Being out of work

[eagle_bearer]

I've been working full-time now for eleven years. I've been in my current job for seven years. I'm a skilled worker, with my responsibilities requiring a couple of specialist qualifications. As part of my job, I've been to Workington, Kew, Hull, and Preston. When I'm not working, I am usually hiking, covering impressive, and probably intimidating to some, mileage.

At this point, your mind is likely wandering or you're thinking I'm showing off. You're wrong. It's all for dramatic effect because what I was actually doing, unbeknownst to you, was building myself up so I could knock myself down.

I didn't start work after leaving college until I was twenty-three. I was unemployed for four years. The only specialist skills I had during that time were playing PlayStation and touching myself. And walking? Hardly did any. I know. Hard to believe, isn't it? The guy who started a thread banging on about the benefits of walking wasn't doing much.

So it's time for you guys to chip in. What is the longest length of time you've been out of work? What did you do to fill the hours? I hope you spent the time more productively than I did, that's for sure.

[Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle]

Never really thought about this, but now I come to think of it, i've been in work since I left uni around 20 years ago.  I think the longest i've had between jobs is about 3 weeks, which was between finishing my last job and my start date for my current job.  I fucking love bumming about and would take 6 months off if I could.

[chveik]

NARC

[Captain Z]

I notice that you made no effort to make this thread inclusive to women.

[Vinnie01]

I just got laid off by the Agency, they think I gone to work else where. I been on Job centre courses, my programming course as well as dealing with illnesses this year.

I am now attempting to take up freelance work also after learning how some jobs may have affected my health and possibly put me in the current situation which I see a CPN for.

I had 1 job for 20 years, the COVID caused job changes which was agency work since Dec to July.

[imitationleather]

Check out my post history.

That's what I did.

[TrenterPercenter]

So it's time for you guys to chip in. What is the longest length of time you've been out of work? What did you do to fill the hours? I hope you spent the time more productively than I did, that's for sure.

Literally been "out of work" for total of about 6 weeks (which was me waiting for a CRB to come through - for a job I already had got) since I was 15.  Very seriously thinking about making myself unemployed after this next 2 years.

[eagle_bearer]

I notice that you made no effort to make this thread inclusive to women.

Hi Captain Z. I hope you're well :)

I decided there was no need to make a particular mention of this thread being inclusive because I felt the topic was clearly not gender-exclusive. I also want avoid any accusations of deploying a 'meme'. If this choice has upset anyone, I apologise and want to reiterate that this and all my threads are always inclusive.

[bgmnts]

I dont do anything when out of work, it's torturous bliss.

And we're talking years and years worth of unemployment. Literally wasting life away.

But when you think about it, when you're working you are mostly just wasting around 75% of your life away anyway so fuck it.

[Twit 2]

We're all just waiting to die.

[Cerys]

I have now been out of work for just over twenty-five hours.

[Vinnie01]

We're all just waiting to die.

That I do understand

[canadagoose]

I've been out of work since February 2020, which I think makes this the longest period I've been out of work. I had to resign from my old position for health reasons, and my health has continued to be crap, with fibromyalgia being the chief culprit; I'm on the Universal Credit replacement for ESA because of it. I've been faffing about lately trying to set up my own business, but it keeps getting delayed because I keep feeling shit about the prospects of it, and also because I was in hospital recently for a fortnight (and before that, vomiting routinely), so that was nice. I've considered volunteering, but the positions were all quite high-noise and I didn't think I could cope with regular hours because of how variable I can be. I also kept getting the shits on the days I had to come in and have a look, which was probably anxiety-related, but didn't put me in the most optimistic mood.

[Johnny Foreigner]

I didn't start work after leaving college until I was twenty-three.

I got my first proper job at twenty-six. Finished my MA at twenty-two, then fruitlessly messed about, trying to finish an extra degree that would have been a pathway towards a PhD, and then I was on the dole for two years.

I spent said two years bored stiff, wandering aimlessly through the village at night. I never ran through any wheat fields, but I did occasionally walk through very tall corn at three in the morning during harvest season. I lived in the arsehole of nowhere; it was rather a surreal experience because of the total silence and a full moon. In short: I was bored stiff.

I thereupon quit my first job after less than three years, because everybody was constantly speaking French to me. Fucking frogs.

[mothman]

It's difficult to say. I only got a full time permanent job - the actual start of my so-called career - about two and a half years after leaving uni. But during that time I probably clocked up a year's worth of temp jobs and short-term contracts. Same when - in one of the more spectacular examples of bad timing - I handed in my notice the day before 9/11, and didn't get another full time perm job until early 2005, nearly three and a half years later; however again there was about a year of short-term contracts.

But since then, I've never not worked, getting on for 16 years now. But those years of unemployment, they stay with me. The fear, the money worries. The grind of job applications, the interviews, the lying cunt recruitment consultants and job agents. Don't think I could go through all that again.

[Poisson Du Jour]

Interesting thread that made me think back. I had a year not working after my MA too. A year that stands out due to everything being new and exciting still. This consisted of 3 months dossing around in France, supposedly to help my French, and I did then get the C2 when I came back, so not completely wasted. Then a clinical trial in Manchester which paid most of the year's expenses in three weeks. £3.5k. Then a couple of months as an au pair abroad, great experience out of my comfort zone, basically no internet, and just before smart phones. Then some prep for the school direct teacher training, which I haven't looked back from 9 years of continuous employment later. All that time there were a couple of constants - running, which I had so much more time for, time I'd kill to have now, and reading this place.

[Chedney Honks]

What you running from, buddy?

[Inspector Norse]

As part of my job, I've been to Workington, Kew, Hull, and Preston.

You need to talk to your union rep about your working conditions.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

You need to talk to your union rep about your working conditions.

Yep, that quoted line would snugly fit into one of those Deso threads that we tend to have nowadays.

[jonbob]

I think about 5 years I was at uni for part of that, but I just started 3 times and dropped out. I spent most of my time reading, listening to music, smoking  drinking and scrambling around with low rent scams and hustles to give me few extra $ or dodge a bill for an extra few weeks.

[Sherringford Hovis]

"Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life!"

If I ever find out who coined this tritest of homilies, I will kick them again and again and again in the nads until my toes are worn down completely flat and smooth so it looks like I've got Lego minifig feet.