That depends on who you are and whom you know. It's rarely a good thing, but it isn't always a catastrophe either. The damage it can do to a life really has as much to do with other issues -- family ties, mental health, the strength of one's identity -- than it does with the simple lack of work and regular income.
David is a single man, 41, with no children, and he's been unemployed for two years; his aging mother in Boston sends him money regularly so he doesn't end up on the street. As a Harvard graduate, he can take some solace in the contacts he still has because of his professional and educational background, and he is not ready to abandon ship and go home to the East Coast because his heart is still set on a career in entertainment. On the one hand, he's bored and lonely, but on the other hand, he doesn't have to go anywhere the jobs are -- no family to support, after all. Besides, his mother can still take care of him.
John, who's 35, seems the most tranquil of all, perhaps because of his unruffled temperament, his capacity to laugh his way through a bad situation, or perhaps because he's married to a full-time working wife and has no children. They rent an affordable apartment in a well-off part of town. Since he recently finished law school, and made sure to set aside funds to carry him over between graduating from school and passing the bar, he's still optimistic about finding work and his only complaint is that he's bored and wishes he could contribute something to society.
Don, an ivy league graduate, lives by himself, frugally, and puts up a shingle as a "consultant" with his own publishing company. He has friends, access to a computer at his home, a college education. He's not scared of going back to school and getting an MBA -- in fact, it's something he always wanted to do before and never had the time.
The situation gets hairier for some one like Paula, whose husband left her and whose children may or may not decide to support her. She's not old enough to collect social security, nor is she young and wealthy enough to prance joyfully into a new career, or go back to school, or move out of state and start over. She thanks me profusely for listening to her and showing some compassion.
Gregg, too, may need to work hard on self-soothing techniques. His family has, in the past, depended on him to win at least part of the bread, but right now, all the wheat fields are harvested and the bakery shelves are empty. He takes refuge is endless political debates on Facebook with distant opponents who can't punish him for being stressed and grumpy. Grey-haired, in his late fifties, with a six year old daughter in public school -- he's not the kind of guy who can flit in and out of jobs hoping that something will work out. And yet, he's lucky: his wife works full time in a job with a school district, and for them the biggest problem is managing the payments on their big new house, purchased only weeks before he was laid off . He's able to spend time with his daughter when his wife is at work. He has a million free-lance projects in the pipeline, and corresponds regularly with potential employers or colleagues; he works every day on a web-based retail business that may or may not take off, and he doesn't get discouraged.
Stay tuned, as I search out other jobless folks who have less family support, less money saved, less education --- and if you know some one who's been hit really hard by the jobs crisis, let me know. For the latest depressing data on unemployment, see the link below from the LA Times, but if you want to cheer yourself up, the good news is that CA received some stimulus money for job creation as well.
Posted by Christopher Davidson on 01/24/10
