I wrote this last month, because this month I’ll be working on my NaNoWriMo novel and won’t be blogging as much. Enjoy it!

Quitting my job at Sainsbury’s has been one of the best things I ever did. Yes, it would probably have been more responsible if I’d gotten a decent income before I handed in my notice, and yes, not telling people I quit my job was probably not the most sensible thing I’ve ever done in my life. But the actual act of being unemployed as been a very educational experience.

I’ve learnt that there’s a very painful social stigma attached to being unemployed. When people ask me that evil, horrible question “What do you do?” (And by the way, that question should be stripped out of the usual conversation, put in a vat of hot oil and fire and boiled slowly to death, in the most painful way possible, while being watched by people singing “We hate you, you evil question”, which is sung in the same tune as “We wish you a Merry Christmas”, and the whole tune should be video taped . Then someone should burn the tape in a similar way, possibly with more singers) they react with a look of horror when you tell them you’re looking for a job. As if every unemployed person around my age is an evil, money grabbing, lazy leech who will never amount to anything and should be treated in the same way I want to treat the question they just asked me.

I’ve also learnt, that I’m not the only one who feels as though their confidence takes a huge hit every time someone reacts this way. And it’s really hurting a lot of people out there, who are unemployed for reasons that aren’t anywhere near wanting to leech of the rest of the country. The social pressure to get a job; any job, even jobs that are seriously below their skill and / or comfort level, jobs they’re really overqualified for, jobs that make them want to cry when they go to bed at night because they’re not using their unique talents to their fullest extent, it’s heartbreaking. I’ve spoken to some people in that situation who have gotten so depressed in their work situation that they couldn’t bare to go out and look for more work, or feel so ashamed of where they work that they want to quit the job all over again.

I say we need to change the social stigma there is to being unemployed. So people don’t react with surprise and annoyance when they hear it, or act like the person is something awful they wouldn’t want to step in. Some people lost their job unintentionally; some people, myself for example, quit their job to get out of the industry they were in; and some people are just leeches who want everyone else to pay for them, but we shouldn’t be all shoved into the same category.

If you’re reading this and you are unemployed, I’m not just going to tell you “Get a job!”, because I’ve been under that knife before and it makes me cringe. What I will tell you though, is that you’re in an excellent situation. I know that’s not what everyone wants to tell you. But you suddenly have the freedom to start something fresh. If you’ve wanted a career change for the past few years but have been afraid to quit; if you wanted some spare time to start up a business (which you can do on no money) or if you’ve felt like there was more to you then just a crummy supermarket job then figure out what you want to do and take it. Maybe take a job that pays the bills, but that doesn’t have to be your new career. Use it to find out what you don’t want to do. Use your freedom to create the life for yourself you always wanted. I figured out a lot about myself through my unemployment. One of those things was, that I figured out I was trying to hard to be something I’m not suited for. Now I’m steadily working my way through things I don’t want in my life, so I’ll gradually find out what I DO want. And I would never have done that if I hadn’t been unemployed.

Since writing this, I’ve managed to get another job which I’ll have until the new year. I’m still grateful for the experience and wouldn’t change it for the world!