Ungrateful? Or Underappreciated?

“Life is hard, and working takes up so much time, effort, energy, etc., with very little reward, and with the current climate, the rewards are even less than they used to be.“

In the current market, it seems that one cannot afford to be ungrateful, whether they are employed or not. If one has a job, how dare they complain about the opportunity to earn money? If one doesn’t have a job, how dare they complain about the abundance of free time at their disposal? So, are we just ungrateful or underappreciated?

I am still job-searching, and it feels a little ungrateful when seeing friends complain about their jobs. But it’s tough for everyone - they wish they had more time, which I currently have too much of. Instead, I have the mindset that everyone is having it tough - those employed have high, stressful workloads with little free time, and those unemployed have no money, as well as too much time to fill.

One of my friends commented that they had feelings of guilt, that they didn’t deserve to take up a space in the workforce when there were so many other capable people. But they realised that they aren’t ungrateful, because really, we’ve all worked hard to be where we are now. Whether you’re job-searching or working, you have had to undergo some level of qualification and experience to get there.

I think we can often doubt our abilities or potential based on short-term issues. But it doesn’t change what we’re capable of, the things we can achieve when we chase opportunities.

I think we’re all underappreciated rather than ungrateful because things are tougher than ever. It often feels like there isn’t much hope or opportunity left. Costs keep rising, but wages stay the same. How can we be expected to continue?

The grass does look greener on the other side, but you don’t know until you get there. We are where we are, and all we can do for now is to keep going, keep applying, keep faith that there are opportunities out there. There’s no need to label ourselves as ungrateful, but give ourselves grace in this temporary period.

The message inspiring the blog - shifting the narrative from ungrateful to underappreciated and recognising self-worth

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*Special thank you to the reader who sent the above text: the author always appreciates debates and comments on the blog in order to better understand a range of perspectives

#ungrateful #underappreciated #thoughts #employment #unemployment #jobhunt