Being unemployed...

zhao

there are no accidents
that sucks. no matter how much of a pain in the ass the job was, and how much of a relief it might be, it never feels very nice to be let go of. i've been fired almost countless times... no no no not a team player. like, at all. lol.

but idelrich i must confess i've always until now, sort of subconsciously, took your screen name literally...

my "job" hasn't given me a job in what, 6 months? shit is fucked. i've been making ends meet with dj gigs, and some random design projects for friends. but i'm starting a little t-shirt design business, which i hope will become lucrative in the middle term. also in the mean time making art, which i am confident, perhaps delusional, will become lucrative in the long term.
 

swears

preppy-kei
Mate's got a first in maths but hasn't had a job in two years. Was thinking of putting a fake company that's "gone bust" on his CV and my mobile phone number as the reference. "Oh, yeah, he was one of my best employees... snap him up, etc.." Would there be any way of them checking? Or is it so crazy it just might work?
 

Tony Flavourmore

Well-known member
Useless, jobless men – the social blight of our age
The benefits system has produced an emasculated generation who can find neither work nor a wif

Overlooked by society, irrelevant to employers, unwanted by women who can raise families on benefits without their help, the man who has no work or a series of short-term jobs is a problem. Without steady work, he will struggle to acquire a family: unemployed men are less likely to marry or cohabit than employed ones. Without a stable relationship, he is less likely to grow into a good family man and raise good sons. The taxpayer has become the father: one in four mothers is single and more than half live on welfare. A lot of these women describe the real fathers of their children as “useless” or worse. The men have no role.

In the worst cases, the State has helped to create a class of jobless serial boyfriends who prey on single mothers on benefits. When two of these men moved into the flat that Haringey Council had generously provided for Tracey Connelly, Baby P’s mother, the little boy’s fate was sealed. They killed him. Other such men appear in bit parts in tragedies such as that of Shannon Matthews, abducted and drugged by her own “family”. The welfare system has helped to deprive these children of the most effective check on abuse — the family.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/camilla_cavendish/article7138520.ece

stay jobless too long and look at what happens


/sarcasm
 

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
Mate's got a first in maths but hasn't had a job in two years. Was thinking of putting a fake company that's "gone bust" on his CV and my mobile phone number as the reference. "Oh, yeah, he was one of my best employees... snap him up, etc.." Would there be any way of them checking? Or is it so crazy it just might work?

Nah, if he interviews well, that should work just fine. If he doesn't, they won't bother calling the reference. Believe me I know plenty of people who did this about once every 3 or 4 months when they'd get fired.

I'm sort of unemployed on purpose right now... but once I was unemployed with no immediate prospects and it was kinda frightening. I walked out of an art gallery job after one month because I just could not deal with the administrative side of that world (the artists were a lot of fun, tho :D). I had a really good position there, though the money was kind of paltry. It could have been awesome if the director hadn't been such a DB. He was Swiss, so there was a huge culture clash. I still remember when he expressed surprise that New Yorkers were left-leaning and that female New Yorkers would not bow to his natural manly authority. I was like the fourth consecutive girl who walked out on that job.
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
It could have been awesome if the director hadn't been such a DB. He was Swiss, so there was a huge culture clash. I still remember when he expressed surprise that New Yorkers were left-leaning and that female New Yorkers would not bow to his natural manly authority. I was like the fourth consecutive girl who walked out on that job.

what a prick.

i've not worked since October 2007.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
The benefits system has produced an emasculated generation who can find neither work nor a wif


Obvious but AAAARRGGGHHHH
It's not the fucking benefits system that has produced this. It's shifts in our economy - but that doesn't fit easily into a narrative that blames the poor for their own misfortune. FFS.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
The benefits system has produced an emasculated generation who can find neither work nor a wif


Obvious but AAAARRGGGHHHH
It's not the fucking benefits system that has produced this. It's shifts in our economy - but that doesn't fit easily into a narrative that blames the poor for their own misfortune. FFS.

But the article's not blaming the poor, is it? It's blaming the benefits system.
 

vimothy

yurp
But the article's not blaming the poor, is it? It's blaming the benefits system.

But isn't there still a problem, in that, if there aren't enough jobs for everybody to have one, by definition there are going to be members of the labour force who are under or unemployed? It doesn't really have anything to do with the benefits system--if the benefits system was abolished, there would still be jobless men, because the economy doesn't generate enough work to employ them all.
 

bobbin

What
I never had any questions asked of me beyond 'how's the job hunt?', but when I mentioned it to my brother (who was also on JSA at them time) he said that for some people they do get questioned quite a bit. As a fresh graduate I think they just had this idea that I must be seriously looking, which I was, although I know there are quite a few who aren't, but then for others they just take a less sympathetic view for whatever reason.

someone told me they have categories of risk. and if you've got the scantiest claim to a trade or profession there's no obligation to look outside it for months and months. i found you can say something actually pretty aspiring and specific (for no real reason) and they will just reinforce your arbitrary and unrealistic aims.

i cruised through signing on every time. they would shamelessly feed me the right answers to the questions and two minutes later say have a nice weekend. 4.30 slot on friday probably helped too.

flipside is they never did fuck all to help me in any way. not a thing. my general views on benefits are what some people would presumably call overly generous, but for me personally, the way i was treated was very unhealthy looking back on it.

in the end i came off because i couldn't hack it any more and didn't have the will to turn up, not because i got a job. so then the fact i would have been fucked made me put in a better effort and i found i reasonable job (just different to what i was used to) in a couple of weeks.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
But isn't there still a problem, in that, if there aren't enough jobs for everybody to have one, by definition there are going to be members of the labour force who are under or unemployed? It doesn't really have anything to do with the benefits system--if the benefits system was abolished, there would still be jobless men, because the economy doesn't generate enough work to employ them all.

Exactly.

I haven't read the article, I'm afraid, as I read the headline and saw red. Attacks on the benefits system rather than wider systemic economic causes of unemployment often go hand in hand with an attack on the moral character of benefit recipients. The implication is surely that life on benefits is a trap because it's an easy option for these moral degenerates. Attacking the benefits system seems to me to take away from the other side of the trap, which is low paid and casual short-term employment This a huge factor in keeping people in the poverty trap in my view, but to attack it is to attack the liberalisation of the labour market we've had since the 80s, so not on the ideological menu, normally.
 

swears

preppy-kei
But isn't there still a problem, in that, if there aren't enough jobs for everybody to have one, by definition there are going to be members of the labour force who are under or unemployed? It doesn't really have anything to do with the benefits system--if the benefits system was abolished, there would still be jobless men, because the economy doesn't generate enough work to employ them all.

Yeah, that's why the whole "get on your bike" attitude is so clueless. My job could probably be replaced with a function in Excel if the firm I work for had any clue what they were doing.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"that sucks. no matter how much of a pain in the ass the job was, and how much of a relief it might be, it never feels very nice to be let go of."
You're not wrong, it's like being dumped by a girl I didn't fancy.

but idelrich i must confess i've always until now, sort of subconsciously, took your screen name literally...
Well, you're right up to a point, the Idle bit was 'cause I'm lazy but the Rich is because my name is Richard and is nothing to do with my financial status.
 

Dr Awesome

Techsteppin'
First day back at work tomorrow after my old place wound up at the end of Feb.
I'm more nervous than I expected. Good to be off the benefit though.
 

massrock

Well-known member
There's nothing wrong with aspiration! It just depends what you're aspiring to. Life isn't a zero-sum game.
I'm not against aspiration.

I was laughing along (I think...) with the posts above mine. :)

#
grizzleb

Yeah I could do with any sort of female interaction. And an alleyway to sleep in.

#
29-05-2010 02:08 PM
Tentative Andy

^ 'Jobless serial boyfriend' has quite a nice ring to it. I reckon I could prob settle for that.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
there should be a dating site for jobless people.
a cheap one, obviously.
with checks to make sure everyone on there really is on the dole.
or one for people who are wageless to meet those who arent.
like philanthropical dating.
 
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