did you go bonkers while out of work ?

Two things that impacted my well-being when out of work:

Money - or rather, the lack thereof, mainly due to rising utility costs and repeated final demands. Nevermind about the recession, or getting 'any old job'. That's fine if you still live at home with mum and dad or you live in ****** student diggs, but if you need a job that pays enough for all of your bills as a single adult who lives on their own; forget stacking shelves or most warehousing, you will not earn enough to keep the bills away.
the jobcentre - seriously, anything to do with those ***** is enough to drive anyone round the bend.

I had plenty of time to spend on my guitar, getting enough sleep, eating at sensible hours, cooking better food, exercising/training, long hikes out in the countryside (I loved this... being cooped up in an office with no windows all day now takes its toll). There's more but I'll not add it here.

I had much more time for myself and as a result led a more stress free existence than I currently have.

While I like the money from work, I don't like the commuting, I don't like the stress of manic deadlines, I really don't like the boss and his 'team player' bs and much of the petty niggles when one boss tells you to do this, and another boss contradicts that and rants about 'why the hell are you doing that?'.

Swings & roundabouts, I guess.
 
I haven't been out of work for ages but have had two operations in the last few years, one I was off for about three weeks and one earlier this year was about ten days.

Couldn't stand it by the end either time, but that's probably the combination of not having the routine, and not being able to do much in the way of fun stuff because I was hobbling about or had my arm in a sling or whatever.

Ran out of stuff to watch and/or desire to watch it pretty quick. Long term I think I would go insane if I didn't find some way to occupy myself.
 
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dirtychinchilla said:
My girlfriend is going stir crazy being unemployed, so I feel your pain! it's really starting to effect her badly :(

I hope you (both) manage to find work soon.
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I know this is flogging a dead horse but if it is driving her that crazy why doesn't she just temp through a highstreet agency?

Yes it will pay probably even sub £10/hour, but it gets you out of the house and gives some structure to the day. If you dont like one place (there is little point putting up with much for that sort of money) you just tell the agency and they give you something else.

Sitting at home being bored seems totally silly to me unless there is some health or childcare reason why she cannot work.
 
Jez said:
I know this is flogging a dead horse but if it is driving her that crazy why doesn't she just temp through a highstreet agency?

Yes it will pay probably even sub £10/hour, but it gets you out of the house and gives some structure to the day. If you dont like one place (there is little point putting up with much for that sort of money) you just tell the agency and they give you something else.

Sitting at home being bored seems totally silly to me unless there is some health or childcare reason why she cannot work.
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Thanks for your suggestions. The problem is that she really needs to find a career, instead of just trying to earn money. I'm encouraging her to volunteer and to go out and exercise etc, while she decides what to do with her life. Money isn't a problem at the moment, she's just a bit lost.
 
That was pretty much our situation, so she is just taking a couple of weeks here and there to tide herself over until she can officially go on "maternity leave".

It makes more sense to get paid some pocket money than be lost and bored, you just take what you fancy when and where you want it. She walked in one day, had a little job the next, and has since moved around 3 companies so far with time off in between because the work is obviously not worth getting into for too long :) Your O/H can hunt for a proper job around it.
 
only boring people get bored, and I swear by this,

I have just taken the last year off, since last March, and will be returning to work next month.

it has been pure bliss, I decided to learn to drive, I have been at the gym nearly every weekday, making food for my Kids for their tea,........

any spare time I had, I have slept or played Batllefield 4,

I am gutted its going to end soon
 
Although they are some of the less glamorous lifestyle choices, drug addiction and prison are viable alternatives to sitting around watching daytime TV until your brain turns to mush.
 
Almost , about 10 years ago I was made redundant (company went down the crapper)

Spent 18 months desperatly searching for a job , finally found one just in the nick of time

It can be hard being unemployed , it destroys your motivation after a while
Constantly trying to get something and getting nothing is hard on you self esteme

Avoided day time TV like the plague and tried as best I could to do stuff
I worked in electronics and software so I spent a lot of time studying microelectronics and low level software programming to keep my brain active
 
All the times I have been out of work I have enjoyed and welcomed the time off. Twice for 6 months and last year for 2 months. In the end it seemed like the time just flew by and even with a stack of Anime, movies, TV series and Games to play I still didn't have time even to make a dent in my watch pile!!
 
Luckily only been out of work once (only at my second ever job now). However, the six months between the two jobs was pretty rubbish.

I originally told myself I'd take two weeks 'off' and get some decent gaming time in as I hadn't really touched a game for six months. Two weeks went by like a rocket which was fair enough. Applied for what I could anyway. "No thanks", "position already filled", "we'll keep you on file"... great.

It got to Christmas which was three months without a job and I was bored out of my mind, I always used to think I could lounge around the house all day every day and never get bored, but I was really fed up and getting pretty stressed. To start with I wasn't too bothered as I'd saved some money from my first job so I was getting by on that, but ultimately I wanted to save as much money as possible.

Luckily a friend of the family approached me at a family party a couple of months after and said there would be two jobs going where he worked. This was before they had even advertised the jobs. I phoned the lady who was in HR at the time and she told me to send in my CV. A week later I got a letter inviting me to my first interview. Two weeks later I was in the second interview. Two weeks after that I was back in a job.

If I'm ever without a job for that long again I'm staying away from Minecraft though. Played too much of that at the time to the point where I'd close my eyes and I'd be trying to build something in my mind :o
 
I ended up at my folks place in winter whilst looking for a job after being made redundant - minus 15-20 outside and crappy internet! was NOT a good time, and it's about the same time I found this forum.....
 
Yes, I concur it's not much fun without any disposable income. There was dole money, housing benefit (basically cancels out your council tax), then if your mortgage provider allows, you can also make it interest-only. I'm with Nationwide and they allowed me to do that. Still, I did need a bit of help from parents as it took me the best part of a year of shortlistings before I got a job again.

Woden said:
Try some voluntary work, you can choose what/how much you do and stems the boredom. Looks better for interviews too.
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+1 for volunteering. I did 1st-line support for about a month. I was really teased off when 7 vacancies opened up at the place and yet I failed 2nd interview, even though I did 1st-line at a previous job. Second place I volunteered was at Age UK setting up computers and getting the guests interested to internet etc.

jake108 said:
playing online games cured it for a while but then just went barmey on VWorker and Freelancer (remote working jobs).
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No no no no!! Online games are great when you have a work / leisure / sleep pattern. Games like WoW are very addictive, and I purposely stopped my subs when I was made redundant because I knew it was going to eat up my day. Sure, re-sub when you're employed again, but stick with casual games while on the dole. Ironically, it was 2010 when I found my next job and WoW was pretty much on its ass by then (when compared with Vanilla), so didn't re-sub in the end.
 
Yes, I had a period out of work after an accident and I hated it.

Daytime tv is abominable. I read mostly but was bored to tears after 2 weeks.
 
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