NYT: Funemployment Can Be Liberating and Fulfilling; All You Need to Do is Volunteer for Liberal Causes

Oh sweet fancy Moses. They just can't help it.

“I was getting into kind of a depression, so to be a volunteer for Eduardo is like a medicine for me,” said Maria Guillen of Queens, who lost her $100,000-a-year job as a loan officer in December and is volunteering for the City Council candidate Eduardo Giraldo.

“The contact with other people, the chance to do something different, the learning experience — it can all help you out with your emotions,” she said.

...

But the experience, coming at a time of crisis in their lives, has been surprisingly powerful for many of them. Volunteering, they say, restores some of what they lost along with their jobs: a place to go every day, a reason to put on a clean suit, people to work beside, a sense of purpose.

And for some of the jobless, the experience has triggered a profound reassessment.

Yukyong Choi, 36, a former litigator who has not worked in a year, is now an unpaid volunteer for P.J. Kim, a City Council candidate in Lower Manhattan.

“One thing that I’ve discovered through this process is I don’t really want to go back to that life,” Mr. Choi said. “That was a life filled with 18-hour days, and having to work with people you may not enjoy. It’s not the money anymore; I want to do things that will have a real effect on people’s lives, as opposed to just trying to get a company out of a situation.”

Ed Morrissey contrasts the NYT's contrasting takes on Republican unemployment and Democratic funemplyment.

Thanks to AHFF Geoff.

posted by Ace at 01:57 PM

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