Unemployed and Working Hard Being

Unemployed and Working Hard

Being Unemployed is a big struggle and a sad reality for millions of individuals at any point of time. Cyclical unemployment and economic depression drive thousands of individuals who were gainfully employed into a painful and arduous battle to keep themselves and their families afloat. Utilizing the free time to gain new skills, coping effectively with the stressed personal relationships, and coming to terms and being comfortable with a lower standard of living are some of the immediate issues for an unemployed person. The most important part of the survival skills for unemployed people is to manage themselves better during this stressful period. Most importantly, it is necessary to go through this phase with optimism and not to feel ashamed or embarrassed as this is a fairly common phase in everyone's lives at one point of time or another. Realizing that this is only a temporary phase in their lives is important but for most unemployed people every day without a job appears to be long and dragging, leaving them physically and emotionally drained. [Jim Stringham]

As labor market research shows 'finding a new job could easily be one of the most challenging jobs' that require the unemployed person to be at the top of their form. Patience, perseverance, confidence and maintaining a sense of humor during this hard time are critical to be successful in getting a new job. Since losing a job affects many fronts of a persons life such as 'financial situation', 'loss of work friends', 'Change of roles' (from being a family provider to a dependent) and the sense of self-identity, it is normal for an unemployed person to go through the emotions of loss such as shock, denial, sadness, guilt, anger and acceptance. [Jim Stringham] Thus, having a balanced perspective and a positive attitude is important for a smooth transition from this difficult phase of one's life associated with emotions of sadness and resentment to getting back on track.

2. Being unemployed and homeless is one of the most unfortunate circumstances for any person. It might seem paradoxical, but surviving as an unemployed and homeless person is one of the toughest jobs. As per a recent study by the national Law center on homelessness and poverty, an average of 3.5 million Americans are homeless every year. [Simon Wykoff] The first and foremost problem for a homeless person is finding a sleeping place for the night. Since the shelters for homeless people are usually overcrowded, sleeping on the sidewalks and alleys presents a better option for many unfortunate people. However, surviving on the streets requires an entirely different skill set. Since sleeping is a most private and equally the most vulnerable time of a person, it is not unusual for a homeless person to wake up and find whatever cash he had kept in his backpack or other useful things in his possession to be missing when he wakes up. Therefore, first among the survival skills is to escape the looting on the streets.

A homeless person on the streets depends on doing little jobs here and there to make enough money for everyday food. This could be anything such as washing car windows on the streets to gathering cans for recycling to playing instruments on the street corners. For most homeless people, these menial jobs as it may seem to us provide the bread and butter on a day-to-day basis. [Simon Wykoff] Weathering the rough conditions, sleeping on cardboard boxes and surviving the dangers of the street with the limited possessions of a few clothes and coins teach one of the toughest life lessons. As the British prince Williams who spent a whole night on the streets sleeping with the homeless said, "I cannot, after one night, even begin to imagine what it must be like to sleep rough on London's streets night after night. Poverty, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency and family breakdown cause people to become and then stay homeless." [The Guardian] To resist and survive drugs, alcohol and other dangerous elements on the streets requires a tough mind and this is a very critical quality for a homeless person.

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