“When you’ve been unemployed, against your will, it becomes very emotionally draining,” said Beverly, whose name has been changed. “I was used to being on a schedule — getting up at a certain time, having lunch at a specific time, getting home roughly around the same time, etc. … after a few months or years you see no reason to follow a schedule and but since everyone else is on one, you feel left behind. All day you have nothing to do because everyone is at work. Because you have no schedule your life becomes ‘whatever’ which is very, very, very de-motivating. Lack of motivation snowballs to almost a depressive state — why bother?”
Beverly said the worst part for her is that she sees many jobs available; however she views the sharp pay reduction she’d have to take as another de-motivating force. “Also, if I were to take those minimum-wage jobs, I can’t get sick because I have no insurance because I got no job.” she said.
Fleeing the toxic
But not everybody considers unemployment a curse — there are those whose health was being hurt by their jobs and feel better after they leave a toxic environment.
Marissa Engel of Gardiner said she had a nightmare job. Though she said her bosses were not awful, she referred to her office as a “shark tank” and herself as “chum.” Engel said a well-liked coworker was reduced to part time in order for the company to hire her, and not a day went by when her co-workers didn’t punish her for it. Engel said they gossiped loudly about her, made up complaints to her boss that she was not doing her job, omitted necessary information so that she looked incompetent and called her names loud enough so she could hear.
