There is something about the word 'unemployed' that really sets something off inside of me. I don't know quite why I get images of myself sprawled out on a park bench with beer stains on a white vest when I think of myself as 'unemployed'. I know I am: I don't have a job, I have no income. I live day to day looking on voucher websites to get a sniff of normality, and most of my recent purchases are from the likes of eBay. But I don't let that phase me, eventually I will have an income. A job. A career. A life!
As I have been one of those "bum people that do nothing..." (quote from someone on an online forum post talking about being unemployed and good places to look for work) for three months now, I feel that the word unemployed in itself is wrong, it's a word that shouldn't be used when talking to us who are looking for work. And here's why.
Like I previous mentioned, when I think of myself as unemployed, I make a stereotype about myself. I know, I know, it was a bit silly and massively far fetched but that is how I feel.
I've talked to multiple people about how they feel when they think of the word unemployed, and what type of people would be unemployed, and it's never anything positive. What we have done is taken that word and added some beer cans and a sweaty vest. We don't think of a person, handing out their CV or e-mailing people at all times in the morning and the night to get a job. Nor do we think about someone who sits there redoing their CV twenty times for twenty jobs because they all have slightly different needs from their employees and nobody wants to read a CV full of buzz words for their rival company.
What we need to do is either take that word back from it's squalor or coin a new one. Even a new phrase would be better. It might begin to motivate people. Instead of saying, "hey that guy is unemployed, he won't ever amount to much more that stella", which is negative at best, say something along the lines of "oh that chap really is down on his luck being an active job seeker, I'm sure with dedication he will find something new!"
Doesn't it just sound so much more positive? It means that people might begin to motivate themselves and stop labeling themselves ridiculous things. Being unemployed is not a reason for being unemployed. Rethinking how you think is the key to confidence, which in turn is the key to success!
Being the unemployed lout that I am, I need to find a way of dealing with this. Although it is a depressing and awful time in my life where I want to middle finger the world and it's muse, I won't. I will simply continue on my hunt for the perfect job (if there is such a thing?) and hope that at the end of it, they take me on.
For me, it's not depressing applying for jobs, it's the fact that I normally never get a reply back telling me "you don't have the job". I don't even need a reason although I might be a little put off by such an abrupt reply but at least someone took the time to tell me that I didn't get it. IF they don't, I spend hours waiting for them to contact me and tell me I'm successful. My whole life stops every single time because I don't want to miss that all important phone call that I presume will tell me "you've got the job!" (Or, inevitably, say "you don't got the job").
I can appreciate that companies are busy people. They have other things to be doing. Yes, they may have 600 applicants in one go, but that's what mail merge and CC is for: a big sweep. If I work in an office, eventually there will be time where I say to myself, "I have done all my work" in which case I could e-mail a couple of people telling them that they have been unsuccessful and then, if they pester, block their e-mail address.
How simple is that? I sure do hope I get a job so that I can block people and their e-mail addresses!
Although that beer sure is looking tasty, and why not do it out on the street, then everyone can join the "I'm a bum on a park bench" party!