'I don't want to be me any more' And with that, 21 yo job seeker takes own life

Job seeker, 21, with 3 A-levels and 10 GCSEs, kills herself after she was rejected for 200 jobs

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1267953/Job-seeker-Vicky-Harrison-commits-suicide-rejected-200-jobs.html#ixzz0m01YZnE9

A bright 21-year-old killed herself after more than 200 unsuccessful job applications.
Vicky Harrison had dreamed of a career as a teacher or a television producer, but gave up hope for the future, her family said yesterday.

A day after her latest rejection, and on the eve of her fortnightly trip to sign on, she wrote heartbreaking notes to her parents and boyfriend saying 'I don't want to be me any more' and took a huge drug overdose.



Her death last month tragically highlights the human cost of the highest level of joblessness since the mid-1990s. Rising youth unemployment has led to warnings about a 'lost generation'.

...snip...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1267953/Job-seeker-Vicky-Harrison-commits-suicide-rejected-200-jobs.html#ixzz0m020KXFG


To borrow a line from a fellow member of another forum I frequent regarding this tragedy:

"There is something basically wrong with our entire way of life..."

:( :cry:

What despair this world brings. My heart breaks.

believe we are hitting a wall and finding that we went the wrong way on the road to being...us.

The working (and unemployed) class needs to turn that around.

and importing, we will start to see real change.

Until people realize that free trade = no jobs for Americans, no careers for the young, no pensions for the old and no saving or spending for the in-betweens, we will continue to commit suicide -- some slowly, some quickly. What is dying is our national economy.

And the increased housing purchases and orders for durables don't change the underlying problem -- which is that outsourcing and importing are bad, very, very bad for Americans.

End free trade. Fair trade is the only answer.

Americans not only lose their jobs, peasants in other countries are exploited, and the lower cost of goods produced in unregulated sweatshops in other countries are, fortunately, affordable for unemployed and underemployed Americans.

We shouldn't condemn peasants in other nations, we have more in common with them that we have with our own ruling class. Patriotism and nationalism are just two more tools used to keeping the working class divided.

I've been promoting the IWW (the Wobblies) to a lot of "unskilled" labor in my area.

used to keeping the working class divided." Not to mention that they are also one large step towards fascism.

What a vicious cycle we've got going!

Many who live pay check to pay check don't have the option of waiting out a recession. For everyday that they are out of work is another day that they fall further into debt and in some cases poverty. The amount of stress that goes into to trying to find a job, when the bills are piling up can be enormous. This story is very sad.

There are no new openings, and no one is retiring. As a result we are basically being pushed out of the job market. On top of that, when employers see a resume gap they assume something is wrong with us and pass us over. It could be years before things moderately pick up.

Young people will have some mass neurosis for a while due to all this.

In 2014 the people who have worked 30 years and earned a retirement, who are still sitting in their jobs unhappy and want to leave, will finally be able to retire if the HC bill works as expected. Health care is a HUGE factor in our job market issues, keeps people semi enslaved, and makes the US uncompetitive.

newthinking.

You have raised a good point here, with regard to health care. I wonder if they opened Medicare up to everyone, if some of these problems would be alleviated.

I am 48 years old and haven't had a "real" job since late 2005. I went from a salaried job paying around $40,000 per year to temp jobs and shit retail jobs paying in the neighborhood of $8 per hour.
After a while, I just quit; the lousy cashier job, looking for new jobs, basic functioning. I am now a "discouraged job seeker" and discouraged human being.

This OP is so tragic and should never have happened! I read some others on this thread who have also lost friends to suicide; way too sad! I understand how they feel, and all of this unemployment and the feelings of utter rejection that go along with the futile job search do INDEED create mass neurosis. I find myself (usually a cheerful, positive take-charge type person) wondering who I am; why can't I function like I used to, what the hell happened to the "old" me?? For the current youth, this economy will have some very deep, lasting scars. The loss of confidence, loss of ability be independent and self-sufficient, the stress and anxiety that goes along with joblessness and underemployment....all of that human suffering that our young men and women are having to endure right now. It's just shameful to see the rich getting richer and the rest of us just getting fucked!
My boyfriend is a supervisor for a small county government agency. He supervises only 5 employees, and out of those 5, 2 of them have had their grown children move back in with them because of a job loss and getting evicted from their apartment....2 out of 5??? That's a pretty large percentage.

Hope things pick up for you.

I had a deep sense of self confidence that most people around me picked up on. I had almost no anxiety or stress when I was gainfully employed. Now my anxiety and stress are really bad and my self confidence is pretty much shattered. I don't know who I am or where I really belong. And I know it won't get 'fixed' anytime soon. We have massive structural defects in this country that will take years to change.

you are worth something - it is the people who make us feel this way that are fucked. We are good human beings worthy of respect. Remember that.

This just reminded me of yet another side effect of unemployment; loss of structure, routine and schedule! Are you like that, too?

:hi:

I haven't had a "real" job since 2002, when my 20 year hi-tech career crashed. The highlights?

I've wiped out my retirement savings between shit jobs.

Not one person to look at my home for sale (on which I'd be taking a huge loss).

I've taken on debt going back to school for a new career in health care, spending 2 years busting my ass to keep a 4.0 average in pre-med and clinical science.

Only to have stafford loans cut off halfway through the program, due to "too many credits."

And now, due to health INSURANCE reform, hospitals are *cutting* health care staff, so there's no job at the end anyway.

No way to finish to finish the program; no way to pay off the loans.

I keep putting one foot in front of the other in order to care for my fur family. But finding them new homes is my next step. Suicide increasingly looks like the only way through this morass.

I, too, made the (in retrospect) stupid mistake of going back to school to become "employable". Halfway through, this "college" "streamlined" their program, and essentially put my back against the wall: do I want to continue to get a degree in something that I wouldn't have gone for if this "streamlined" program was in place when I first enrolled. At that point, I had to make the choice to either finish out (another year) and accrue even more debt(with no job placement prospects), or drop out. I chose the latter. Now I find out that there were several different loans and way more debt that I ever intended to go into in the first place, and no way to pay them off.

Unlike you, I was lucky to have sold my house in late 2005 (knowing that my job was about to be gone); I took a big loss, but at least it got sold.

Like you, I have gone through a series of shit jobs that paid so little that I was unable to pay my rent. I know where you are; the stress and anxiety of not being able to keep a roof over you and your families heads are enough to push you over the edge.

I had a job interview about a year ago, and was turned down for the job due to "information obtained on your credit report.." WTF??????

Like you, I have often thought about suicide. Think this administration and talking heads on M$M take that into account when they proclaim that "the economy is getting better..."?????

This economy and the fucken "gotcha capitalism" really suck!!!

But I guess we do what we have to do, and try our best to hang on.

Take care!

jobs suddenly appear.

in need these days. I know my neighbor and I had a long talk about suicide last weekend. We decided to be strong for each other, but who knows what he will do. I'm checking on him often, but he's really depressed. We've both been looking for over a year, he's close to two years, both over 50. He's already losing his house, he way over leveraged it, I'm nearing losing my home, even though I didn't over leverage.

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been! ..." ~John Greenleaf Whittier

Germany: Unemployed man starves himself to death

The demise of a 58-year-old unemployed man who deliberately starved himself to death in a remote hideout in the woods is both a personal tragedy and a devastating indictment of the current state of German society. It says more about conditions in Germany than all the pious speeches of professional politicians and academic studies into poverty and unemployment.

The emaciated body of Hans-Peter Z was discovered two weeks ago, in a forest area near Solling in Lower Saxony. It is estimated that Hans-Peter Z had already been dead for over two months. According to a police report he died after not eating for 24 days and drinking only a little water, while documenting his suffering in a diary.

...But three years later, Hans-Peter Z lost his job again...He was now living like a recluse, reading a great deal and riding his bike, surviving on his unemployment benefits. Again and again, he told his landlord and the advisors at the local unemployment agency about his job applications. But the 58-year old was only offered jobs on a commission-only basis by shady businessmen...

However, in October 2007 his unemployment benefits were reduced, and this previously successful self-employed man faced having to lodge a claim for welfare payments. His unemployment benefits now amounted to just €347 a month, but Hans-Peter Z did not make a claim for welfare...

In mid-November, he left his small apartment and rode on his bicycle the approximately 100 kilometres to Solling in Lower Saxony. With a backpack and a water bottle, he began his last journey...

In his diary, he documents in detail each day up to his death.

He writes how his organs slowly stop working, his skin dries up, how he becomes increasingly emaciated, losing bodily sensation, and his mental faculties diminish. At one point, a young boy tries to climb into the hideout, but his father calls him back. At the beginning of December he loses track of time. On December 6, he writes that it must be Christmas. He eats nothing, only occasionally drinking some water. In the end, he asks that his diary be handed over to his daughter. The last entry is dated December13. His final wish is to be buried at sea. The police later establish that Hans-Peter Z must have resided in his hideout in the woods for at least 24 days before he died.

For over two months, his dead body lay untouched, until it was found two weeks ago by hunters. Hans-Peter Z had not been missed.

The 58-year-old seemed to have internalised all the “virtues” that businesses expect of their employees. He did not work in order to live; he lived in order to work. When society refused him the chance to work—a man who had always worked for his living—his world collapsed. At 58, he considered himself neither superfluous, nor a “candidate for a pension.” He was too proud to ask for welfare payments and face the degradation of cheap-wage labour...

The parlous state of German society was also revealed by the media bidding war that ensued for the rights to publish Hans-Peter Z’s diary. According to press reports, his daughter has already been offered a five-figure sum for her father’s diary. A movie director and a writer have also shown an interest in his story. Before they turn to the diary of Hans-Peter Z, they should read a powerful historical precedent—Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman,” in which the main character Willy Loman eventually kills himself after losing his job in the harsh conditions of 1940s America.


http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/germ-f27.shtml

Hans-Peter Z had not been missed. That breaks my heart. We should all matter. Our deaths should matter, just as our lives should matter.

The next time someone is tempted to belittle another for saying how much it hurts to lose hope, please try to remember this. It is harder for the young when they feel that they have no future; when they see that it has been stolen from them.

Maybe I am fortunate to be old now. I doubt that people my age will survive to see the worst of what may happen. I'm a boomer and I thought I had already seen it. I was wrong.

I am so sorry for this woman and all the other young men and women who only wanted a life with some control over what happened to them and more to look forward to than unemployment, untreated illness and a system that sucks you dry before you even have a chance to begin your life.

especially in America

Most equate a job with buying food, paying rent and utilities - you know basic survival.

in the U.S.

Just think to meeting a new person and think about how often you would end up asking the question, "SO, what do you do?"

That kind of pressure can really destroy people who are experiencing long-term unemployment...

Not to mention the rejection of numerous job interviews.

and they look at me like I have 2 heads or something.

And there are those who do not understand why in the world I'd rather have a comfortable job with sane hours making a moderate amount of money and being happy in life, than one where I have no life and spend 100 hours a week working just to make tons of money.

of the value of work.

However there are certain things that can come from a decent job.

The day to day structure
Feeling wanted and needed by other people
Earning your own income and feeling independent
Feeling you are contributing to society

When I feel bad I try to help my brother with his kids, and I offer to babysit. And that helps. But really nothing short of a job can replace the feelings I got while employed. Esp not the income and feeling independent part.

Many mentally disabled people have few luxuries in life, they are damned to poverty simply because of their disability, they are assumed to be "worthless" and I have run into many sick people that think we should "Euthanize" them to "put them out of their misery and save tax dollars". :puke:

That pressure can be overwhelming for someone who may already have underlying depression or mental illness.

Having to Depend on a "job" for the Basic Human Needs and Rights of Healthcare, Housing, Adequate Food and Education is a Fail. Afterall, the wealthy don't have "jobs" and if it works for them ... The Job Status Thing (SO, what do you do?") is so misplaced and ultimately dehumanizing. Work and Jobs are Not the same.

:)

But its depression - that's the cause regardless of the economy. Many can't find a job and handle it - depression means one can't handle things.

A terrible thing to happen to anyone.

They have the courage to talk about this. There is no way this isn't happening in the US as well, but the media over here wouldn't dare talk about the dozens or even hundreds of punches to the gut that job seekers over here have to receive lest they offend the corporations and other "small business owners".

It happened to me in the 70s. No jobs and the younger no experience people are competing with older more qualified applicants who are willing to move downward. Then the economy picks up a few years later and your group does become a "lost generation" because your checkered resume does not compare well to the just graduated eager beavers and the older ones with relevant experience. Oh well, it is what it is. That's why there are so many aging hippies in my generation, we never really got the opportunity to become corporatized, not necessarily a bad thing.

If you end up being employed in something less than your dream position, still try to make the most of it you possibly can. Someone close to me said to me "If you can't get out of it - get into it" which I think is pretty profound - with a surprising attribution to Kris Kristofferson, who, when you think of it, led a an unexpected and varied life and did more than a few 180s. There ARE second acts in life, despite what F.Scott Fitgerald thinks.

When he said "There are no second acts in American lives," he was thinking of a three-act play, not a two-act play. I.e., American lives have a beginning an an end, but no development in the middle.

As for this story, it's horrible and tragic...and I can relate to it a lot. For some of us, this is the second time we're facing utter rejection on the employment market. The situation was terrible when we graduated from college, and now that we're older and experienced, it's terrible for the older and more experienced as well as for the young.

Many kids who perform well are shocked when the rewards don't keep coming

There are so many people with days and days of time so I have an open studio where creativity and music and conviviality occur. It's not money making, but it is joy.

That's a beautiful thing you're doing. :loveya:

for similar reasons...

Daily mail is right wing media..

Ive sent out almost a thousand applications in the past year.

(Need I add?): :sarcasm:

Really, a couple of years ago, threads about someone's suicide were almost always littered with sewage like that. I'm glad it looks like such heartlessness is on the decline.

:cry:

Paternoster Square whores.

But I think there's more here than the economy and lack of a job. Anyway, it is very sad.

I had to explain to a prospective employer once that I didn't have 10 years experience because 10 years ago I was in middle school (happened a couple years ago).

Even janitorial jobs require years of experience.

Don't laugh. They are all over the place.

and friends will also one day be able to find peace. How tragic.

It consumed her. Being "rejected" so many times... Well, I can't imagine.

He graduated a year ago. He was valedictorian in his high school class, Eagle Scout, did everything possible - but there are just no jobs.

she'd be just another pretty white girl in the news.

Yes, she would be.

Making our points on the misfortunes of others since 2001...

God Bless this poor woman wherever she is...

But, but... isn't this the "greatest country on God's green earth", according to Michael Medved? Or Hannity, or Limbaugh, or.... (ad nauseam)...

Lets get rid of those dirty factory jobs, Americans don't want those anymore....

Now ALL jobs are going to China. I do feel so sorry for young folks growing up in this damned "free trade" environment.

I'm sure many of us can. I just wish people who decide on suicide could make themselves wait for 24 hours to actually do it. Most wouldn't. Sometimes the smallest thing can turn things around and make it possible to cope with the crap life throws at you.

we end up hanging the billionaires & multi-billionaires from the highest lamp-posts. Then setting them on fire.

Fuckers!

How can they live happily with a million times more than they'll ever use, when so many have nothing at all? But I answer myself: happily.

Fuckers!