Unemployed and how to keep going
Fridays are quiet. No emails. No correspondence from messages sent during the week. Mondays are usually the same. So I call Monday’s laundry day and Friday’s shopping or cleaning day so it frees up my weekend. Sundays I look at the week ahead. What do I need to start or finish? What did I achieve last week? It gives me purpose and helps to focus my attention. Just like I would in a job. Except this is doing work for myself. My admin. My projects. Not for a boss. Tuesday to Thursday is probably when the actual work gets done. Like any other job.
I’ve noticed patterns as the weeks go by. What’s the same. What’s different. How I’m feeling emotionally. It’s been 2 months since I was retrenched.
The world is busy. Everyone says they are busy. It’s a busy life. When you’re one of the people whose busyness stops, I can’t help but feel relieved to be away from all that noise. On the other hand, there’s a side of me that feels excluded from the world. Could this be how some people feel when they retire?
I think a lot of people in my situation feel the same. Some may even feel guilty because we're not working as ‘hard’ as everyone else, with our conscience saying, “How dare you take a nap during the day!”
Slow mornings are wonderful, but I keep it to myself. I didn’t in the beginning. It felt strange. The fear now is that when I get another job, this will all go away. Or how long will it take to find another job? Crazy, isn’t it? I feel two opposite things at the same time.
I don’t miss the toxic workplace or the anxiety or people who are nasty. When a job becomes less about the work and more about handling people and toxic cultures, the passion for the job, the work, dies.
Almost all of us just want to do the job, clock out, enjoy the evening, and feel some satisfaction at the end of the day for doing a good job. Is that so much to ask for?
The first thing I did after I was retrenched was rest. Cat naps are great😽
Then I worked out my new expense budget. Not exciting stuff but necessary. I reduced my weekly shop by half the amount I used to spend.
I updated my financials, paused payments where I needed to, and filed for the Unemployment Fund and Tax Return.
I sent out my messages that I'm looking for another job and updated my CV and social media so everyone knew I was open for work.
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Cleanup is good. It clears the mind. Those feel-good goals, you know.
Change can be good. Even the little ones, like changing my weekly cleaning schedule and trying a different exercise class. Movement is even more important now. Again, it’s that feel-good feeling I chase, and increasing my weekly walks.
Things I had on my wish list, I’m tackling slowly. Things I never had the brain capacity or time to do while I was working.
I’m finishing my second cat book with a clear goal in mind by Christmas. If that doesn’t work out financially, I have a plan B.
Always have a plan B.
On the social side, a phase like this really shows who you are. It also shows who your friends truly are or who has changed. We change as we get older. Our values, our bodies, our kids, and our parents who are also getting older. Sometimes we don’t fit our friends anymore, and when unemployed, things can really show up… differently. Or maybe I’m different.
There are many stories of unemployment. The cost of living is rising. Mental disorders, anxiety (I think just about everyone in every age group has anxiety), then there’s substance and physical abuse of all kinds. People are trying to find a way to cope — pay the bills, keep a roof over their heads, pay for their children’s education and medical health bills.
Then along comes Monday, and that jerk at work adds to your painful story… You never know what another person is going through. Be kind.
Don’t even get me started on job hunting. There are plenty of stories. Qualified and experienced people struggling to find work for months. How do graduates find work in a world like this? There are people applying using AI, and hiring companies using AI to find applicants. Where’s the human? Hiring is all wrong. Onboarding is all wrong. What’s the one thing that's needed to make this right?
In the meantime, I’ll enjoy my slow mornings with my own agenda and goals. Who answers to no one except my God and my conscience… oh, and the cats.
I don’t know what’s next or what I have to deal with later, but for today, I am grateful and happy, and right now, that’s enough.
The past is history.
The future is a mystery.
The present is a gift. Enjoy it.
