This is my first period of unemployment.
And frankly I've picked a doozy of a time to be out of work haven't I? Coming towards the end of week 3 I have a few observations.

Biggest problem is that I- currently anyway- don't have a shortage of money. My redundancy payment wasn't amazingly generous but still not a sum of money I would lose down the back of the sofa. As of course you have no idea when you will be back in employment, you can't wander out to buy a few consoles and an old mercedes to tinker with. This leads on to;

Boredom. Never has the house been so clean, the lawn so well mowed and my CD collection so alphabetised. This is the longest period of time off that I have ever had and to be honest I have never really taken to inactivity so I have found this trying. Despite having no sweet tooth of my own, I've taken to baking cakes as they require attention and fiddling about. Mondays effort had four slimline layers of sponge seperated with two different types of icing. Still it went down well with Mrs Hatred's work colleagues. My curry sauces and stocks are improving and I might start making my own pasta.

Then of course there is job hunting. To say there is mild qualification inflation at the moment is akin to saying that Jeremy Kyle is slightly antogonistic. It appears that to do my old job again, I suddenly need to be an MA. I have seen job specs stem for two paragraphs for telesales positions. The 100% commission related job has staged an unwelcome return as well. Accepting that you have found something to apply for, you and the rest of Buckinghamshire apply for it and get told... Nothing. I don't mind rejection- it happens. What does irritate is receiving no further contact at all- surely an auto reply isn't out of the question?

Then there are trips to the job centre. This has been a frankly bizarre experience. I will say that the staff at the job centre are as helpful as they can be under the circumstances and are good natured funny people. The job centre itself though is a bizarre open plan hothouse that spurns natural light- I believe it might have been designed by some form of sentient mould. The suggestions they've made for jobs have been amusing if useless but bless 'em they're trying.

Otherwise its how those who are unemployed will know. Days blur into each other, daytime TV is beyond dreadful- even with a full fat Sky subscription I am currently learning how envelopes are made on DMAX. As I've had a string of work laptops, my actual personal laptop that I'm typing on at the moment is completely obsolete and won't actually play any of the games I own. As I've done a huge amount of commuting previously, I've also read most of the books worth reading in the local library.

I shall read this thread intently to see if there are any upsides.

Length?- in this climate who bloody knows?
(Leonard Hatred briefly did some work on, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 10:56, 2 replies)

You sound like a sensible chap
I'm sure with your attitude you'll be back in work in no time.

Failing that, you could always take up armed robbery.
( SpankyHanky, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 23:34, closed)

No Further Contact
This bloody annoys me as well. I don't mind so much when they say "If you havent' heard back within X number of weeks/by such-and-such-a-date" as then at least you expect it. But to just not bother at all is annoying.
(williamthebloody, Sat 4 Apr 2009, 0:48, closed)