“You want to be unemployed.”
-My dad
Dear Dad,
Contrary to your belief, I don’t want to be unemployed. In fact, I would love nothing more than to have a job to go to Monday through Friday, or hell, even Tuesday through Saturday. I’m really sick of living off of unemployment and being so poor that I can’t afford to eat or buy anything. I would really like to work hard and use my brain and make money, hopefully at a job that provides health insurance so I can visit a doctor and not have to worry about going bankrupt if I get hurt or sick. Believe me dad, if I could, I would work. I would work every day! Unfortunately, the economy sucks, nobody is hiring, and if they are, there are usually 200+ applicants I’m competing with.
Would somebody who wants to be unemployed apply to numerous jobs every day? Would somebody who wants to be unemployed try to network with everybody she could? Next time, you should think twice before you say something like that.
Signed,
Your daughter who wants more than anything to be employed
14 Comments
November 23, 2009 at 8:38 AM
Do we have the same father?
November 23, 2009 at 11:17 AM
That comment is right up there with “Why can’t you get a job at Walmart”, as if Walmart would hire a professional.
I love the smell of unemployment in the morning….lol.
My father has passed on, but I know without a doubt he would say the same thing.
November 23, 2009 at 11:29 AM
That sucks.
I know, some people can be SO clueless.
I have been unable to even find part time holiday work at Walmart, Kohls, Target, or any of the other retailers this year. Seems they are hurting too. Not surprising, as all us unemployed folks have no money to spend.
November 23, 2009 at 1:50 PM
I keep hearing about how I should be waiting tables. Been there. Applied to every restaurant in town.
November 24, 2009 at 2:19 PM
Your father owes you an apology.
It never ceases to amaze me just how many people out there who either already have a job or are retired are quick to critisize those of us who are trying to get work and are struggling. I know I have gotten my fair share of attitude from people who don’t know any better. It has been 2,544 days since I last had a “real job”, and I have applied to 1,081 different companies and gone on 52 interviews. Yet I still have people calling me “lazy”, “deadbeat”, and telling me that I “don’t really want to work” and that I want “the government to take care of me.”
What you need to do is to keep track of all of the applicatioons and resumes you send out. Print out all of the ads that you answer and keep all of this information in a file. Then when your father starts giving you crap about “wanting to be unemployed” drop the file in his lap.
In the meantime I think you should contact him and demand that he apologize to you. If he won’t do it, then talk to your mother and tell her that you will not be coming home for Thanksgiving – and tell her why.
November 24, 2009 at 3:51 PM
We should start a shout-it-from-the-mountaintop campaign about how the babyboomers don’t understand that knocking on doors doesn’t produce jobs like it did in the 60′s. We are all trying very hard…it’s just grim times. Now, if all our parents would just go ahead and retire, things would be a little different.
November 26, 2009 at 1:00 AM
Actually what the Baby Boomers don’t get is that “hitting the bricks” will not only not get you a job anymore, but in a post-9/11 world it might also get you tasered by security and thrown out of the building thus robbing you of any chance to work for that company.
November 28, 2009 at 2:26 AM
The old hags at my work can retire but won’t because they don’t want to sit at home with their retired husbands.
December 5, 2009 at 6:49 PM
That comment is amazing. I am unemployed and have an internship that does not pay. I had to move home to save money. My Mom calls my internship
” volunteering” and it drives me crazy. I love your blog by the way. Do you mind checking my blog out and letting me know what you think.
http://nataliepr.wordpress.com/
Thanks
December 7, 2009 at 7:10 PM
I was sorry to hear your father’s comment.
I’ve been unemployed for a year now. I have looked forward to reading your blog bi-weekly if not daily. You see, it provided me with a sense that this is really happening to everyone, everywhere – I couldn’t possibly be alone…
I have been following your blog for nearly the extent of my unemployed life. I am not the only one you have touched with this blog – so please – keep blogging about your experience being unemployed. If on the chance that your father is the reason for this break between blog entries, please don’t let him rob you of your gift to others. This IS happening all around us.
You may not have the kind of job you or your father can quantify as valuable but your recordings of an unemployed person’s struggle has been valuable to not only me but to everyone else who has come across your blog.
I hope to see an update from you soon. Thank you for everything you have done so far.
December 12, 2009 at 7:15 PM
Thank you everybody for your support! Annie, I’m touched that the blog has moved you and so many others. Let’s hope we all get jobs soon. Happy Holidays!
December 25, 2009 at 10:54 AM
I myself was laid-off at the beginning of Sept. 09 and I have tried to limit the number of people who know that I am unemployed because I do not want to be treated like I am suffering from a terminal disease or wearing the scarlet letters of UE (Unemployed).
Back in November, I told a so-called friend of mine that I was going to be enrolling in a couple of SAP courses to make myself more marketable and the first thing that he said was that companies usually hire people with six SAP projects experience compared to those with zero experience (me). I saw this guy last week and he asked do you really think that those SAP courses are going to help you, to which I replied, that they have to, that is why I am taking them. Without sounding like a real jerk, this guy is partially handicapped and walks with great difficulty and was going to have an operation to help out his back, I wonder how he would have felt if I had asked him, “Do You Really Think that Operation is going to help you?”
Everytime that this so-called friend calls me, the first thing that he asks is, “So How Your Job Search Going, any nibbles”, No,. I guess that this person is never going to realize I am more than just my job!!
January 12, 2010 at 9:33 PM
I have heard the same thing from my family; think I may borrow your ‘letter’ as a response the next time I hear the same s***t.
March 4, 2010 at 5:37 PM
Hey all,
Help 10,000 Americans like yourselves find jobs!
Please take a minute to vote for WaggleForce, our national network of local job clubs, in the Pepsi Refresh campaign.
Take a moment to VOTE now for WaggleForce: http://www.refresheverything.com/waggleforce
If we win, we’ll create 1,000 job clubs, each serving 10 people, to get 10,000 back to work, YOU have the ability to impact the lives of10,000 people with your vote.