Thoughts on "The world doesn't owe you a job"

Imagine someone you love, say, your mother, is walking down a crowded street and suddenly collapses onto the ground courtesy of a heart attack. She lies there grasping her chest while everyone capable of calling 911 on their cell phones just walks right by her.  When you lament to a friend how could people be so cold and callous, s/he replies by saying, "Well, they didn't owe your mother anything."

Whether or not there is a good Samaritan ordinance in effect is irrelevant, the question is: What does anybody in this world owe anybody else?

Imagine telling your boss you'll need a week off because your mom just died. Your boss says you can have the time off, but not once in the conversation does he offer the standard condolences, i.e.,"I'm so sorry to hear that" or "you have my deepest sympathies." You share this observation with a friend who proceeds to state, "Your boss doesn't owe you his condolences." 

I see this fucktarded "nobody owes you a job" line routinely dished out as "advice" these days by those eager to play the role of advice expert. Here's the thing about this comment. It's a nasty comment. And, it's insensitive as fuck. That's why we don't see this "nobody owes you [whatever]" line hurled at us in any facet of our lives except, of course, when it comes to job searching.

And, what does it even mean? During my years as an unemployable, I have met and conversed with many other skilled smart professionals struggling through unemployment, both in personal meet-ups and in the many online discussion groups. And NOT ONCE have I ever heard any one of them ever proclaim, "The world owes me a job!" The last time I was dealt this line was in a Reddit group I created for the unemployed. A few of us had shared personal details of some very bad interview experiences, then one day some asstroll showed up with a massive post full of useless "advice" which included the "nobody owes you a job" line and accusing us of being the ones at fault in our stories (read more about that here).

The most common place you'll see this dumb line regurgitated is on that psychotic cyber-landfill known as LinkedIn where the only reality is the one where everyone's a happy unicorn farting sunshine/lollipops/rainbows. In every discussion in which depressed and desperate jobless folks are just looking for someplace to talk about their experiences with our broken hiring system, some smart ass shows up and leaves a comment quoting that line.

Every time, it leaves me asking the same question: How does this "insult posing as advice" help the job seeker? 

It doesn't. Let's face it, it's just another chance for another nasty rotten person to be nasty and rotten to another person, that's all. America is suffering from a serious case of moral rot and a massive lack of empathy. I'm not really sure if this is a recent phenomenon, or it was always like this and we were blissfully unaware (thanks, internet, for showing us how ugly we all are).

I particularly love the ones who preface this tripe with that Dr. Phil line "Get a job!" This phrase insinuates it's easy to find a job today, so no excuses! Yet, the phrase "the world doesn't owe you a job" is within itself an affirmation that it's a hostile employer's market in which you are likely to fail but don't look for sympathy here (because why would I need sympathy unless it was a hostile market?). Seems like a huge contradiction to me! 

Luckily for all of us, I think we do still live in a world where somebody would have called 911 and helped your mom. We see stories about strangers helping strangers all the time. And not once in any of those stories is the point later debated whether that person being helped was "owed" help.

In conclusion, Here is what I say to the Reddit asstroll and to anyone else out there who would dish out this dumb line under the guise of "helpful advice:"

We are prepped and tailored from the day we are born to eventually become a worker who earns a living. Many spend a small fortune on a degree in order to help them accomplish this. It is a fact that with no way to earn a living you will not last very long in this world unless you are very rich or can marry someone very rich (or would be happy shunning the modern world by moving to a jungle in the Amazon and living in a hut). Yet, if you fail to succeed despite having poured your entire heart and soul (and bank account) in this endeavor, you are immediately labeled as being a "lazy moocher" and a "bum." It really does seem like a very bizarre one-way street here. 

No, I do not think I am "owed" a job. BUT, so long as this world EXPECTS me to put my entire being into finding a job and then FAILS to uphold its end of this unwritten and unsigned contract, then at a bare minimum I should be permitted to openly call out the absurdity of it all without having this stupid, nasty, and unhelpful comment hurled at me. The least you can do is keep your fucking trap shut and behave like a decent human being. Yes, we are all owed that much.