.
Patrick Ambrose
9:55 am on Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. As difficult as the unemployment experience often is, it can at least sometimes enable an important "reset" for one's life.
There's a lot working against the unemployed in today's labor market and economy. The long-term unemployed, especially, face hardship and bias that other Americans who haven't lost their jobs won't have to experience. Although many unemployed don't especially like to self-identify as such, the are indeed belong to a group with interests (e.g. unemployment insurance, protection from unemployment discrimination) to advance and protect. The unemployed need advocates and advocacy to help them, and a group of long-term unemployed launched Unemployed Rising (http://unemployedrising.com) on Labor Day 2011 to help do just that. We invite you to visit our website, Facebook and Twitter pages, and YouTube Channel.