Good news, everyone: Not working is fun now! (But only if you have savings and/or a benefactor.) In fact, it's so fun, there's a new word for it that will jump right off the page and stab you in the brain, like a large shard of glass right through the eyelid. It's not unemployment, it's funemployment! Are we having fun yet?
From The LA Times:
Michael Van Gorkom was laid off by Yahoo in late April. He didn't panic. He didn't rush off to a therapist. Instead, the 33-year-old Santa Monica resident discovered that being jobless "kind of settled nicely."
What most people would call unemployment, Van Gorkom embraced as "funemployment."
While millions of Americans struggle to find work as they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, others have found a silver lining in the economic meltdown. These happily jobless tend to be single and in their 20s and 30s. Some were laid off. Some quit voluntarily, lured by generous buyouts.
Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they're content living for today.
Hmm. So what you're telling me is that being unencumbered, excuse me, funencumbered by things like financial need, dependants, worries about the future, and responsibility can be enjoyable? What a societal shift. Hopefully there are some studies that back this outrageous conclusion up. Oh, look:
These days, more people than in the 1970s are saying they want jobs with a lot of vacation time, according to preliminary data from Twenge's generational surveys…And, when asked if they would quit their jobs if they had money, more are answering "yes," though the majority still say they would continue working.