Have you ever had a job that you absolutely did not flourish in or were let go from because you were unsuitable?
Unless you were born into a wealthy family or you won the lottery at a young age, chances are, you’ve probably worked somewhere that made you miserable. Maybe you’re still there.
During high school, this type of employment is unavoidable. Beggars can’t be choosers. You have to take what you can get, I remember working at the Mushroom Plant the summer I was 16, it was brutal. We all need money, it’s an unfortunate fact of life. Yet, should this necessity come at the cost of our happiness? Is having a job that sucks the soul out of you really better than being unemployed? After all, unemployment is no walk in the park either. It drains your bank account and your self-esteem.
When the economy is tanking, employment becomes increasingly elusive. It doesn’t matter if you were a top performer, a CEO, or volunteered to mentor at the local Boys & Girls club. It is tough to be older in an economic climate like this. It makes searching for a job an excruciating process.
You send out countless job applications, many of them to positions you’re far overqualified for. You write so many cover letters your head feels like it will explode. Most of the time, you never even hear back. Sometimes they are courteous enough to at least send you an automatic email response, “We have received your application.” In many instances it’s almost worse to have an actual human-being reply. It’s always the same: “Thank you for your application. While we were very impressed by your résumé, your skills set isn't quite what we are looking for at this time, we will keep it on file for future considerations.”
It's a vicious cycle. You apply for jobs you know you are qualified for and so does every other job hunter out there. You shoot for the stars - for dream jobs that you think you could land with your years of experience, on the ground training, the many transferable skills you have - and hope to hit the moon but even that is a stretch. Then you start to apply for jobs you are way over qualified for. You’re left with few good options. Ultimately, you give up on your dreams and accept a job that will help you pay the bills. You hate it, but it’s better than being out on the streets, right? Wrong. This sad mentality not only damages the economy in the long run, it’s also bad for your mental health and general well-being.
Unemployment is up right now. A lot of people are giving up.They’re not even in the numbers; they’re not in the count. They’ve been looking for jobs for so long and can’t find the jobs that they’re simply not even trying anymore.
Being unemployed is the worst position an adult can be in. We all need to get paid, and staying connected with the labor market increases a person’s employability in the future. You don’t want to have large gaps in employment on your résumé, this makes it look as though people had a reason not to hire you.
This is precisely why many people take jobs that they hate and stay in them despite being incredibly unhappy. I found a survey that looked at the well-being and mental health during unemployment and found that being in a bad job is worse for a person’s psychological well-being than being unemployed. If you’re in a monotonous and unchallenging job in which your work is micromanaged, your mental health will suffer a great deal. Unemployment is stressful, but it still leaves room for possibilities. When you’re unemployed, you focus all of your efforts on finding a fulfilling position. Yet, when you’re working a dead-end job, you’re so depleted at the end of the day it’s difficult to begin thinking about the future, let alone what you’re going to eat for dinner.
We all want to find employment that allows our unique skills to be put to good use. When we end up working somewhere that constricts us, where every day is the same, it chips away at the very essence of our being. Humans aren’t meant to simply pay bills until we die.
As Maya Angelou once aptly stated:
You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.
I have heard there is nothing more rewarding than being in a job you love. They say it makes you excited to wake up in the morning and get to work. Sometimes you actually can’t wait for the weekend to be over because you’re so passionate about what you’re doing. For me, this simply hasn't been the case. Landing my dream job in today’s world ain’t easy. That doesn’t mean I should give up pursuing it.
Unemployment is scary, believe me I know ~ I've lived and learned through some stumbling, demonstrated more than once in the beauty of messing up and losing my job, but the prospect of wasting my life doing something I wasn't happy in or felt under-valued in, is even more terrifying.
I only get one life, I am 50 soon, I don’t want to waste it. I am going to take risks. I have learned to recognize that even failures have great value. Struggle is inevitable, it’s what makes victory that much sweeter.
