People that don't want to work?

[lchris21]

I hear you. That's quite normal if you liked or were invested heavily in your job.

Even without knowing it, living to work is something that does happen. A lot of people say "you only gotta work to live" but often you end up defining yourself by your job. Lose that and a big hole opens up. When your job is the biggest or a big part of your life and someone throws "you gotta work to live" at you it's like hearing "you've been doing it wrong all this time" and that hurts and causes thoughts of failure.

When you lose your job it opens up a lot of options and possibilities (great right!?!). Unfortunately, too many options can easily overwhelm and you become lost on what the next step is. Often you don't want all these options. You want the routine back and to continue to follow that path you thought you were on.

Losing a job that you had for a long time is just like the grief of the loss of a loved one. It's gone and it will not come back. It hurts. The people you work and talk with everyday aren't there; your daily routine is gone. Why get up? Why bother? Enter an existential crisis (worth a google and understanding people have them).

Feelings of grief, anger, pity, low self-esteem and self-confidence, pain of past mistakes or just reliving choices you made in the past, and fear of the future whizz around your brain. The result is anxiety and depression.

Three things to move forward:

1) Get your financial outgoings in order first. Check your outgoings and cut what is not required. Calling up long lasting contracts and saying you're thinking of cancelling can get lower bills (broadband, mobile, Sky, etc.)
2) Be mindful of what you are feeling - separate the overall feeling to some words. Then ask why are you thinking it? If it's because of the uncertainty of the future you have to let it go. Google the Kübler-Ross five stages of grief so you can see there are stages. BUT these stages jump about and can occur in a random order and/or repeat.
3) Give yourself time to adjust. Get out of the house. Walk in the park/countryside. Get lots of fresh air. Tell yourself you're on holiday for a month or two at least. Tell yourself it's OK to take a break - you're allowed to do that. Take longer if you want it.

You are not your job. You have to repeat and let it sink in (it takes time): I am not a job. It's gone. Jobs are for coins so I can do other things. I WILL do and learn other things (even if I haven't in the past). Like everyone else I cannot control the future so I will not try to control it. I have to be open to what is out there while living in the moment (not the past and not the future)."

Great post...just spent 20-mins googling Existential Crisis & Kubler Ross.............scary how many boxes I ticked off in the self appraisal

 

[Ashley Burton]

At the place I work they had a bit of a shake up and put everyone on new contracts, if you didn't like it you knew where the door was.Now everyone is on just above min wage, but the saying "minimum wage=minimum effort" applies. Everyone does just enough to justify their existence and no-one does anything for free.

It ends up being counterproductive!

As @premmington mentioned if you pay people well they they do a good job & they take care of what they do & they don't steal from you either

 

[8ob]

I dont think the minimum wage is a good idea, workers are not equal in performance or productivity and a blanket minimum wage is just an incentive dampener. It also stops employers having a few extras in to push a broom about or have a tidy up, in the past that kind of start could of easily led to better things for an employee.

Bob

 

[arther dailey]

Always worked silly hours every week, self employed ,now at pension age I am trying to do just a few hours everyday , miss being soo busy but age does slow you down some what , I think its important physically and mentally to have a task and to see it through , keeps everything working..well hopefully !

 

[owas]

they don't steal from you either

I don't steal but I scavange as much as I can 'can I take' are probably my most used words kinda tops up your wages when it means you rarely have to buy material

 

[RichardM]

I don't "work" anymore, but did mix 1.5 tonnes of concrete by hand yesterday. Now I'm going to take the dog for a nice walk

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

UK is getting to a point where it simply isn't worth working.

It's all good I think if you own a house and have savings...then you can earn below the tax thresholds and easily get by with a good life.

But for young people to buy a house...well a flat in London is £400k...so they'd need to earn a lot to get a mortgage.

The days of leaving school at 15...get an apprentice job...that pays enough to buy a car and a house....long long gone.

I know plenty of people who now just work 3 days a week...simply not worth working more for them....so they don't bother.

Question is why are taxes so high...the answer would be removed I suspect!

 

[premmington]

UK is getting to a point where it simply isn't worth working.

It's all good I think if you own a house and have savings...then you can earn below the tax thresholds and easily get by with a good life.

But for young people to buy a house...well a flat in London is £400k...so they'd need to earn a lot to get a mortgage.

The days of leaving school at 15...get an apprentice job...that pays enough to buy a car and a house....long long gone.

I know plenty of people who now just work 3 days a week...simply not worth working more for them....so they don't bother.

Question is why are taxes so high...the answer would be removed I suspect!

I left school in 1983 - my expectation was to get a job - buy a house get married and have some kids/dog/car and maybe one holiday a year. Earn enough to put food on the table and save a bit for my retirement.

I have achieved this...

But what I did'nt do was go a spending spree with cards and bank loans - buy a load of things I could not afford.


It is not all what you earn - allot of it is to do with what you spend as well.

 

[ukracer]

UK is getting to a point where it simply isn't worth working.

It's all good I think if you own a house and have savings...then you can earn below the tax thresholds and easily get by with a good life.

But for young people to buy a house...well a flat in London is £400k...so they'd need to earn a lot to get a mortgage.

The days of leaving school at 15...get an apprentice job...that pays enough to buy a car and a house....long long gone.

I know plenty of people who now just work 3 days a week...simply not worth working more for them....so they don't bother.

Question is why are taxes so high...the answer would be removed I suspect!

What about the Pension question .

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I was born in the 70s...so like you I caught the tail end of the good times. Luck of the draw I guess...I bought a house...its value has trebled!

People just 5 or 10 years younger than me have very little...

And I fear it's only getting worse for the young. Going to get to the point I reckon where they just leave...or give up....which means I can't see who will pay my pension!

Pension question....I answered...I believed the answer was removed!

 

[ukracer]

I was born in the 70s...so like you I caught the tail end of the good times. Luck of the draw I guess...I bought a house...its value has trebled!

People just 5 or 10 years younger than me have very little...

And I fear it's only getting worse for the young. Going to get to the point I reckon where they just leave...or give up....which means I can't see who will pay my pension!

Pension question....I answered...I believed the answer was removed!

I am a lot older than that. Lol, Disappointing it was removed but pensions will always be political so can't really be discussed on here.
I say disappointing as I am genuinely interested in your views. Some are similar to mine but I think we blame different people.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I am a lot older than that. Lol, Disappointing it was removed but pensions will always be political so can't really be discussed on here.

Maybe if I keep it factual it won't get removed....perhaps....here goes...

We have a decreasing number of younger people....but we have an enormous burden with regard to both state and public sector pensions....these pensions are largely "unfunded" which means each successive generation pays for the current pensions of those who are retired (and were promised a certain pension in the past).

With a decreasing birth rate an unfunded system will always get into trouble....its a bit like a pyramid scheme.....with fewer people supporting the pyramid

.....we've known about this for 40-50 odd years.

I suspect when I retire the pyramid might have started to collapse....maybe not and I'm lucky enough to squeeze through....who knows!

But with fewer people supporting the pyramid....well each person will need to pay more....at some point I suspect people will simply opt out.

 

[TechnicAl]

We pay less tax than many in Europe
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/may/27/tax-britons-pay-europe-australia-us

 

[Wozzaaah]

I am a lot older than that. Lol, Disappointing it was removed but pensions will always be political so can't really be discussed on here.
I say disappointing as I am genuinely interested in your views. Some are similar to mine but I think we blame different people.

Nope, only one post has been removed from this thread and that was for swearing.
My guess it was composed but not actually posted.
The whole thread is probably on borrowed time though............

 

[premmington]

We pay less tax than many in Europe
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/may/27/tax-britons-pay-europe-australia-us

That was interesting - I thought we were highly taxed - but it sort of shows it could be worse - you could live in France

 

[premmington]

Nope, only one post has been removed from this thread and that was for swearing.
My guess it was composed but not actually posted.
The whole thread is probably on borrowed time though............

Oh don't...

I like some of TechnicAl's links - they are interesting and I am learning something.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

That was interesting - I thought we were highly taxed - but it sort of shows it could be worse - you could live in France

But is the tax I pay worth paying?...we need to look at tax paid and benefits received in return don't we?

Many EU countries have guaranteed unemployment benefits linked to salaries for example....I would pay more tax for that. And many have much better pensions....again count me in.

It is funny how the guardian focuses on up to £100k.....thats because above £100k the personal allowance gets removed and the comparison starts looking a lot worse I guess? Also the reason half of London is working a 3 or 4 day week!

Yea quite possible I didn't press submit on the pension response.....maybe I read what I wrote and thought it was going a bit too far.

 

[Nick DV]

The whole thread is probably on borrowed time though............

Noooooo! I think that the postings in this thread have been quite reasonable - it could have opened an exploding can of worms!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Quick google search reveals this....I'm guessing that must be one of the highest marginal tax rates in the whole of the EU?

"As a consequence the marginal rate of tax for someone with income between £100,000 and £125,000 will be 60%"

 

[TechnicAl]

Quick google search reveals this....I'm guessing that must be one of the highest marginal tax rates in the whole of the EU?

"As a consequence the marginal rate of tax for someone with income between £100,000 and £125,000 will be 60%"

https://taxfoundation.org/top-individual-income-tax-rates-europe-2019/