This is an unemployment story anonymously contributed to my blog. If you would like to share your story, please write me at ladyunemployed [at] gmail [dot] com.
Three years ago when I first arrived here in California, I had no work permit to show that I was eligible to work here. I was waiting for my work permit when I got pregnant. Then my miseries started. I wasn’t blaming my pregnancy but it was my husband who made me felt worthless. He was telling everybody that I don’t do anything but sleep and eat at home. Since he was the only one working to pay our bills, I think it was so unfair of him to make me feel so worthless. He doesn’t know that I was the only one keeping the whole place organized. I felt like I was in hell, there was nobody to talk to, and when he comes home, he goes straight to playing his video games. I was so hopeless and and I felt that I was greatly abandoned. I told myself that ones I give birth and have my work permit I will look for a job right away. I had C-Section and and I was supposed to rest for at least 2 months but my goal was to get a job because I can no longer stand being humiliated.
So I got a job interview and they hired me. I was so happy. It was like a load off my shoulder. Then my husband started treating me nicely. I felt like God left me alone in times that I needed Him. I was praying all the time, begging to please listen to me. When I finally got my job, I realized that there’s really a right time for everything. Please don’t lose hope. It is not your fault that you don’t have a job. Know you are doing everything at your best. I am sure that God will one day answer your prayers.
Good luck and keep looking for a job. You deserve to have one.
Michelle
I left a job working in a miserable, cold butchery warehouse for the Co-op from 2014-2016. I got up at 4 am to get there for 6 am. Although the hours were 16 hours a week (but I worked up to 39 hours at busy times) it was still a hard slog. The work was pretty much what a monkey could do. But the cold environment, the wellies, the hairnets, the extremely ill-fitting overalls (even if they measure you) and not to mention the machines that were ‘knackered’ and filthy and the bullying and personal threats and swearing from managers.
It took me months to decide whether to quit or not but I stuck it out. I tried to put the suicidal thoughts into a box in the back of my mind and carry on. I found that I was starting to get angry, even on my days off. Sunday nights (I didn’t work weekends) were like death. The depression was unbearable. To contemplate another week at that place had me in turmoil. I went through all the right channels. I spoke to head office, they suggested I have time off. Which is all well and good by I get less pay, I have to return and I know what the workers say about people who are off sick (especially with depression) behind their backs. And how do they find out???? The manager tells the staff. He used to make jokes about people. Even when new people applied for a job; “Got another f**king retard to interview today.” Just completely ludicrous. So I decided to hand in my notice in December of 2016. Since then I have been hammering the jobs. I say hammering the jobs, they have been hammering ME. “Can you drive?” “Do you have experience?” “Do you have a passport?” “Do you have a CRB check done on you?” “Do you have a CSIS card????” All these things thwart me at every turn.
So… I can’t get even a cleaning job, or a job in caring as I cannot drive. Even a part time job in a local shop, they want someone who can drive. Ridiculous. Then there’s the experience hurdle. So I need a job that pays for all this. Factory work isn’t for me anymore (plus you need a car now to travel to them). I need FULL TIME work, which is impossible these days to obtain. I live alone and I pay all my own bills so part time work just won’t cover it. The jobcentre don’t help, they hinder you. They give you pointless appointments that do nothing for you but to ‘keep tabs on you’, like you’re a criminal on a TAG.
I am 37 at just thinking about ending it all sometimes. What’s the point????