Do you like or want to - work?

P.R. would sort all this out

Hi there I take a different view I think Labour are the unkind ones giving ridiculous pay rises to the public sector threatening to raise capital gains and inheritance tax and basically stifling the economy.

I reckon what always happens we will boot them out in 5 years and then the tories will cut the exes again and create a world where there is plenty of compassion and work.By the way the tories had to be given a sound defeat at the last election they messed up and need to offer hope next time

Roy well done you and no neighbours sounds bliss I live in Devon and lets just say have not found many friendly locals!

You sound spot on wait till you find your job that fits your skills and you will enjoy.

i want t get back to work and do a more helpful role as have had an appalling year dealing with councils and police I have learnt so much that they do wrong and I want too help other people get their rights

I don’t like working, I like doing my own thing and having time to rest!! I’ve never had a job but I’ve only just left high school - I took a gap year this year and it’s been amazing not having to be at school every day. I’ve still done learning but I’ve been able to go at my own pace and take lots of breaks and focus on what interests me, and i was able to have way more fun and be way more creative! I did a week of work experience and while it wasn’t bad necessarily I was incredibly exhausted at the end of the week and the monotonous nature of it was not very appealing to me. I’m thinking I’ll probably move around career wise in the future and work part time where I can although obviously my financial situation might not allow for that.

 I'm not very good at putting links into messages, but here's trying:

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/

If you can get it to open it should take you to the main open learn web page, then if you scroll down you'll see a section headed "Pick a subject and start learning" 

If you then click on a subject, for example "History & The arts" then click the "free courses" tab that appears at the top.of the page, you should be able to see all the courses available in that section.

I thought I'd have trouble keeping quiet too and so did everyone else, but I didn't, I realised that so much of my talking was a mask, because it's an easier way of having attention than being called weird.

I might have another look at the OU if they're doing more courses, because most of them before were so limited

A silent retreat is an interesting idea - not sure I could shut up long enough to do it though 

The OU open learn courses are free, so no fees to pay, and online, so you just sign up (not much different to joining this forum) and study when you want to. After choosing a course, you then click "enter course" and study at your own pace. They are all short ones, mostly between 6 and 30 hours, but there are over 1000 to choose from.

I started the one called "Herodotus and the invention of history" today. It's interesting to me because Herodotus was used as a character in a video game I played called "Assassins Creed Odyssey" and I wanted to learn more about him and his writings. The course covers some passages of his text and also encourages critical thinking and assessing - such as how information is sourced and verified. 

Here is the course introduction, from the open learn website:

"With the information explosion online, how can you tell fake news from the real thing, or be more sensitive to how information can be weaponised? In the fifth century BCE, a Greek by the name of Herodotus faced a similar challenge when he set out to examine why his people, the Greeks, and the Persians went to war with each other. Chief among his tasks was deciding what and whom to believe, as he pieced together the events of the past. His response was to produce an enquiry (in Greek: historiē, which is where the English word ‘history’ comes from). Explore how Herodotus puts together his enquiry and learn how he makes the problem of finding out what happened to ours too."

I'm so so tired. I do not know if it is boredom or burnout. I have not been working in my profession for over a year. My manager says nice things then stabs me in the back. I now know I am not wanted in the profession I have spent over 30 years learning and using my experience to be as good as I can be. I am told that I am incapable and need to be redeployed.

So what now?

I do not know what I want although I need to work at something. I find the thought of a momentous change to be terrifying.  I am in my early fifties and wanted to be financially in a position to retire around 60 ish. This was a pipe dream now I am worrying because I have read that autistic people generally die around 10 years younger that NT's.

What am I going to do that is the question that is constantly in my head.

It's interesting being sort of status free because your job dosen't match people expectations. It was also something interesting about being on silent retreat when you know nothing about the people you're with, the only judgements you can make involve the style and quality of their clothes and their table manners. But it feels like you get to know them from the inside out rather than the outside in, if that makes any sense?

I have looked at the OU and it's not for me, the courses mostly run over the summer and I want to be out and doing in summer, whereas wiinter seems a much better time to burrow in and study. I can't afford the fee's and don't understand the tech side of it. I've looked at numerous short courses and none of them have appealed to me enough to feel worth the effort, there are also a lack of them in the areas I'm interested in.

I’ve always worked and for a majority of it worked in my fathers business. I now realise how much I was ‘carried’. I am quite good with solving engineering problems but as I was often told, not a people person. For the last 10 years I have been lucky enough to work alone, I used to really enjoy the work, I restore classic cars. For the last 3 years I have had zero interest, I’m bored every single day and don’t enjoy any of it. This happened on the day I realised I’m autistic. Gone from insomniac to constantly tired.

Now moving to the Cornish coast and have bought a house with another cottage attached to it and no neighbours, both houses need a lot of work and then a stone barn to convert. Hopefully this new direction will give me a new interest. The cottage and barn will hopefully be holiday lets. I love learning new skills but once mastered can lose interest very quickly and then need to learn something else. I’m 57 in a few months so hopefully my health will holdout and then can semi retire.

There's a fairly obvious rejoinder to that. For many centuries people weren't allowed to vote. Universal Suffrage is a fairly recent development.  And what few rights we do have in the world are down to the vote.  Historically speaking.

We only have to look back in history to see how disabled people have consistently been treated by the rich and powerful, even in violation of the most basic Christian moral principles 

I simply do not trust any politicians of any party any more, nor do I believe there is any reason to have any faith in any part of the democratic process nor in democracy itself, as if voting really made any difference, we would not be allowed to vote, if any politician could make a difference, they are fighting against a system that is institutionally corrupt and utterly devoid of any moral compass - all political leaders are selected by their globalist deep state masters, not elected, it is problem reaction solution - we have seen this many times in history before where the victors write the history books to obscure the truth of our history and many of their most horrible crimes for their own political ends and they will abuse their power as they have always done 

It's ok Pixiefox.  I read your Original Post and I know you weren't intending for people to feel bad.

I cannot offer you any consolation on that score.  The country could have had a left wing government in 2017 and 2019 and didn't vote for it.

The Prime Minister and the Chancellor aren't Left Wing and that's definitely an issue for the country moving forward

I did see a positive story in todays Observer newspaper about the governments  Social Security plans,

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/17/its-time-to-end-blame-culture-over-benefits-bill-says-labour-minister


I do not know what to say to you as I am always worried about things like this myself, but I can answer the question as you posed it. Will they force EVERYONE to work even if they can't? The answer to that is definitely no.

You'd need to tell me your personal situation in more detail for me to help you further.

It’s not good at all I bet they will make cuts to benefits for next April 

I hope not - as they are left wing I believe they should be supportive of those who need support, while the Tories are supposed to be uncaring b****ards who want everyone to look out for themselves, but I'm not sure that's the case any more.