From Suits to Sweatpants: Tales from the Unemployed

Let’s Commiserate

Author’s sad foot photo (maybe I can make a few bucks off this sucker?)

I’ve been wearing a lot of sweatpants lately. Waking up each morning with nothing to do but sit at my computer, applying for jobs I likely won’t hear back from, doesn’t call for fancy dress wear.

Being unemployed is the worst. Being unemployed at 40 years old is a kick to the crotch you simply weren’t expecting.

In January 2025, I resigned from my position as a warehouse manager, where I had been working long hours and under incredible stress due to the job’s demands. Meanwhile, for nearly all of 2024, I had been undergoing a difficult separation, which didn’t help with the mental overwhelm.

I had been neglecting my teenagers’ emotional needs at a time when they needed both of their parents the most. It’s never just the couple who goes through a divorce. The children are innocent bystanders who get caught in the crossfire.

I knew I needed to be there for them more, and I couldn’t juggle that responsibility and the job.

Something had to give.

I believed I was safely resigning, thinking I could move into a worker position, cut back on the hours I was working and, most importantly, reduce the mental and emotional pressure I was feeling due to the high-stress nature of the…