Opinion of Unemployed People

Prior to working with a Job Active agency, I always held the opinion that long term unemployed people were lazy, drug affected and generally not very nice people.

I held this belief because although I live in a high unemployment area I have never been out of work. I have always been proactive in my job searching and have always held down permanent fulltime well paying jobs.

I have come from a middle to upper-class family and my parents also who have never been out of work instilled this belief in me. My attitude was that there is no such thing as free money – my husband, my parents, my in-laws and my friends have all worked hard for what they have. I had the opinion if we can do it so should everyone else. As a family we have had tough times financially however to me that was always just been a trigger to work harder and find something better, not just put my hand out for welfare. I found it hard to have any empathy for families who I knew were 3rd generation unemployed and had no intention of ever working as they had the sense of entitlement.

As my job titles have changed over the years so have my quite one-sided opinions. Over the last 3 years I have held positions within Child Protection, Centrelink and now on the front line with a Job Active Agency.

At the job active agency I have a Caseload of around 250 people. These job seekers have come from all walks of life. Some I went to school with, some I have worked with and others are new to the area.

First and foremost I have learnt that the unemployed are people, and each has been on a journey and they deserve respect and the chance to tell their story.

The first lesson I learnt is that a lot of unemployed people are not claiming welfare as a choice. A series of events have put these people where they are today. Many of my clients want to be working; they are pounding the pavement on a daily basis, dropping of resumes, offering free trials of their time and in some cases even begging for a chance. This would be the majority of my clientele.

These people are not lazy. These people have found themselves in this position possibly because they were made redundant or because they have been business owners and due to the financial downturn have had to close their doors, some are farmers who are drought stricken and unable to farm their land. I have come across people from broken marriages; these people have no alternative but to claim payments until they find their feet again.