Because we're worth it

The headlines tonight:

UK JOBLESS TOTAL HITS 2.2 MILLION

BONG

UNEMPLOYMENT THE BIGGEST THREAT TO BRITAIN

BONG

2,000 LOSE JOBS DAILY

So, unemployment has reached 2.2 million. And benefit claims rose in April from 57,100 to 1.51 million. Good, well my benefit guilt has certainly come back to haunt me, if not the impending sense of doom and despair.

2.2 million. What does that even look like? The entire population of Paris, if that helps.

I blogged recently about feeling lonely. Today I don’t feel lonely, I actually feel a sense of solidarity, part of a big club that no one wants to join but more inevitably will. I want to talk to the other 2,199,999 million people who have lost their jobs in this recession. I want to meet them and ask them how they feel. Do they, like me, ever feel guilty and worthless without a job?

As I’m certain is the way for many, my career is a large part of what defines me as a person. I’ve worked hard to build it up, just to have it blown down in a stiff, south-easterly breeze I’m certain prevailed from somewhere near Canary Wharf...or Wall Street.

Sometimes I look at my friends and peers, I see them flourishing in their chosen professions and I feel cheated.

Often I have to remind myself that it’s my job I have lost and not my career – there’s a big difference. My career will always remain with me, and it’s only a matter of time before I’ll be building it back up again.