This attitude that some of you speak of towards unemployed people frustrates me a lot. I think some of it, on my part, is self-inflicted, in that I get embarrassed when people ask what I do and I have to explain that I'm unemployed. Luckily I haven't had any reaction to that other than support from the people I do talk to so far (except for interviewers who ask about it like it's such a bad thing and how dare I not have been continually employed for the last 10 years of my life), but it kind of sucks, because on the one hand we're in a recession and several, several people are unemployed, but I don't actually know anyone else who is unemployed IRL so I can't help but to feel like I am a loser compared to them. However, I have started making a point not to answer people's questions in an embarrassed or ashamed way. I had one of those college majors where people ask, "well what are you going to do with that?" and I would try to answer questions in a way where I was saying what I thought the other person wanted to hear, reassure them that I had a plan, I know what I'm doing and I'm gonna be ok, etc. So if someone asks me what I do, I won't go into a big sad story, but I'm trying to just say I'm unemployed and looking for work, without sounding embarrassed about it. It is what it is, and they can think whatever they want.

For me what frustrates me about as much is the attitude towards what others perceive as lower-level jobs. I see this so much, people acting like they are better than other people because of what their job is. Or people assuming that a person waiting tables or working as a janitor couldn't possibly be happy, and feeling pity for them. I am in the US, and I really dislike this emphasis on everyone's job and profession. I agree, we are so much more than our jobs. But maybe that is just for my family and close friends to understand. I'm trying to tell myself I only care about what they think, but it frustrates me that some people are so quick to make judgments on others' lives, based on their own ideas of success and happiness.