© Sander van der Wel

A while ago I wrote a blog post on how unemployment had been a positive change for me. A year after having started the job hunt, I am still looking and have not yet found a job. Of course, the figures are not very encouraging, considering the number of applications sent, replies received and jobs got: none. But still, I am not yet ready to give up hope.

Since becoming unemployed, and over the past couple of months, I have come across a constant image of unemployment being utterly depressing. Not long ago, I chose to watch the film The Company Men. For those who don’t know, it’s a film about three men from the same company who lose their jobs (different ages, different jobs).

The portrayal of unemployment in the film, is about as dismal as it gets. Unemployment, is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to you. You lose your money, you lose your status, you feel embarrassed and you don’t know what to do. You don’t dare tell anybody, you pretend you go to work every day to keep up appearances, and are forced to do demeaning jobs to make ends meet.



One of the men was so depressed, he ended up committing suicide.

As I watched the film unfold, I couldn’t help but thing “Wow Who knew unemployment was so depressing?”. I also wondered why they were portraying it in such a negative light, though I am sure there were reasons for this. And as I watched the men lose everything, sell house and car, and give up on any small pleasure I was thinking “hang on, that’s not true. If you have unemployment benefits, and your spouse works, surely everything doesn’t go down the drain”. I know there are many different ways unemployment can go, but surely the one portrayed in the film is not the only one.

At the beginning of this year, I undertook a course about starting your own business, generously paid for by the Swiss Unemployment system. Everyone else on the course was also unemployed, and on the first day we all had to stand up and tell the rest of “c

📌 Views on unemployment (Italia)
🏢 Emma Brooks
📍 Italia