I know it's important to do science that comes to obvious conclusions, but sometimes the interiority-centric framework of psychology seems comically ill-fit for topics like this

In most countries in the world, money is what allows you to have any control over your life. For most people who aren't already rich, their having money relies on being employed, and we tend not to describe people who don't work because they're retired as "unemployed". Thus, people who are long-term unemployed likely feel that they lack control of their lives because this is true. I guess it's good to know that they are aware of their situation. It would be weirder if they weren't

I have trouble keeping a structured schedule on my own, so I highly value having a reason for doing stuff on time and on the regular.

Otherwise I eat when hungry, tinker until distracted, sleep when drowsy, and that tends to isolate me from the real world.

I'll say one thing for old-fashioned prime time TV, it anchors the days for people like my parents, and Dad always knows when to find a newscast, yet still get everything done. Me, I try to have some social engagements in public, or get involved in some community groups that meet.

The employment model needs to change.

With the rise of gig work, constant firings and layoffs, large 30 year debts or school debts on people are unsustainable. So is healthcare being tied to employer and 401k tied to employer.

The risk is all individual, the gains are all to corporations and lenders aka asset owners.

This is unsustainable. Something has to change.

You may as well say "Researchers discover: not having money sucks".

Personally, I've voluntarily gone without employment for many short stretches, as well as a 2 year stretch, and each time I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

Trips to Thailand, Europe, working on my own projects... The only real downside has been watching my bank balance go down. Otherwise, it's great.

I was never really unemployed, but even for the short period when I was on a sabbatical, migrated to a new country and didn't work for just over two months, I felt weird about it. I remember seeing all the people going to work, complaining about it, and felt somewhat inadequate, fraudulent and maladapted for not working. So I can only imagine how hard that must be when you experience that on a longer term, get rejections on your applications, and see your financial cushions dwindling (if you were lucky enough to have any).

Chicken-egg situation really. At least _some_ of the unemployed are just disengaged and apathetic, at least where I'm from.

But we don't need science to tell us humans need purpose and to feel they have some social value. The problem is more fundamentally the industrial era idea of a "job" as something you "have". Just "be" and "do"

This is seems obvious to anyone who knows someone who has struggled with unemployment.

The non-monetary should be considered before deciding to take a “career break” because they are easy to overlook and unexpected by some

I’ve taken two in recent years, spring-fall 2021, when the world (nyc) was reopening after a year locked in my apartment and expanded unemployment was paying enfough to get by so I wanted to reconnect with the world. And spring-now 2024, where right after getting laid off I fell into fractional contract work that pays enfough to get by, but less than a living and has reduced the urgency to find something else when all I hear is how

Both cases, I’ve ended up a bit directionless, lost, and alone (although this time less than last), and with a strain placed on my marriage not because of money, but because I’ve started leaning on my wife too much for my source of meaningful human contact. And after a day of her slogging through that at work, she doesn’t always want to be “on” and have thought provoking conversations or do activities together.

The beautiful thing about the apathy is that if things turn around, you'll be able to use it to ask for whatever rate sounds most ridiculous and see if it sticks, because you won't be so hung up on yourself. You'll also be less likely to abuse yourself on your employers behalf for the privilege. Especially if you've got a glimpse at how much money gets screwed away on one-off transactions that make your manager look good, you'll understand it's in your best interest to try and get as much as you can out as quickly as possible, just keep increasing one of the digits until it seems unreasonable, and then see if it turns out to be :) You'll be happy you asked for me whether you turn out to do well and love the place, or you get laid off next time or your landlord decides to sell, if you're part of the cohort of millennials and lower priced out of stability.

I'm employed and still feel little control over my career. Here I was thinking that my disengagement and cynicism was a result of being repeatedly screwed over. I guess that's an aspect of lacking control.

Employment has an added benefit of being a social status, providing funds to live one's life, having structure and community.

Those without employment can achieve all those things, it's just much harder and most average people would crumble.

Remember the idea that if everyone had a universal basic income. They'll be an explosion of creativity and arts as now everyone is free and liberated. Except that isn't the case. People turn to harder and harder drugs to pass the time.

The irony here is that long term employment can also lead to disengagement and apathy. So really, the latter has nothing to do with being employed or not.

The study only claims association: “Prolonged unemployment is associated with control loss and personal as well as social disengagement". This popular article completely lies and claims there is causation ("unemployment leads to"). Absolutely classic.

I was unemployed for about 10 months and this article resonates with my experience.

In my case, I went from a fast upward career trajectory, working on world-class silicon valley projects with famous investors; getting more phone calls from recruiters than I could answer to unemployment and zero opportunities suddenly.

I was literally applying to hundreds of jobs per months without any replies. Not even getting first interviews.

I had already lost a lot of trust in the system even before I became unemployed. I've experienced stuff that would turn anyone into a conspiracy nut. Unemployment sealed my view of the world as 'Clown World'. It made it hard to take anything seriously. Everything feels fake, constructed, inefficient.

Even now that I have a job, I struggle to abandon this mindset, technically, I'm a software engineer but I feel more like an actor who acts the role of a software engineer. Everything feels fake and I'm just playing the role pretending that everything is meaningful and I wonder if people around me are also just acting. I feel like I turned into an office psychopath. Like a split personality disorder.

Kind of like how I have a somewhat separate online persona which is a concentration of all my frustrations. I've developed a separate work persona, the stakes just are too high for me to be genuine; I just act genuine; after being genuine for most of my life, it's not difficult to get into character.

They really needed to do a study on this, much less write an article about it? Feels like one of those " no shit " moments where we already knew this.

I retired once for 6 weeks. Was bored to death. Started another business.

Why not just say "lack of money"? I know some friends (all female, but that's just how it is culturally) who have been unemployed forever (other than short stints here and there) and don't work at all (they have helpers at home), and yet they're probably the happiest people I know.