Tell Me About Yourself
“What’s your name?”
“Where are you from?”
“What do you do?”
Likely, these are among the first questions you are asked when you meet someone new. On the surface, each of these questions seem to be very straightforward and easy to answer. But what if your name is difficult to pronounce? What if you lived in a dozen different places – cities, military bases, foster homes – and there’s not one you feel comfortable calling home?
And what if you don’t earn a paycheck?
What do you say to “What do you do?”
“What Do You Do?”
When You're Unemployed
Do you plainly say, “I am unemployed?” Or have you devised a roundabout way of saying it? Maybe you say, “Oh, I’m currently between jobs” or “I’m on the hunt to discover my next opportunity” Or something else, anything else! Just so you won’t get that look of discomfort some people unconsciously give you when they think the next thing out of your mouth is “Do you know anyone who is hiring?”
Of course, there are plenty of reasons why one may be unemployed. There are family reasons such as the stay-at-home parent raising children (and yes, that can be a mom or dad or some other relative) or the stay-at-home child taking care of an elderly mom or dad or another relative. There are language barriers – if you moved to Switzerland without knowing the local language, it almost doesn’t matter how qualified you are; it’s going to be tougher to find something. There are visa issues as well. What happens if you are not even allowed to work – perhaps you’re a trailing spouse or a refugee or you lost your job and you visa was tied to that particular employer? There are personal issues – you could have been sick or, you know what, maybe you just simply took a break. Or maybe none of the above. Maybe you have the right to work, have no one vulnerable to take care of (except maybe yourself), can speak the language, and are ready to work right now, this very millisecond… but it just hasn’t happened. You haven’t found yet someone to take a chance on you.
Unemployment and Covid-19
Nowadays, it feels more understandable (dare I say, even more acceptable?) to be unemployed. Covid-19 has devastated many and laid bare a great deal of inequalities in this world. But at least now if you tell someone that you have been unemployed for a significant amount of time, it may not seem as strange. In fact, you may even get an empathetic nod coupled with a soft sigh of “I get it.”
So Many Things Make You YOU
While the pandemic appears to be ushering in a new understanding of unemployment, other people are being forced to reinvent themselves in jobs which they don’t necessarily see as part of their core identity. In our brave new post-Covid world, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were able to shift focus from how a person earns a living to a more light-hearted and ultimately more revealing conversation about what a person enjoys in life and who or what they find stimulating? Who the person IS, rather than what they DO.
