Thursday, June 27, 2013
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Why does unemployment seem to bring out the best in people?
Why does unemployment seem to bring out the best in people?
I ask this question because of the following experience:
It was the day after Christmas. Instead of the normal euphoria people feel during the holidays, I felt blue. The past year and a half, I experienced a whirlwind of adventures, made new friends, and visited amazing sites. Prompted by a layoff, I embarked on a summer of volunteering in Chile, four months of teaching children via leading hikes in the pristine trails of Shasta County, and another summer working in one of the most beautiful places on our planet, Prince William Sound, Alaska. Now I had returned to the uber-urban metropolis known as Orange County and the less exciting prospect of hunting for a “serious” job. On top of the uninspiring economy, I had just learned of some dark family drama of which I will not reveal the details.
Determined to lift my spirits, I cycled out to Huntington Beach. With the sky a brilliant blue, the sun shining, my body healthy and well, I knew that I had much to be grateful for. I parked my bike under the lifeguard station and proceeded to jog along the beach. I gazed at the faces of people that I passed by. Everyone appeared to be with family, friends, loved ones. I observed one man who, solo, jogged past me with the smile of a man completely at peace with the world. He was older (mid-50s), but wiry, and very fit for his age. I caught up to him, and said hello. I felt his peace, calm, and joy with himself and life could be transmitted to me merely through conversation. The funny thing was, it did.
I mentioned how beautiful the day was, and how lucky we were to be here enjoying the simple pleasures of life: good health, sunshine, and the beauty of the ocean. He agreed, and proceeded to tell me how he had been a golf instructor, but due to the slow economy, had been laid off last year. He didn’t have a college education, and didn’t have savings. But he did have a family, who opened their doors to him so that he could save on rent. “God takes care of us,” he said. Because he now lives with his aging parents, he is able to spend more time with them and assist them in their old age. He described how his 90-year old mother, with tears streaming down her face, hugged him in gratitude for being home to care for her. His older brother, who owned two homes but had no wife or children, promised him an open door to his home where they could live together, grow old together, and spend the days fishing. I gave this man a hug, and thanked him for inspiring me. He, in turn, thanked me for the hug and for helping him feel better about his day.
Too often in our pursuit of a career, money, or status, we miss out on the more important aspects of life. Spending time with loved ones. Extending a helping hand or hug to a stranger or someone in need. Slowing down enough to simply breath the fresh air, hear the crash of ocean waves, and enjoy the simple pleasures of our senses. In the case of this man, being unemployed had brought him closer to his family. Since being laid off from my demanding scientist profession, I’ve had many more moments like this, in which I was able to truly connect and engage with my surroundings and fellow human beings. Not to say that I was idle and not working since losing my corporate job. My new work pursuits, while low-paid, were much more fulfilling and gave me time to slow down enough to truly connect with the world. No more glazed eyes from the routine of a 9-to-5 job, after which I returned home tired. No more mind spinning over office politics even after I'd left work. Being laid off was, in fact, a blessing because it brought out the best in me: the desire to connect and give back to my community and environment.
I ask this question because of the following experience:
It was the day after Christmas. Instead of the normal euphoria people feel during the holidays, I felt blue. The past year and a half, I experienced a whirlwind of adventures, made new friends, and visited amazing sites. Prompted by a layoff, I embarked on a summer of volunteering in Chile, four months of teaching children via leading hikes in the pristine trails of Shasta County, and another summer working in one of the most beautiful places on our planet, Prince William Sound, Alaska. Now I had returned to the uber-urban metropolis known as Orange County and the less exciting prospect of hunting for a “serious” job. On top of the uninspiring economy, I had just learned of some dark family drama of which I will not reveal the details.
Determined to lift my spirits, I cycled out to Huntington Beach. With the sky a brilliant blue, the sun shining, my body healthy and well, I knew that I had much to be grateful for. I parked my bike under the lifeguard station and proceeded to jog along the beach. I gazed at the faces of people that I passed by. Everyone appeared to be with family, friends, loved ones. I observed one man who, solo, jogged past me with the smile of a man completely at peace with the world. He was older (mid-50s), but wiry, and very fit for his age. I caught up to him, and said hello. I felt his peace, calm, and joy with himself and life could be transmitted to me merely through conversation. The funny thing was, it did.
I mentioned how beautiful the day was, and how lucky we were to be here enjoying the simple pleasures of life: good health, sunshine, and the beauty of the ocean. He agreed, and proceeded to tell me how he had been a golf instructor, but due to the slow economy, had been laid off last year. He didn’t have a college education, and didn’t have savings. But he did have a family, who opened their doors to him so that he could save on rent. “God takes care of us,” he said. Because he now lives with his aging parents, he is able to spend more time with them and assist them in their old age. He described how his 90-year old mother, with tears streaming down her face, hugged him in gratitude for being home to care for her. His older brother, who owned two homes but had no wife or children, promised him an open door to his home where they could live together, grow old together, and spend the days fishing. I gave this man a hug, and thanked him for inspiring me. He, in turn, thanked me for the hug and for helping him feel better about his day.
Too often in our pursuit of a career, money, or status, we miss out on the more important aspects of life. Spending time with loved ones. Extending a helping hand or hug to a stranger or someone in need. Slowing down enough to simply breath the fresh air, hear the crash of ocean waves, and enjoy the simple pleasures of our senses. In the case of this man, being unemployed had brought him closer to his family. Since being laid off from my demanding scientist profession, I’ve had many more moments like this, in which I was able to truly connect and engage with my surroundings and fellow human beings. Not to say that I was idle and not working since losing my corporate job. My new work pursuits, while low-paid, were much more fulfilling and gave me time to slow down enough to truly connect with the world. No more glazed eyes from the routine of a 9-to-5 job, after which I returned home tired. No more mind spinning over office politics even after I'd left work. Being laid off was, in fact, a blessing because it brought out the best in me: the desire to connect and give back to my community and environment.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
What does having sex, making love, losing one’s first tooth, and being unemployed have in common?
There’s a first time for everything…having sex, making love (yes, there is a difference!), buying your first car, losing your first tooth, signing the lease on your first apartment…..
Yup, I’ve experienced all the “firsts” above, and now, for the first time ever I am “Laid Off and Unemployed”.
For all those late 20-something year olds and mid-30-year olds and even late-30 and early-40-year olds… heck, for EVERYONE who has ever been in life or career transition, I dedicate this first post to you!
In February of this year, I was Laid Off. I write that with capital letters because of the significance of this event in my life. I have never been unemployed nor underemployed in my 31 years. Summers between high school and college years, I worked — telemarketing, department store retail, Halloween costume warehouse stocking, biochemistry research lab work– and within a month of graduating from undergrad and grad school, I landed jobs. Being laid off and unemployed is a state of being that I don’t recommend for everyone (eg you have a family to feed and a mortgage to pay). But after the initial reaction of anxiety and fervent job-hunting and networking panic, I’ve realized it is an experience that I am grateful for…
Isn’t it strange how for some of us, forced unemployment becomes a liberating event? Myself included? So many of us go through life doing what we “should”, following the linear path that we or our parents or society designed for us back in high school or college. So many of us follow habits and patterns of living. It takes a major event like being laid off to force ourselves to ask, is this what we really want? Is this the lifestyle that we really want to live? Are we happy “enough” living this way? Or are we living in a default, status-quo mode and could we be living a more fulfilling life?
So being laid off was the wake-up call for me. I realized that I wasn’t feeling completely fulfilled, that I had been searching for a new career not only b/c my old career wasn’t fulfilling, but also b/c my life wasn’t fulfilling. I had fallen into the pattern of work, gym, occasionally hanging out w/ friends or significant other to watch a Netflix movie or eating a meal, and repeat.
Why do I feel more energized now, in my unemployed state?
I broke my pattern. Every day I do something different, and I am learning and reading and writing about subjects that I have always wanted to learn, read, and write about, but never made the time to do b/c I was in default mode! I can assure you, these types of changes are electrifying to the mind!
You may be curious about the specifics…. ie what specific experiences have made me feel more alive now, vs when I was working a regular job? So here goes….
- learning about the variety of worklives and lifestyles people live
- taking moments in the day to just enjoy my surrounds vs running “through” my list of tasks
- reading and learning about topics that interest me
Exploring the world of work: it’s a smorgasborg out there! About one month into my unemployed state, I decided I needed to explore all the other career fields I had long thought I would be interested in trying out AND explore careers that I had never considered: non-profit business development, teaching , nursing , recruiting , marketing, scientific writing, career counseling , student advising , financial planning, educational entrepreneurship, psychology/education/neuroscience research, teaching English as a second language….. hmmm, did I leave anything out? However, as I began my inquiry, I realized something… because we live in an amazing country such as the U.S.A., where one can do and be just about anything with enough chutzpah and resourcefulness and creativity, the world of work is like a warped version of Baskin-n-Robins– 51 to the nth power of flavors of careers!
Examples of the professionals I met who had reinvented themselves included….
- the late-30s-birthing-doula-entrepreneur-turned-insurance-broker waiting next to me in the elevator: She describes brokering of insurance is not too far from being a birthing doula… as a birthing doula, she constantly managed expectations between the expectant parents, and now, as an insurance broker, she mediates between the insurance providers and the clients seeking insurance.
- the 50-something work-at-home-mom-turned healthcare analyst riding the BART with me to downtown Oakland: she loves the great benefits and steady work offered by Blue Shield.
- the Berkeley librarian, laid-off architect, hoping to return to her profession once the economy improves, or return to school to be an architecture librarian.
- the marketing professional who realized she needed to be helping people vs analyzing data, worked for Americorp as a teacher, and now runs an Oakland afterschool enrichment program managing 80+ kids… what she loves about her job: “she gets paid to act like a kid!”
I could go on and on with stories from all the different people I have met and spoken with. But the theme is clear: change is the norm, and those who made changes that jived with their values as well as their practical needs were extremely happy!
Not only did I meet career changers, I met or learned about society non-conformists who chose an “alternative” lifestyle…
- world-traveler climber and freelance writer, born in Papua New Guinea, raised in Swaziland, South Africa and Oroville, California, who refuses to live the “mediocre” life. I struck up conversation with him in my gym because I was intrigued by all the small scraps of paper he had surrounded his laptop with (the beginnings of a travel article).
- organic agriculturist who lived on communal farms in South America … a “WWOOF-er” learning by experience how to farm without destroying the environment. How I met her: waiting in line to have my passport photo taken at Longs Drugs.
- via email, I learned about Chris Guillebeau, who is traveling every country of the world, funded by his blog The Art of Nonconformity. I was forwarded his site by a very talented, ambitious 20-year-old Canadian business major/self-help entrepreneur Scott Young.
Not to say that I wanted to do or follow any of these jobs or lifestyles … but in learning about them, my notion of work and how to live life has exploded into a kaleidoscopic of possibilities! I am now more conscious of the concept “life by design”.
Slowing down: taking time to enjoy simple pleasures like a sunset walk around Lake Merritt or a walk through UC Berkeley campus is profoundly energizing!
Re-awakening the mind: often we fall into easy patterns of play and work, but sometimes what we need to make us feel alive again is to awaken the mind! Not that our professions don’t supply intellectual stimulation…or that watching TV or movies with friends isn’t entertaining… but maybe, like taking vitamins and eating our veggies, creative “work” like reading, writing, studying foreign language, and immersing ourselves in unfamiliar fields not related to our profession are actions we can take to energize us!
For example, last week I borrowed my housemate’s book, On Learning to Write. The author states, everyone is born knowing how to write. That we lose our desire to write because of fear of rejection, criticism, “rustiness” of the writing muscle. I decided that I would write 1000 words per day. On any topic. Without hesitation or fear of being mediocre or just plain boring. I haven’t quite met my goal, but in trying, I feel my writing muscles getting stronger already!
Unemployed… laid off… a little scared… but also excited at the possiblities… and on a journey… until next time.
Yup, I’ve experienced all the “firsts” above, and now, for the first time ever I am “Laid Off and Unemployed”.
For all those late 20-something year olds and mid-30-year olds and even late-30 and early-40-year olds… heck, for EVERYONE who has ever been in life or career transition, I dedicate this first post to you!
In February of this year, I was Laid Off. I write that with capital letters because of the significance of this event in my life. I have never been unemployed nor underemployed in my 31 years. Summers between high school and college years, I worked — telemarketing, department store retail, Halloween costume warehouse stocking, biochemistry research lab work– and within a month of graduating from undergrad and grad school, I landed jobs. Being laid off and unemployed is a state of being that I don’t recommend for everyone (eg you have a family to feed and a mortgage to pay). But after the initial reaction of anxiety and fervent job-hunting and networking panic, I’ve realized it is an experience that I am grateful for…
Isn’t it strange how for some of us, forced unemployment becomes a liberating event? Myself included? So many of us go through life doing what we “should”, following the linear path that we or our parents or society designed for us back in high school or college. So many of us follow habits and patterns of living. It takes a major event like being laid off to force ourselves to ask, is this what we really want? Is this the lifestyle that we really want to live? Are we happy “enough” living this way? Or are we living in a default, status-quo mode and could we be living a more fulfilling life?
So being laid off was the wake-up call for me. I realized that I wasn’t feeling completely fulfilled, that I had been searching for a new career not only b/c my old career wasn’t fulfilling, but also b/c my life wasn’t fulfilling. I had fallen into the pattern of work, gym, occasionally hanging out w/ friends or significant other to watch a Netflix movie or eating a meal, and repeat.
Why do I feel more energized now, in my unemployed state?
I broke my pattern. Every day I do something different, and I am learning and reading and writing about subjects that I have always wanted to learn, read, and write about, but never made the time to do b/c I was in default mode! I can assure you, these types of changes are electrifying to the mind!
You may be curious about the specifics…. ie what specific experiences have made me feel more alive now, vs when I was working a regular job? So here goes….
- learning about the variety of worklives and lifestyles people live
- taking moments in the day to just enjoy my surrounds vs running “through” my list of tasks
- reading and learning about topics that interest me
Exploring the world of work: it’s a smorgasborg out there! About one month into my unemployed state, I decided I needed to explore all the other career fields I had long thought I would be interested in trying out AND explore careers that I had never considered: non-profit business development, teaching , nursing , recruiting , marketing, scientific writing, career counseling , student advising , financial planning, educational entrepreneurship, psychology/education/neuroscience research, teaching English as a second language….. hmmm, did I leave anything out? However, as I began my inquiry, I realized something… because we live in an amazing country such as the U.S.A., where one can do and be just about anything with enough chutzpah and resourcefulness and creativity, the world of work is like a warped version of Baskin-n-Robins– 51 to the nth power of flavors of careers!
Examples of the professionals I met who had reinvented themselves included….
- the late-30s-birthing-doula-entrepreneur-turned-insurance-broker waiting next to me in the elevator: She describes brokering of insurance is not too far from being a birthing doula… as a birthing doula, she constantly managed expectations between the expectant parents, and now, as an insurance broker, she mediates between the insurance providers and the clients seeking insurance.
- the 50-something work-at-home-mom-turned healthcare analyst riding the BART with me to downtown Oakland: she loves the great benefits and steady work offered by Blue Shield.
- the Berkeley librarian, laid-off architect, hoping to return to her profession once the economy improves, or return to school to be an architecture librarian.
- the marketing professional who realized she needed to be helping people vs analyzing data, worked for Americorp as a teacher, and now runs an Oakland afterschool enrichment program managing 80+ kids… what she loves about her job: “she gets paid to act like a kid!”
I could go on and on with stories from all the different people I have met and spoken with. But the theme is clear: change is the norm, and those who made changes that jived with their values as well as their practical needs were extremely happy!
Not only did I meet career changers, I met or learned about society non-conformists who chose an “alternative” lifestyle…
- world-traveler climber and freelance writer, born in Papua New Guinea, raised in Swaziland, South Africa and Oroville, California, who refuses to live the “mediocre” life. I struck up conversation with him in my gym because I was intrigued by all the small scraps of paper he had surrounded his laptop with (the beginnings of a travel article).
- organic agriculturist who lived on communal farms in South America … a “WWOOF-er” learning by experience how to farm without destroying the environment. How I met her: waiting in line to have my passport photo taken at Longs Drugs.
- via email, I learned about Chris Guillebeau, who is traveling every country of the world, funded by his blog The Art of Nonconformity. I was forwarded his site by a very talented, ambitious 20-year-old Canadian business major/self-help entrepreneur Scott Young.
Not to say that I wanted to do or follow any of these jobs or lifestyles … but in learning about them, my notion of work and how to live life has exploded into a kaleidoscopic of possibilities! I am now more conscious of the concept “life by design”.
Slowing down: taking time to enjoy simple pleasures like a sunset walk around Lake Merritt or a walk through UC Berkeley campus is profoundly energizing!
Re-awakening the mind: often we fall into easy patterns of play and work, but sometimes what we need to make us feel alive again is to awaken the mind! Not that our professions don’t supply intellectual stimulation…or that watching TV or movies with friends isn’t entertaining… but maybe, like taking vitamins and eating our veggies, creative “work” like reading, writing, studying foreign language, and immersing ourselves in unfamiliar fields not related to our profession are actions we can take to energize us!
For example, last week I borrowed my housemate’s book, On Learning to Write. The author states, everyone is born knowing how to write. That we lose our desire to write because of fear of rejection, criticism, “rustiness” of the writing muscle. I decided that I would write 1000 words per day. On any topic. Without hesitation or fear of being mediocre or just plain boring. I haven’t quite met my goal, but in trying, I feel my writing muscles getting stronger already!
Unemployed… laid off… a little scared… but also excited at the possiblities… and on a journey… until next time.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
So it begins....
my first attempt at blogging, that is!
Today I learned about working in construction! I was on the Muni, headed home from UCSF Mission Bay. The guy sitting next to me had steel-toed shoes, w/ the steel showing through... i mean, the leather had worn so much that the steel was actually showing through at his toes!
Anyways, we struck up conversation b/c I followed him to figure out how to pay for muni (it was my first time catching it from the street vs from a BART station)... he thought I was a student b/c of my huge, heavy-looking (and heavy in reality) computer backpack.
So I replied, no, not a student, but that I worked WITH students today. I explained that I give lectures and teach people how to use instruments. I could tell he wasn't the talky brash type, actually he seemed a bit self-effacing....by the end of my muni ride I decided he was just being polite/reserved b/c i was a stranger.
anyways, he told me (and another guy, a "suit" --eg suit-sporting white-collar business-type muni rider) that he was working on building a parking lot at the mission bay campus, and had been on that same project for the last 1 and a half years!
he explained, you gotta know about everything.... framing, electrical, concrete.... the old days you specialized, but nowadays, you go through a 4 year apprenticeship where you learn all the areas of construction. after that, you become a journeyman.....and currently, he contracts.... on projects such as roofing, installing solar panels, concrete work.....
who would have thought, a 4-year education to be a contractor! us college kids never realize i think all the other forms of education out there!
which reminds me of the german girl i met while out in cortona, italy! again, the recurring theme that aside from your standard 4-year college experience, the world offers much more! in Germany, people often study AND work in industry at the same time, with the studies completely paid for by the company. in return, the student works for the company for 2 years (a guaranteed job after college-- pretty good deal for both sides, I'd say, considering these tough job markets)
i also learned from the conversation between him and Mr. Suit is that it can cost $25,000 just to install solar panels! That the $25,000 may only be worth it if you start your 30-yr mortgage w/ solar panels, ie to pay off the $25G in energy savings (of course, you're also helping save the earth)!
Then the conversation moved into all the different "green" building trends.... recycled tires in roads and playgrounds, recycled wood in building materials....
Mr. Construction made us all laugh when he told us about the newest fashion-housing trend in Fresno: the use of shipping containers to build modern housing!
Anyways, it was an entertaining Muni ride home : )
Today I learned about working in construction! I was on the Muni, headed home from UCSF Mission Bay. The guy sitting next to me had steel-toed shoes, w/ the steel showing through... i mean, the leather had worn so much that the steel was actually showing through at his toes!
Anyways, we struck up conversation b/c I followed him to figure out how to pay for muni (it was my first time catching it from the street vs from a BART station)... he thought I was a student b/c of my huge, heavy-looking (and heavy in reality) computer backpack.
So I replied, no, not a student, but that I worked WITH students today. I explained that I give lectures and teach people how to use instruments. I could tell he wasn't the talky brash type, actually he seemed a bit self-effacing....by the end of my muni ride I decided he was just being polite/reserved b/c i was a stranger.
anyways, he told me (and another guy, a "suit" --eg suit-sporting white-collar business-type muni rider) that he was working on building a parking lot at the mission bay campus, and had been on that same project for the last 1 and a half years!
he explained, you gotta know about everything.... framing, electrical, concrete.... the old days you specialized, but nowadays, you go through a 4 year apprenticeship where you learn all the areas of construction. after that, you become a journeyman.....and currently, he contracts.... on projects such as roofing, installing solar panels, concrete work.....
who would have thought, a 4-year education to be a contractor! us college kids never realize i think all the other forms of education out there!
which reminds me of the german girl i met while out in cortona, italy! again, the recurring theme that aside from your standard 4-year college experience, the world offers much more! in Germany, people often study AND work in industry at the same time, with the studies completely paid for by the company. in return, the student works for the company for 2 years (a guaranteed job after college-- pretty good deal for both sides, I'd say, considering these tough job markets)
i also learned from the conversation between him and Mr. Suit is that it can cost $25,000 just to install solar panels! That the $25,000 may only be worth it if you start your 30-yr mortgage w/ solar panels, ie to pay off the $25G in energy savings (of course, you're also helping save the earth)!
Then the conversation moved into all the different "green" building trends.... recycled tires in roads and playgrounds, recycled wood in building materials....
Mr. Construction made us all laugh when he told us about the newest fashion-housing trend in Fresno: the use of shipping containers
Anyways, it was an entertaining Muni ride home : )
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