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> I haven't been out of work against my will, but I have been without pay against my will, so I can relate. No you can't. The whole discussion here is around t
by beaconstudios 10y ago
> I haven't been out of work against my will, but I have been without pay against my will, so I can relate.
No you can't. The whole discussion here is around the impact of _not working_ on one's self-esteem, not the impact of not being paid. Unless you've spent considerable time with nothing productive to do, you really can't relate. You may have an image in your head that with all that spare time you'll complete your side projects or do that DIY project you've been putting off, but the reality is that you stay productive for a few weeks to a month and then sink into a rut.
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoAre you talking from your own experience here, I can't see the sort of person who can take initiative to complete a programming project or start a business being able to come to a position where they can't find something productive to do?
- beaconstudios 10y agoReally? I know lots of people who start but don't finish side projects. I also know a few people who've been jobless for longer periods and many of them start to lose their drive and initiative. The longest I've been out of work was 6 weeks between contracts and by week 4 I was starting to get into a rut.
- michaelt 10y agoWhile I agree that having productive work is good for one's self esteem, I'm not sure you can say the same about explicitly unproductive work. Imagine a job where people were paid to fold letters and put them into envelopes. If there was no affordable, reliable automation that would be productive work, good for self-esteem. But if the company had automated all the real mailings, and out of charity the boss kept humans folding blank pages that were tossed in the trash? I doubt that job would be as good for the self esteem.
- beaconstudios 10y agoYeah I think one of the important things is that the work is genuinely necessary.