Posted by: C.D. Reimer in 2009 on 5 Jun 2009
According to the Los Angeles Times, and since this is California, a new word has been added to the English language.
Never heard of funemployment? Here's Urban Dictionary's definition: "The condition of a person who takes advantage of being out of a job to have the time of their life. I spent all day Tuesday at the pool; funemployment rocks!"
When I read the article about twenty- and thirty-somethings using unemployment as an opportunity to take an extended vacation, I had three very different reactions at the same moment: I didn't think funemployment is a real word, I can write an entire novel around that non-real word, and that's not what I been doing since I lost my job in mid-February.
Whether or not funemployment is a real word was immediately disregarded in favor of writing an entire novel around that word. (Not this year since I'm already committed to two new novel projects for 2009/10.) I saved the article to Yojimbo for future reference. But I have known people who used their six-month unemployment benefits for vacations and/or midlife crises.
When my roommates and I decided to go our separate ways after living in the same apartment for five years, one of them lost his job and decided to a take six-month vacation to go find himself. I told him that would be fine if he took steps to improve himself and upgrade his job skills to re-enter the job market. He didn't. Six months later, he found himself unemployable because his job skills was obsolete. The university degree from 20 years before no longer carried weight in the job market. That realization started a long mid-life crisis where he ended up working odd jobs and living with his parents for a while, still trying to find himself in the pursuit of happiness.
He never did like my opinion that if you haven't found yourself by the time you turn forty, forget about it and just live your life.
What made it worse for me was his unwillingness to deal with the landlord, a white woman who emigrated from South Africa and can be generously described as an old witch. Being the only designated adult left in the apartment even though my name was never on the lease, I had to deal with her. Six months after we separated, the old witch called me to track him down for her. Needless to say, I was not happy camper with either him or her. A few years later with a different set of roommates, we ended up renting a different apartment from her. I sat stewing in her cauldron for two hours at her office while she told my other roommates at length what happened at the other apartment and her dealings with my old roommate. But we got the apartment with my name at the top of the rental contract; I was the only designated adult she could trust to take care of the apartment.
I had another roommate who was let go from being an assistant stock broker. He decided to cash out his retirement account and become a day trader for the next six months. Everyday he was on his laptop when the New York Stock Exchange was open for business, and doubled his money in a few months. Then he went on a six week vacation to visit relatives on the East coast, leaving all his cash invested in stocks. When he got back from being rested and well tanned, he found himself dead broke. A victim of what would later be called the dot com bust that sent many non-professional day traders scurrying back to a real job.
When I worked at Accolade/Infogrames/Atari (same company, two different owners, multiple identity crises), a lead tester had gotten a new job that wouldn't start for another six weeks. He violated company policy by leaving out all his CDs and other sensitive work materials that was supposed to be locked up each night. Everyone in the department knew what he was doing. Everyone except the supervisor who noticed the problem only a week later. The lead tester was fired, he filed for unemployment benefits, went on vacation, and started his new job.
The only time I took an extended unemployment vacation was when I cashed out my retirement account to go back to school for a year to finish my programming degree. Taking six classes and 19 units in one semester was not fun, and neither was the last semester when I took five programming courses. But I did graduate and made the President's Honor List for maintaining a 4.0 GPA for that last semester. Not long after that, I went on a creative journey to find myself and started writing again.
My approach to being unemployed is similar to what is described in this Harvard Business Publishing blog post: spend a few hours looking for a job and enjoy the rest of the day. My previous job searches had ended after six weeks when the third recruiter that I talked to offers me a job. I spent a lot of time playing Age of Mythology during those six weeks, probably one of the best real time strategy games that never gets old no matter which mythological god hands your goat-tailed butt back on a platter.
This year is turning out to be different since I was laid off in mid-February. I talked to three recruiters during the first six weeks without getting a new job. (I showed up for an afternoon interview only to be told that the position was filled that morning.) The job market went completely dead after that. Taking a funemployment vacation wasn't an option. I realized that I needed to get things done in my life, especially with becoming a busy writer since that's my next career major change. After being out of work for three months, things are starting to turn around in the job market. I talked to a half dozen recruiters this week. Still no job yet.