4 ms·

> I was recently unemployed - fortunately, by choice This just comes off as the equivalent of saying: > I recently had to to fly somewhere - fortunately, by p

> I was recently unemployed - fortunately, by choice This just comes off as the equivalent of saying: > I recently had to to fly somewhere - fortunately, by private jet The privilege and wealth requisite to be able to do either of these things just make it unrelatable.

shrimpx 5y ago
One is far more relatable than the other. You can be temporarily unemployed by choice with a few thousand in savings.
- Ansil849 5y ago
  Yes, I was using exaggeration to get the point across that this is written from a position of privilege that many of us reading cannot afford.
  - munk-a 5y ago
    I understand that not every tech job is paying SV wages. For a while I was earning 60k CAD and was still able to save up a good chunk of change. One thing to bear in mind is that if you voluntarily take a stint of unemployment you should probably see your expenses go down a fair bit as you'll have time to cook from scratch more often and will probably go off daily expenses like coffee. Being able to voluntarily not work in your early twenties would be pretty spectacular - but once you start building a bit of a nest egg you should be able to afford short stints.
    - Ansil849 5y ago
      > For a while I was earning 60k CAD and was still able to save up a good chunk of change. Also keep in mind that stateside, a giant portion of expenses you would have to take into account while unemployed are what you intend to do about health insurance.
      - munk-a 5y ago
        I think most folks assume that people in their twenties will just go without dental/vision/pharma in the US and grab a cheapo bronze tier plan off the ACA unless they have a preexisting condition that requires some regular treatment. I agree that the costs are higher in the US and it makes dealing with stress more difficult but... the US is a terrible place to be if absolutely anything is wrong with you - so assuming you could take a pleasant sabbatical there seems unwise. It'd almost certainly be cheaper to move overseas and pay whatever monthly fee the local government charges to temporarily enroll on their healthcare and it sucks - but, again, it's the US where healthcare is a stressful burden yall have to deal with - I was born there and emigrated and I've been quite happy myself.
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    But who actually cares? I don't understand the point of your objection. Are you saying that privileged people shouldn't talk to each other about their problems, because those conversations won't be relatable to people without those privileges? Should people who can walk never talk about walking because other people can't walk? That being said, it's definitely better for poor people to become unemployed against their will, because then they can get unemployment.
  - SamBam 5y ago
    Of course plenty of people reading it cannot afford that, but that doesn't make it "unrelatable" to the rest of the HN readership. Lots of people in tech or programming fields can get paid >$80k per year. Spend some time at that salary, and be thrifty, and you can save up many thousands after a few years. Easily enough for a several-month cushion. No, not everyone can do this. But people here also write about their MacBook Pros, and many people can't afford those either. (Indeed, for the cost of a high-end MacBook Pro many people could afford to take a month or two off.)
- eatonphil 5y ago
  That's hard to do in the US if you don't plan on CORBA. I'm not full time employed at the moment and randomly broke my ankle trying to skateboard for the first time. The medical bills are 50k and counting. Thankfully my wife's insurance (she's working) fully covers this. I cannot imagine taking time off without any health insurance and the cost of CORBA is itself one or two thousand every month for two people. But if you're single and under 27 (where you can still fall back under your parents healthcare) things could be easier.
  - boardwaalk 5y ago
    Was a healthcare.gov plan not an option? I don’t know how the coverage compares, but 1k-2k for 1-2 people seems like way more.
    - eatonphil 5y ago
      Well maybe I used it wrong. But it also seems to differ by state? The 1-2k/mo for two people was actually the quote I got through the NY exchange (which I think Healthcare.gov sent me to). The CORBA cost was even higher.
  - shrimpx 5y ago
    Yeah, health coverage can be tricky. I'm unemployed ("on sabbatical") and bought my own plan through healthcare.gov for about $12/day.
flyinglizard 5y ago
They are very relatable to many around HN, which is tech-biased and therefore affluent in comparison to other groups. I also chose not to work for some time, so I relate very well. We don't always need to seek the poorest denominator. Well-off people have life experiences, too.
losteric 5y ago
Unemployed by choice is an unfamiliar notion... but, on reflection, anyone with in-demand skills and sufficient savings does have that choice. Those two attributes should be quite common among this site's audience.
- rramadass 5y ago
  >Unemployed by choice is an unfamiliar notion... but, on reflection, anyone with in-demand skills and sufficient savings does have that choice. Very right. But we need to remember the "Time" factor too (i.e. Ageing). I am in a peculiar place, due to circumstances which have left me no option but a single unfavourable one and it has been hard maintaining needed "in-demand skills" for a possible future career resurgence. So i am thankful that i worked like crazy when younger and saved up which is what is sustaining me now.
browningstreet 5y ago
I dunno. Firstly, the privilege call-out isn't very functional here. So what? People aren't allowed to relate their experiential pain? Furthermore, at various stages of my life, I've taken 3 or 6 or 9 months off... all on my own, and either because I was living in a $300 apartment, or lived in a tent, or had just enough saved up for beans and my apartment. Not working for a while, because you've gotten just a few things sorted, isn't necessarily privilege or wealth -- sometimes it's actually poverty. Sometimes it's something else, and the story can still be listened to on its own merits.
fernandopj 5y ago
Not equivalent, specially if you know what is like to suffer burnout. The choice becomes "either I willingly quit, or suicide starts to become attractive". Burnout is _strange_ because the person suffering reaches an unbearable state before the company complains about a lack of performance (to a point of firing them).
ummonk 5y ago
He saved up that money by working in a job that pays a lot but induces burnout. It's not really all that much of a privilege.
- joshcanhelp 5y ago
  * She
nonameiguess 5y ago
She has her resume on her site. She was only unemployed for four months. While I'm sure a lot of people can't afford that, it's a lot easier in the more common dual earner households these days. It took me about 7 months after leaving the Army before I finally accepted a job offer, and my wife ended up unemployed for 5 months a few years later. Both of those were possible because we had each other. Of course, I understand that is still a privilege many don't have, and this woman worked for McKinsey as her first job, so I'm sure she's making a lot more money than I am.
jnwatson 5y ago
Plenty of working class folk take months off at a time. If you work in the movie business, that's pretty much required.

shrimpx 5y ago

One is far more relatable than the other. You can be temporarily unemployed by choice with a few thousand in savings.

Ansil849 5y ago
Yes, I was using exaggeration to get the point across that this is written from a position of privilege that many of us reading cannot afford.
- munk-a 5y ago
  I understand that not every tech job is paying SV wages. For a while I was earning 60k CAD and was still able to save up a good chunk of change. One thing to bear in mind is that if you voluntarily take a stint of unemployment you should probably see your expenses go down a fair bit as you'll have time to cook from scratch more often and will probably go off daily expenses like coffee. Being able to voluntarily not work in your early twenties would be pretty spectacular - but once you start building a bit of a nest egg you should be able to afford short stints.
  - Ansil849 5y ago
    > For a while I was earning 60k CAD and was still able to save up a good chunk of change. Also keep in mind that stateside, a giant portion of expenses you would have to take into account while unemployed are what you intend to do about health insurance.
    - munk-a 5y ago
      I think most folks assume that people in their twenties will just go without dental/vision/pharma in the US and grab a cheapo bronze tier plan off the ACA unless they have a preexisting condition that requires some regular treatment. I agree that the costs are higher in the US and it makes dealing with stress more difficult but... the US is a terrible place to be if absolutely anything is wrong with you - so assuming you could take a pleasant sabbatical there seems unwise. It'd almost certainly be cheaper to move overseas and pay whatever monthly fee the local government charges to temporarily enroll on their healthcare and it sucks - but, again, it's the US where healthcare is a stressful burden yall have to deal with - I was born there and emigrated and I've been quite happy myself.
- pessimizer 5y ago
  But who actually cares? I don't understand the point of your objection. Are you saying that privileged people shouldn't talk to each other about their problems, because those conversations won't be relatable to people without those privileges? Should people who can walk never talk about walking because other people can't walk? That being said, it's definitely better for poor people to become unemployed against their will, because then they can get unemployment.
- SamBam 5y ago
  Of course plenty of people reading it cannot afford that, but that doesn't make it "unrelatable" to the rest of the HN readership. Lots of people in tech or programming fields can get paid >$80k per year. Spend some time at that salary, and be thrifty, and you can save up many thousands after a few years. Easily enough for a several-month cushion. No, not everyone can do this. But people here also write about their MacBook Pros, and many people can't afford those either. (Indeed, for the cost of a high-end MacBook Pro many people could afford to take a month or two off.)
eatonphil 5y ago
That's hard to do in the US if you don't plan on CORBA. I'm not full time employed at the moment and randomly broke my ankle trying to skateboard for the first time. The medical bills are 50k and counting. Thankfully my wife's insurance (she's working) fully covers this. I cannot imagine taking time off without any health insurance and the cost of CORBA is itself one or two thousand every month for two people. But if you're single and under 27 (where you can still fall back under your parents healthcare) things could be easier.
- boardwaalk 5y ago
  Was a healthcare.gov plan not an option? I don’t know how the coverage compares, but 1k-2k for 1-2 people seems like way more.
  - eatonphil 5y ago
    Well maybe I used it wrong. But it also seems to differ by state? The 1-2k/mo for two people was actually the quote I got through the NY exchange (which I think Healthcare.gov sent me to). The CORBA cost was even higher.
- shrimpx 5y ago
  Yeah, health coverage can be tricky. I'm unemployed ("on sabbatical") and bought my own plan through healthcare.gov for about $12/day.

flyinglizard 5y ago

They are very relatable to many around HN, which is tech-biased and therefore affluent in comparison to other groups. I also chose not to work for some time, so I relate very well. We don't always need to seek the poorest denominator. Well-off people have life experiences, too.

losteric 5y ago

Unemployed by choice is an unfamiliar notion... but, on reflection, anyone with in-demand skills and sufficient savings does have that choice. Those two attributes should be quite common among this site's audience.

rramadass 5y ago
>Unemployed by choice is an unfamiliar notion... but, on reflection, anyone with in-demand skills and sufficient savings does have that choice. Very right. But we need to remember the "Time" factor too (i.e. Ageing). I am in a peculiar place, due to circumstances which have left me no option but a single unfavourable one and it has been hard maintaining needed "in-demand skills" for a possible future career resurgence. So i am thankful that i worked like crazy when younger and saved up which is what is sustaining me now.

browningstreet 5y ago

I dunno. Firstly, the privilege call-out isn't very functional here. So what? People aren't allowed to relate their experiential pain? Furthermore, at various stages of my life, I've taken 3 or 6 or 9 months off... all on my own, and either because I was living in a $300 apartment, or lived in a tent, or had just enough saved up for beans and my apartment. Not working for a while, because you've gotten just a few things sorted, isn't necessarily privilege or wealth -- sometimes it's actually poverty. Sometimes it's something else, and the story can still be listened to on its own merits.

fernandopj 5y ago

Not equivalent, specially if you know what is like to suffer burnout. The choice becomes "either I willingly quit, or suicide starts to become attractive". Burnout is _strange_ because the person suffering reaches an unbearable state before the company complains about a lack of performance (to a point of firing them).

ummonk 5y ago

He saved up that money by working in a job that pays a lot but induces burnout. It's not really all that much of a privilege.

joshcanhelp 5y ago
* She

nonameiguess 5y ago

She has her resume on her site. She was only unemployed for four months. While I'm sure a lot of people can't afford that, it's a lot easier in the more common dual earner households these days. It took me about 7 months after leaving the Army before I finally accepted a job offer, and my wife ended up unemployed for 5 months a few years later. Both of those were possible because we had each other. Of course, I understand that is still a privilege many don't have, and this woman worked for McKinsey as her first job, so I'm sure she's making a lot more money than I am.

jnwatson 5y ago

Plenty of working class folk take months off at a time. If you work in the movie business, that's pretty much required.