As Joey from “Friends” once told Ross during his spell of eagerness for household chores during a sabbatical: “Dude, you’ve just described seven days’ worth of stuff. You’ve got to spread it out a little.”
For your average Joe(y) doing laundry and popping to the bank must be squeezed in intermittently between work hours; for the freelancer on the other hand (and when I say “freelancer”, I mean “unemployed person”) a whole day can easily be spent just washing one’s hair and beating a rug. Between sewing on buttons and strolls around town one easily forgets what it is like spending full weeks at work, wondering how others find time for the little things in life . . . Like a nice day off after the weekend.
The Dark Side
Falling into a deep and gloomy hole of depression is probable: just picking up a paper you will see how doomed our futures are. With 2.4million people out of work in the UK and the majority of those being young adults (under 25s) one can’t help but feel that we really are a “lost generation”. Job sharing, redundancy and pay cuts see us digging our nails into the crumbling cake of our future. It is natural to panic over impending rent and cry over the pile of bills finding their way on to the doorstep. However, it’s not all wretched . . .
Ahoy Silver Lining!
Count your lucky stars that you’re not the only one—that rather scary figure means there are 2.4m other people drinking copious amounts of tea while watching “Loose Women” and contemplating another batch of muffin making.
The fun five:
1) You have plenty of ‘me’ time.
2) Walking the dog is an adventure.
3) You will get visits from pitying friends.
4) It is easy to consider yourself gainfully employed when thinking of job searching as a full-time career.
5) You can moan profusely about lack of funds/ jobs available/ life but still not be proactive about finding work.
How to deal with a ‘freelancer’
1. There will always enough be enough funds for cocktails.
2. Spending so much time at home produces domestic goddesses.
3. If freelance friend gets obsessed with baking and cooks up an inedible feast you must fake pleasure. Said friend is freelance and thus fragile.
4. Three days of actual paid employment feels like three months on an oil rig and writing the occasional article for an online magazine is practically a full time position at the New York Times so be gentle with us.
5. It’s not called ‘unemployed’ if you don’t receive JSA.