Funemployment

Heard a newscast yesterday about the alleged phenomenon of “Funemployment.” That is, the newly unemployed millions of us are just having a grand old time being out of work and not able to find anything. We’re rediscovering ourselves, spending time with the family we never did before, and developing talents that would otherwise go unexplored. We’re supposed to be having the time of our lives.

This lady reporter, I think, put an “F” in front of the word “unemployment” to get her news story. I’d like to take an “F” and put it in front of the word “you” and deliver it to her, and, while I’m at it, to the President and to the Democrat party in power for the last 19 months.

There is nothing fun about being out of work.

There is nothing fun about constantly having to stay upbeat, positive, enthusiastic, and the never-ending “fake-it-until-you-make-it” mask that we unemployed have to wear.

There is nothing fun about the 24-7 care of a bruised and broken mental bundle of ego and self-esteem.

There is nothing fun about trying to find a job I’m passionless about in an industry that is not hiring solely to pay an inflated mortgage on a starter house that I don’t even like and has no resale value.

There is nothing fun about juggling the days you mail out checks to pay bills, hoping you won’t get that $35-per-check overdraft fee. (I’ve never bounced a check in my life, so there’s that extra blow to the self-esteem should that happen.)

There’s nothing fun about counting down the weeks before your unemployment insurance runs out and you don’t know what to do after that. Oh, and there’s nothing fun about being labeled a “99er” by multimillionaires such as Rush Limbaugh, et. al.

“Oh, but you get to spend time with the girls,” well-wishers tell me. “You’re doing a fantastic job raising them!”

I appreciate that. But Wells Fargo, PSEG, Verizon, AT&T, Chase Home Finance, Aetna, Cigna, A&P, Capital One Bank, my children’s doctors, Target, CVS – just to name a few – might not be so appreciative. It doesn’t help me sleep better at night (I average five hours of sleep daily). It doesn’t help when I tell the wife that we can’t afford this or we can’t afford that. Or forget about the wife – my children are starting to get very inquisitive.

So, let’s halt this meme that all of us unemployed are lounging in the backyard hammock with Piña Coladas in hand. Or that we’re wearing smocks and sitting at easels painting landscapes. Yes, during the rare hour a day of downtime I have, I’ve polished up my short stories and my two novels and sent them out. But you know what? Publishing companies just aren’t taking risks on first-time authors as they would have, say, five or ten years ago. In fact, a lot of publishing company employees are worried about keeping their jobs (according to the one contact I have in the business).

I can only hope and pray that things will change after the first Tuesday in November, and that the new leaders we send to Washington will do the right things necessary to get this economy up and running again.


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All right, no more pity parties, I promise!

True fun stuff to be posted in September!