Thinking of embracing the NEET life.

[Metalhead]

I have not been happy with my job for a while, and I could realistically live off my SSDI checks alone.

Of course, all of my RL friends are thinking that quitting my job and becoming a gaming hermit is a horrible idea, and I know they are right about that.

Maybe I should look for another job instead of becoming a NEET, one that is a better match for my personality and skill sets?

I do have a friend who appears to be happy in his NEET life and I feel jealous over that.

 

[tree]

In case anyone's forgotten, or isn't familiar with the acronym :


NEET, an acronym for "Not in Education, Employment, or Training", refers to a person who is unemployed and not receiving an education or vocational training. The classification originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1990s, and its use has spread, in varying degrees, to other countries...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEET

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Nothing wrong with doing a job search,...employers are begging for help these days. Once you get the new job, put in your 2 weeks notice at the other, and move on without an interruption in your pay.

You're only 42, so you've got a potentially long time living on some very modest SSDI checks,...and with the Fed looking to raise interest rates,...inflation will occur,...living expenses will rise,...and if you are stuck on a fixed income, that would seriously suck.

Sounds like you live rather modestly anyhow, but even so, I would try to put some money away for the future. But, like you said, no sense in being unhappy with your current job,...I'd just look for a new one now that employers are in need of help in just about every job sector.

Just had it on the local news here, that truck driving schools will put you through an intensive 2 week program and you can be out there getting paid $70,000-80,000/year. That's more than what I get paid now after 35+ years as a respiratory therapist! There are a lot of programs out there now where the market is just screaming for help and there are incentives for retraining to those jobs. Personally, if I got fired tomorrow,...I would jump onto one of those programs in a heartbeat.

 

[Suzette]

Start living of the ssi amount now but continue to work and invest every penny you earn into a variety of mutual funds. Choose 1/3 in high yeild (risky) accounts and the rest in steady earners. Do this for 10 years. You can still retire early!

 

[Jordy]

In all seriousness, maybe get a part-time job that gives you at least weekly contact with people you can make some chitchat with. If you do decide to go the NEET route atleast do some voluntary work twice a week if you can, but even voluntary work often requires experience and isn't always easy to get in.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

In all seriousness, maybe get a part-time job that gives you at least weekly contact with people you can make some chitchat with.

To the author of that meme: I think if you can work, you should. These are my ideals, but if you are a member of a society, and you are able, you should make a positive contribution. There is too much selfishness in this world. I will, without hesitation, give a helping hand to those truly in need,...but if one is simply choosing to not work and to live off of my tax dollars,...No.

 

[Jordy]

To the author of that meme: I think if you can work, you should. These are my ideals, but if you are a member of a society, and you are able, you should make a positive contribution. There is too much selfishness in this world. I will, without hesitation, give a helping hand to those truly in need,...but if one is simply choosing to not work and to live off of my tax dollars,...No.

Some people feel let down and merely used by society, so they wouldn't want to contribute to it.

There needs to be something real in return for putting in all those hours. Working 50 hours a week to make your boss rich and pay tax, so everyone with their happy families and single mothers getting benefits can life of that, while i rot away in a concrete cage, with no family and nothing but consumer hobbies spend time on, all the while being excluded and passive-aggressively bullied in the workplace doesn't sound very appealing.

 

[oregano]

Have you heard of the "Lying Flat" movement? It originated in urban mainland China last year, with young people seeing decreasing reward and increasing struggle in the "traditional" post-Mao paradigm of being a hard working cog in the capitalist machine in order to have a wife and kids and a flashy apartment and a nice Buick. (Buicks are considered to be high luxury in China, comparable to Mercedes in the US. It has something to do with Chang Kai-Shek, who was the leader of China during the Nationalist Era in the 1920s, preferring to drive them.) The work just gets harder and harder, with people doing "the 996", or working 9am to 9pm 6 days a week, and only finding the rewards getting farther away. Lying Flat has to do with only working enough to provide for your basic needs and ceasing to aspire to being a middle manager. It's been outlawed in China and people who mention it in a positive way are jailed. It's starting to catch on in the US.

 

[Metalhead]

Well, I just talked with my boss, she approves the use of vacation hours for the rest of this week. I told her I was struggling with severe depression for a long while, and that I also suspected most of that was chemical. I have an appointment with my doctor on Thursday to see what can be done about it.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

truck driving schools will put you through an intensive 2 week program and you can be out there getting paid $70,000-80,000/year.

Be careful about trucking. The days of an effective Teamsters Union is long gone and there are a lot of scams in that sector. For the skinny on all that, read The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream, by Steve Viscelli.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Some people feel let down and merely used by society, so they wouldn't want to contribute to it.

There needs to be something real in return for putting in all those hours. Working 50 hours a week to make your boss rich and pay tax, so everyone with their happy families and single mothers getting benefits can life of that, while i rot away in a concrete cage, with no family and nothing but consumer hobbies spend time on, all the while being excluded and passive-aggressively bullied in the workplace doesn't sound very appealing.

I can appreciate your sentiment and feelings about this. I wish I didn't have to work, either. Every day is one more reminder of why I should retire early. I don't have a good answer. But please explain why others should go to work and put their tax dollars towards supporting a person who is able, but not willing to work and/or make some positive contribution?

 

[Metalhead]

OK, let me put it like this. Three years ago, at the request of my boss, I built a database cloud system for all of my coworkers to enter data every time they made a call. I idiot-proofed it and I trained the coworkers. The only people using it now are me and my boss. I feel disappointment, and I also know if I leave now, I will be leaving as the only person there who knows how to debug this database of my boss notices a problem with it.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Being retired I am NEET. The biggest help now has been my saving and investing furiously since I began working. That has meant financial security as I stepped back from work. A defined benefit pension plan also helped. Interesting how the workers nowadays haven't recognized the profound benefit of unions and the hard won security of pensions.

 

[Thinx]

Having a job you enjoy is the best way to feel ok about going to work, I have found. I have done some jobs just to earn money, but those were definitely not keepers. Plus I ve had a couple of jobs where the money ran out or the work ran out, despite wanting to stay there was no option but to leave and work somewhere else.

I started with a mortgage at around your age, and it's been paid off a while now, so that's worth thinking about? Then you have your own home and no rent to pay.

 

[Jordy]

I can appreciate your sentiment and feelings about this. I wish I didn't have to work, either. Every day is one more reminder of why I should retire early. I don't have a good answer. But please explain why others should go to work and put their tax dollars towards supporting a person who is able, but not willing to work and/or make some positive contribution?

I will work and pay taxes if people treat me with respect and have things to actually look forward to in life. This topic has really reminded me of how unfairly society has mistreated me. Why would i want to work for those people?

 

[Thinx]

I will work and pay taxes if people treat me with respect and have things to actually look forward to in life. This topic has really reminded me of how unfairly society has mistreated me. Why would i want to work for those people?

Yes there should be a Department of Fairness. And I would make that happen if I had the power. But there isn't, and what will resentment gain us apart from greater poverty and powerlessness? I've found using my strengths such as intelligence and perseverance are my best weapons against the randomness of the world.

Get trainings and qualifications. Get work you enjoy and find rewarding. Make a difference in the world, however small and local, is so much more satisfying than a life of bitterness and poverty.

 

[Metalhead]

I don't like attitude towards life that many of you are expressing. I hope you're joking.

I am on SSI and TANF, and I am not proud of it at all. I wish I could work. I don't like "relying on the kindness of strangers".

If you're too disabled to work, that's fine and nothing to be ashamed of. Get the services you need. But if you're protesting being a wage slave or something like that, and dreaming of being lazy, dude, what gives?

Let me tell you right now: Low income housing sucks. Getting $700/mo to live off of sucks/ running out of food stamps sucks/ never getting a single child support check in seventeen years sucks/ not being able to just go out and make more money with a side gig because you're too disabled sucks.

@KagamineLen if you feel like your mental state is such that you can't hold a job, it's okay. But don't listen to some of these fools (and yes, I did just use that word) that would drag you from a life of potential and pride.

The busier you are, the less time you have to wallow in self pity, or crave drugs and alcohol. My grandma used to say "Idle hands are the devil's playground".

And who knows, you might someday be the boss of the boss.

Honestly, I think the biggest issue I have and the reason I started this thread is most likely because my current job is not an ideal match for my personality and skill sets.

 

[Misery]

I have not been happy with my job for a while, and I could realistically live off my SSDI checks alone.

Of course, all of my RL friends are thinking that quitting my job and becoming a gaming hermit is a horrible idea, and I know they are right about that.

Maybe I should look for another job instead of becoming a NEET, one that is a better match for my personality and skill sets?

I do have a friend who appears to be happy in his NEET life and I feel jealous over that.

Dude, there is NOTHING wrong with this whole NEET thing, not by default. Seriously. You are feeling that way because people tell you that you should... nothing more, nothing less. They always state "oh you need to cONtriBuTe tO SocIEtY" when in reality most jobs are... not really doing that. Yet, the things people do INSTEAD of jobs perhaps MIGHT be.

To the author of that meme: I think if you can work, you should. These are my ideals, but if you are a member of a society, and you are able, you should make a positive contribution. There is too much selfishness in this world. I will, without hesitation, give a helping hand to those truly in need,...but if one is simply choosing to not work and to live off of my tax dollars,...No.

This is the sort of thinking I'm talking about, when I ramble about this subject (and I've done this more than once on this forum). In that statement you are making quite a few assumptions based on... pretty much zero data. You assume that because the person does not work a "job", they are not "contributing".


Just as an example: I myself do not work. I have not done so in... longer than I want to think about. I daresay it's likely been about 13 years now. As such, I have free time, all the time, simple as that...

But there are things I do. Spending time here, helping people with stuff (sometimes in topics like this, other times very directly) is one thing. Spending time to keep my dogs as happy as possible is another. There's also the fractal art I make, and I'm learning some traditional art too, particularly brush lettering, and these are things given to others to enjoy, I dont just have them sit around in my room upon completion. I travel, explore, and enjoy nature (when nature isnt frozen) and introduce others to the areas I find so they can enjoy them too (and so they can exercise more). I also am preparing for doing some game-dev stuff on my own... if I can make something that sells AT ALL, I can take that money and give it to those who need it (as I do not). And even if it doesnt sell hugely well... well, if it can make even one person's day better, if it can give someone some enjoyment and a mood boost that might help them, then it's worth it.

But hey, I could also work a job, right? For instance, being a "greeter" at a freaking Walmart, or some other equally braindead part-time job? And believe me: I've had a lot of part-time jobs, back when I did work. They're ALL just as braindead as that (as are a few too many jobs that are full-time). And most of them are NOT "contributing to society". They're contributing to some rich snotball's bank account... nothing more.

Now you tell me: Which of those two options seems to be a better, more productive use of time? A more POSITIVE use of time? By the reasoning people often use though, those sorts of mindless jobs... which includes standing there saying "Hi welcome to Walmart" like a scarecrow with a broken record player shoved up its butt (and other equally pointless jobs/tasks)... are "okay", yet the productive things I do are NOT okay simply because I havent welded myself to some frozen-hearted corporation?

Do you see what I'm getting at?

Dont get me wrong: there absolutely ARE those who dont work and then ALSO dont DO much of anything with their time, just staring at the TV or whatever all day every day. However, for that sort... getting a job wouldnt solve the problem, because with that attitude, they could never hold one ANYWAY. That sort needs a bit of help BEFORE they can even make the choice of what to do.


It's what one chooses to do with their time... and not the company they attach themselves to or the title that they hold... that is important.

HOWEVER: for someone who does genuinely *NEED* the money, yes: A job is the correct choice. Just... keep in mind that this isnt always the condition for everyone.


I hope I dont sound mean or anything here, I dont mean to. I'm having a good bit of pain today though and I usually sound more spiky than usual when that's going on, so I do apologize if that's the case.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

You assume that because the person does not work a "job", they are not "contributing".

False. You've misinterpreted. People volunteer their time all the time and are definitely contributing,...but make no mistake,...often volunteering requires some sort of time and action.

I go back to what I said. I am a giving person. I will not hesitate to help anyone who truly needed a helping hand.

I come from a different generation. So put that into perspective. I don't mind working and paying my taxes knowing that those taxes are there, for better or worse, for us as a society. I have a sense of community. There are people who are truly unable for one reason or another. What am I supposed to think about someone who is able, but not willing? To me, that is just "sponging" off of the work of others,...a parasite on society. A group of people put in their money, buy some food, sit down to eat,...and then someone who didn't put in food money,...didn't bring a dish to share,...just shows up, and sits down to eat.

You don't have to explain why you don't want to work,...it's irrelevant,...very few people do want to work. I'm tired. I'm mentally exhausted. I'm tired of being pulled in 2-3 directions at once. If I could call it quits today, I would.

Now, if you want to create your own business, make your own hours, be your own boss,...go for it. If you want to set up your day-trader investment business in your home,...go for it. If you want to collect your SSDI checks,...but put in your volunteer hours,...I will support you. However, if you are capable, but choose to have others support you without anything to show for it,...No. That's socially irresponsible. It goes against my moral compass.

 

[Metalhead]

Yeah, being a NEET is not for me. I was overly emotional when I made the op post here because I really dislike my current job. Time to build my resume and look for work elsewhere. I was a NEET for a few years, and I spent most of that time drinking, I do not want to return to that.