Look, it's great that you are financially secure enough that you can take half a year off. Seriously! I am happy for you. But most people aren't in that position. Most people are barely getting by, and for those folks, unemployment is terrifying, because unlike you they have no guarantees that a new gig will be available for them the moment they decide to start looking for one.
Part of the reason "funemployment" grates so much is because of an assumption buried inside it -- namely, that you will only be unemployed as long as you choose to be. It's fun in the same way a roller coaster is fun -- it's a simulation of risk presented inside an environment you know to be controlled. The sensation you get when a roller coaster crests a hill and starts downward is the same one you would get if an airplane you were on suddenly lurched into a steep dive. What makes the coaster fun is that you know it's going to pull out of the dive before you hit the ground and die. What makes the airliner plunge frightening is that you don't.
Unemployment is only fun if you know it's temporary. Programmers and other tech folks are among the very few in this job market who have that luxury. For everyone else, losing their job is an airliner plunge -- a sudden "oh shit" moment with no guarantees that it will end happily. So glib terms like "funemployment" kind of rub your good fortune in the faces of those who get a pink slip and wonder how they're going to make their next rent payment.
Interesting, I never though the term 'funemployment' would bother others, and in fact I liked the term because I figured it actually helped in distinguishing voluntary unemployment from the less pleasant version. Do you know this is the case, or are you speculating how people might feel?
I'd like to know, because In the former case I'll be more careful with the term, as I have a number of involuntarily unemployed friends and I don't want to make them feel worse than already do (some of them, anyways).
Look, it's great that you are financially secure enough that you can take half a year off. Seriously! I am happy for you. But most people aren't in that position. Most people are barely getting by, and for those folks, unemployment is terrifying, because unlike you they have no guarantees that a new gig will be available for them the moment they decide to start looking for one.
Part of the reason "funemployment" grates so much is because of an assumption buried inside it -- namely, that you will only be unemployed as long as you choose to be. It's fun in the same way a roller coaster is fun -- it's a simulation of risk presented inside an environment you know to be controlled. The sensation you get when a roller coaster crests a hill and starts downward is the same one you would get if an airplane you were on suddenly lurched into a steep dive. What makes the coaster fun is that you know it's going to pull out of the dive before you hit the ground and die. What makes the airliner plunge frightening is that you don't.
Unemployment is only fun if you know it's temporary. Programmers and other tech folks are among the very few in this job market who have that luxury. For everyone else, losing their job is an airliner plunge -- a sudden "oh shit" moment with no guarantees that it will end happily. So glib terms like "funemployment" kind of rub your good fortune in the faces of those who get a pink slip and wonder how they're going to make their next rent payment.