Funemployment, Day One Hundred Eighty One: Faux Pas

so my last post was about the l.a. times' article about this new generation of kids who are taking full advantage of unemployment and having a good time while being on the job hunt. when they published this article i emailed the reporter to let her know i have a blog about the same topic. i got a very quick response about checking out my blog and i was very excited!

until i remembered what my first paragraph was about. d'oh.

i was in the car, desperate to email back, apologizing for kind of totally blasting the times, and it wasn't until a half hour later that i could muster up a reply about my innate sarcasm to explain why i actually did like the article but felt the need to blast the paper.

yeah....so no response. not that i'm surprised but well....if you read something less than flattering in the paper you'll know why. :)

Funemployment, Day One Hundred Seventy Nine: Funemployment of the Times

aw, l.a. times, you're so adorable when you try to be relevant.
a mere eight months into this economic downturn the they print a local front-page article about these CRA-ZAY kids who are *gasp* enjoying their unemployment! apparently the kids are calling it "funemployment". my, what a clever name!

okay, so they're a little behind the curve but better late than never since they're gospel truth for my parents. if it's fit to print in the times, it's legit. (four years ago they thought i was going off to my death in indio for some weekend "music festival" until coachella made the sunday front page. after that it was a perfectly good reason for missing my mom's birthday every year.)

and although my parents have been fantastically supportive of my funemployment, there have definitely been times that they've worried i'm having a little too much fun. so it's nice to have some backup in proving that just because i'm not chained to my computer (except that i have been for 3 days now) doesn't mean i'm not on the hunt.

maybe i'm just doing an extra good job of putting the "social" in "social networking"...:)


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-funemployment4-2009jun04,0,7581684.story?page=1
From the Los Angeles Times
COLUMN ONE
For the 'funemployed,' unemployment is welcome
These jobless folks, usually singles in their 20s and 30s, find that life without work agrees with them. Instead of punching the clock, they're hitting the beach.
By Kimi Yoshino

June 4, 2009

Michael Van Gorkom was laid off by Yahoo in late April. He didn't panic. He didn't rush off to a therapist. Instead, the 33-year-old Santa Monica resident discovered that being jobless "kind of settled nicely."

Week one: "I thought, 'OK . . . I need to send out resumes, send some e-mails, need to do networking."

Week two: "A little less."

Every week since: "I'm going to go to the beach and enjoy some margaritas."

What most people would call unemployment, Van Gorkom embraced as "funemployment."

While millions of Americans struggle to find work as they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, others have found a silver lining in the economic meltdown. These happily jobless tend to be single and in their 20s and 30s. Some were laid off. Some quit voluntarily, lured by generous buyouts.

Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they're content living for today.

"I feel like I've been given a gift of time and clarity," said Aubrey Howell, 29, of Franklin, Tenn., who was laid off from her job as a tea shop manager in April. After sleeping in late and visiting family in Florida, she recently mused on Twitter: "Unemployment or funemployment?"

Never heard of funemployment? Here's Urban Dictionary's definition: "The condition of a person who takes advantage of being out of a job to have the time of their life. I spent all day Tuesday at the pool; funemployment rocks!"

It may not have entered our daily lexicon yet, but a small army of social media junkies with a sudden overabundance of time is busy Tweeting: "Funemployment road trip to Portland." "Funemployment is great for catching up on reading!" "Averaging 3 rounds of golf a week plus hockey and bball. who needs work?"

As frivolous as it sounds, funemployment is a statement about American society. Experts say it's both a reflection of the country's cultural narcissism -- and attitudes of entitlement and self-centeredness -- and a backlash against corporate America and its "Dilbert"-like work environment.

"Recession gives people permission to be unemployed," said David Logan, a professor at USC's Marshall School of Business. "Why not make use of the time and go do something fun?"

Jean Twenge, co-author of "The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement," said in some cases, many employees had lost balance between work and life, with too many late nights and weekends spent at the office. When they stop working, they realize how much they had given up.

Nina Flores, 28, quit her job as a jury consultant in Costa Mesa on Feb. 1 and has no regrets.

"You figure out how much . . . you miss when maybe you're tied to your BlackBerry all the time or, in my case, traveling for work all the time," she said. "I can't imagine doing that again and sacrificing everything I want to do for me. . . . I think it is a new way of thinking."

For many younger people, Twenge said, work is less central to their lives. These days, more people than in the 1970s are saying they want jobs with a lot of vacation time, according to preliminary data from Twenge's generational surveys. Younger employees today also are less willing to work overtime. And, when asked if they would quit their jobs if they had money, more are answering "yes," though the majority still say they would continue working.

"It really suggests there has been that generational shift that work is not the be all and end all," said Twenge, an associate professor of psychology at San Diego State.

Flores said she finds herself looking into jobs she would have never considered before, even if it means taking a big pay cut. What's more important, she said, is flexibility, lots of vacation time and something that doesn't have "that 9-to-5" feeling.

Amanda Rounsaville, 34, of Los Angeles quit her job as a program officer at the California Endowment in late March. A self-described workaholic who rarely called in sick or used vacation days, Rounsaville found a certain peace last month during her three-week trek through northern Mongolia with two friends, sleeping in $3-a-night, tent-like gers.

"I literally found myself smiling uncontrollably at being that far away from everything," Rounsaville said.

Enjoying the solitude, she found herself contemplating: "Do we work to live or do we live to work? Do I have life goals that are not work goals?"

Both Flores and Rounsaville discovered that they like themselves better when they're not consumed by their jobs.

"This is the best version of me," Flores said, adding that she feels "completely healthy," relaxed and focused.

Rounsaville agreed: "The rat race puts blinders on you and makes time fly, and then the next thing you know, you've missed the chance to be your more exciting self, or to push yourself in a gutsier direction."

For some in older generations, watching their children embrace an escape from responsibility is difficult. So while a young unemployed person might be saying, "This is awesome. I'm having a really good time," their parents are probably asking, "Haven't you gotten a job yet?" Twenge said.

Flores' decision to quit her job was initially met by concern and worry by her parents and some friends, but she thinks it's partly because they simply can't relate. By the time her parents' generation reached their late 20s and early 30s, most were married with children.

Van Gorkom's father had a similar response. Since being laid off as Yahoo Music's director of user experience design, Van Gorkom said he has purchased a laptop and started shopping for a new couch, "which my dad doesn't understand." As he spends money, his father is nervously asking Van Gorkom whether he needs any money.

USC's Logan isn't convinced funemployment is unique to this generation. The notion of slackers -- or whatever label is in vogue -- has been around for decades. What's different, he said, is the new social media that allows the unemployed to find each other and make plans through Facebook and Twitter.

Andy Deemer, one of Rounsaville's traveling companions, points out that they went to Mongolia with "someone two people removed from me that I had only met once two years ago at a cocktail party." The 36-year-old New Yorker and college pal of Rounsaville's, said they connected with that third travel mate through Facebook and word of mouth.

The daily lives of the unemployed have never been more public. They can post online photos of globe-trotting vacations, blog about their long lunches and broadcast via Twitter the day's weighty choices, as @james6378 did last week when deciding between Lucky Charms and Frosted Flakes cereals.

By thumbing their collective noses at employment, they also are sending a message to corporate America, Logan said.

"People are saying screw it and they're leaving companies," Logan said. "We need to figure out how to make companies work better for everybody. Until that happens . . . early retirements and furloughs are going to continue. People are going to opt out of the system."

Deemer, an independent filmmaker who also worked at CNET and about.com, said he actually enjoyed corporate America, up until November when the Internet start-up he was working for failed to get financing. After it tanked, he sold his New York apartment, put his belongings in storage, turned his parents' Beijing home into base camp, and embarked on a spiritual quest to find various mystics and shamans around Asia.

"I'm a little worried," he said of his future financial stability. "There's a nagging sense of fear that does gnaw at me when I consider it."

But Deemer has taken big risks before in the name of fulfilling a dream. He quit his CNET job to make the low-budget cult movie "Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead," which still makes him "smile big." He expects no less from his Asian adventure.

With his friends in tow, Deemer has already managed to visit a fortuneteller in Myanmar and a tarot card reader in Thailand, and to spend a few days with Saffron Revolution monks near the Thailand-Myanmar border. In Mongolia, he searched 10 days for a reindeer-herding shaman, finally tracking her down on his last day.

She wore tight jeans, a glittery purple sweater and a rhinestone headband. She typed on a laptop. He found her both mystical and authentic, though when he returned from his Trans-Siberian adventure to Beijing, he felt unchanged.

But since he was seeking answers, the Mongolian shaman had one for him. On a Post-it, she wrote his fortune in Cyrillic. The last sentence, in a nutshell: Go back to work.

Funemployment, Day One Hundred Fifty Eight: Managing to Manage

so i know i complain about how my marketing classes are getting in the way of my carefree funemployment but really, they're not the worst thing in the world. i guess i just expected a different benefit than i got yesterday when one my group projects kicked my ass into overdrive and i remembered how good it felt to flex my managerial muscles.

all five of us had been plugging away on our own sections of a brand analysis of red bull, the first part of which was due yesterday. our group of five women have all been very polite and diplomatic but no one had really taken the lead so i offered to compile everyone's sections into one document. (you can take the girl out of the weekly competitive report but you can't take the weekly competitive report out of the girl!)

a little cutting and pasting, and we'd be on our way, i thought. yeah...not so much. as the other pieces trickled in i thanked god i'd spent most of my career as an editor and project manager. one section contradicted the other section which contradicted the other section, and with an hour to go we were still missing one member's opening section AND and intro and summary. so i chugged a diet dew (ironically, there wasn't a red bull to be found) and started herding cats by phone and email.

in my best non-panicked, pleading, girlie voice, i suggested revisions, assigned the intro and summary, and hunted down our missing contributor. with 15 minutes to go we had our intro and an opening section that i hoped our professor would think was written by someone with english as a second language. with 5 minutes to go, i pulled a summary out of my ass, slapped a coat of editorial paint and a red bull logo on the report and sent it off to the other group member who really stepped it up for printing.

i was stressed, exasperated, and hadn't felt that good in a long time. 6 months, to be exact, when i was putting out fires for a living. i'd forgotten the exhilaration of taking the wheel of a car out of control, the thrill of problem solving, and the pride and sense of accomplishment when the day is saved.

and thankfully, i think everyone in our group realized this isn't the best way to go about part two of our project so we're already a few steps ahead. but i think i'll stock up on the red bull just in case...

Look at all these people

Look at all these people in the gym locker room getting ready for work. Ah, I used to be one of them. Sigh...oh well, off to the beach!

I've noticed that i'm tanner

I've noticed that i'm tanner than normal this time of year & realized that the sun is a much more effective method than bad fluorescent lighting!

Funemployment, Day One Hundred Fifty Five: Too Much of a Good (Free) Thing

apologies for being away from funemployment for so long, but i've been inhumanly busy lately with classes, job hunting, and unexpectedly, collecting free food. seriously, apparently my last post was just the beginning of a free food juggernaut that the fast food chains' marketing departments are embracing more passionately than a 300-lb repeat customer.

i passed on the free kfc (sorry, i'm not *that* hard up yet) but loved the el pollo loco! the free sit-down two-course meal at cafe was turned into a 3-hour dining experience. and my free coffee bean iced coffee tasted extra jolt-y with money left in my pocket. sadly, i didn't get organized early enough to claim free mother's day brunch or coldstone creamery (helllloooo...my friends get free babysitting and i get free food. it's a win-win!) and now comes tomorrow's free haagen-dazs!
http://www.haagen-dazs.com/shops/shopLocator.aspx

now, far be it from me to complain about free anything, much less food, but i'm wondering why the healthy food joints can't jump on the freebie bandwagon as quickly as the fast food chains. for god's sake, they should at least be in better bandwagon-jumping shape!. i mean, i would have loved to get my free ben and jerry's scoop and haagen-dazs and krispy kreme, but as someone whose budget barely sustains a gym membership, a new "missy" wardrobe with elastic waistbands is out of the question.

come on, it can't cost *that* much to give away a few thousand smoothies, sandwiches, or a salad, right? i know, funemployed beggars can't be choosers, but there are plenty of healthy eaters whose wallets could use a break too! and personally i'm in no hurry to go back to my post-college job hunting days in NYC when i lived for a solid month on $1 mcdonald's quarterpounders (with cheese!). *shudder*

so thank you, haagen-dazs. while i appreciate the offer, i think i'll go shell out the money for some fro-yo or fruit or something. hell, i just got another unemployment check so maybe i'll splurge and get the large pinkberry with double fruity pebbles!

Funemployment, Day One Hundred Forty One: Who you callin' chicken??

funemployed chicken-lovers rejoice! the free food frenzy continues this week thanks to a poultry face off between KFC and El Pollo Loco (heretofore "EPL"). EPL has been trying to get a bigger foothold in the healthy fast food market and had planned on giving away two free pieces of their chicken tomorrow. and since KFC is launching their new grilled chicken (or as they called it "un-fried". gag.) at the same time, they're pre-empting EPL and giving away one piece today. oh, how the feathers will fly! (ba dum bum!)

their timing couldn't be better, too, since a)i eat chicken to point that my mother has actually voiced her concern ("you're going to turn into a chicken!" i'm somewhat certain this is impossible.) and b)these are brilliant case studies for my marketing classes. pretty genius real-life examples in action. will these stunts guarantee my return business? no. will i gladly take their free food anyway? hell, yes!

i may try to score some grilled KFC today but quite frankly i've heard it's pretty much in the same grease/oil family as their regular fried chicken. but i'm a huge EPL fan so tomorrow you know i'll be first in line. hmmm...i wonder just how many locations i can hit in one day...?