Recession; I am Scared

LegacyUser

I was in my teens when the first recession hit and I seen how awful it was, funding for everything cut, some of my teachers emigrated cause they knew they were going to lose their jobs, qualified individuals in government jobs were scraping the bread line, so many of the younger teachers got huge pay cuts, people were committing suicide and losing their houses, lord forbid you spend money on anything without someone trying to make you feel bad about it. Nearly everyone in their 20s in my village emigrated, I seen my over qualified cousins struggle for a decade to get a job/permanent jobs. When I graduated I worked my way up in a company into a well paying, good stable job but man oh man, did it make me feel empty inside, like I was wasting my life. The company I was in had a dip in profits for a year while I was there and made some huge cuts, it was like being in the recession again, you literally had to bring in your own folders/stationary for office use and hide it from everyone else cause the company just stopped paying for basic things like papers and pens, we had to break the rules so many times and reuse disposable things in labs and manufacturing that weren't sterile cause the company wouldn't pay for PPE/necessary equipment any more, it was rough. I hated it and I left the job earlier this year for a few reasons, it being soul crushing was not actually one of them. But now, given the incumbent recession I feel that I have no choice but to return back to the industry.

There are people my age getting married, having kids and buying houses. I don't have money for anything like that not that I want to do those things, but if I ever want to do any of those things within the next decade I am pretty sure I will have to go back to my soul crushing industry but at least make a good wage. My other option is take a low paying minimum wage job and be stuck in a cycle of poverty. I had considered conversion courses but tbh, education in this country just seems way too expensive, and with the recession abound, well grants will be cut and fees will be raised more than what they currently are, they might even do what they did in the last recession which was have some 1 year conversion courses doubled into two years-double the length, double the fees paid; you can praise springboard all you want but having looked at the courses, the vast majority I can find relate back to the industry I previously worked in, its just not right for me. I know going abroad to NL or Germany is an option for many for masters but I don't want to stay in my field of industry/study. I am not sure what I want to convert into but I know its not going to be related to my previous degrees. European countries don't seem to offer conversion courses from my observation. I can't even emigrate to some country that hasn't been affected by the recession because its a global recession.

I don't know what I am going to do, I feel boxed in, I really don't want to spend my life in the industry I just left, I remember seeing people working in the job I was for 10 plus years clearly miserable but felt it was too late to start over and I swore that wouldn't be me. I worked with people who were in similarish position to me when the first recession happened, they were just happy to have a job and didn't care if they hated it, at least they had an income and now over a decade later they're in too deep to leave and start over, they've gotten used to the money and have bills to pay and other commitments, they're just comfortable in their job despite hating it and being better suited to something else. I am feeling boxed in. I feel trapped. I don't see any prospects for me tbh, the only option being going back to an industry, the very thought makes me want to jump down a well, but it seems the only realistic and financially viable option.

Xterminator

I was in my teens when the first recession hit

Hi Op

it was not the 1st recession. It was not the 2nd recession. The economy goes in cycles. For better or for worse we have periods of economic recession, and periods of economic growth. The action taken during the current pandemic depressed economic activity in such a way recession was inevitable.

I understand that from your perspective and experience you are worried. perfectly natural. If you chose to do nothing but rinse and repeat in you life, then you may well find yourself 'stuck' in an unfulfilling job.

But i do have some pieces of advice.

If you only take one piece of advice from this reply, i firmly believe one route out of your current trajectory is through education. Work pays the bills. It does not have to define your ambitions and your future. There are so many different options, and courses - and with distance learning, it is possible to work long, irregular hours and still achieve a qualification in an area that would lead you toward a more fulfilling career.

I can mention a couple that i have experienced, either directly or via close contacts. Oscail in DCU & Open University. But there is a myriad of possible options, like EdX etc.

https://www.distancelearningportal.com/countries/14/ireland.html


You are in a lucky position that the costs associated with these courses should be manageable for you. There was an ad on dublin bus last year that went along the lines of "give up the tv remote control one evening a week and get a qualification". Go for it!

Tork

Is this a recession or an apocalypse you speak of? I don't want to make light of your problem but a bit of perspective would help. As has already been pointed out, there are economic cycles and recessions are part of it. I was working when the 2008 recession came along and my pay got cut. The sky didn't fall in. I remember older relatives saying they'd been through all this before and that it'd pass. And so it did. Nobody knows how long this particular recession will last but hopefully it won't be like that 2008 one. The after-effects of that one were quite long-lasting but the circumstances were different. I've seen predictions that this recession won't last as long and I hope they're right. Nobody knows for sure and it is something none of us can control. All you can do is hold on, look after yourself and ride it out.

Would going back to your old, better-paid job really be a disaster? If you frame it as something that's temporary and pays the bills so you can put money together to do something else, it might become more tolerable. You seem to be so wound up by it all, you're looking at this in a very negative light. To me it's a no brainer that you return to your old industry for now and use the money from that to set you up for the rest of your life. Do you know what other career you'd like to pursue and if you can do it through distance learning? Also, comparing your life to those of your peers is futile. Everyone lives their lives at their own pace and you'll drive yourself mad looking at how everyone else is doing.

antimatterx

I don't think this will anything like 2008. We had huge underlying issues with the entire economy then, the issue this time is that the world has slowed down, so economic activity has slowed down. Things will get back to normal, and the economy will go back to normal.

Austerity won't be an issue this time, the government are going to spend their way out of this. (And rightly so, the cost of borrowing is ridiculously cheap.)

Airyfairy12

The last recession was particularly bad, I was in college at the time and lost my part time job because the business closed down, couldnt get a job anywhere else as no one was hiring so had to live off my student grant which was roughly 4K for the year then that got cut to just under 3k, it was tough going.
That said I dont think this recession will be as bad or as long lasting as the previous one, not only did the Banks go bust through their own negligence but we were forced to pay for the banks which was at the detriment to the entire country, there are towns and cities that have still not fully recovered from the previous recession and many public services have not returned to pre 2008 standards. On top of us paying off the banks, there was allot of government corruption, I remember the taoiseach and politicians getting raises and bonuses while the working and lower middle class could hardly feed their kids or pay their mortgage.
I will never understand how so many people in this country allowed that to happen, how there wasnt protests like the right to water or repeal the 8 is beyond me.
This recession is different, once businesses start back up again money will go back into the economy and people will get back to work, we're also in a much better position now as many people can work from home, in the last recession Irelands broadband, particularly in rural areas was abismal, I remember having to leave 2 minute youtube videos open in separate tabs for half an hour to load. Working online wasn't an option 10 years ago. So less people are out of jobs which means less people will be forced to emigrate or sign on the dole.
This government are seemingly spending on grants and funding to help businesses and local economy, that didnt happen the last time, rents, taxes, insurance were increased and pay was cut forcing people to close their businesses, I remember people quitting their jobs because getting to work was costing more than they could afford, even parking prices doubled, they put a tax on everything. People were willing to live on the 140 or 188 a week as it was more than their take home pay while working in some cases.

As for education, fees rise every year regardless of the economy, Springboard courses for the most part were only ever suitable for people aiming to work in very specific fields, commonly areas involving management, financing and pharmaceuticals. The discourse surrounding these courses at a time when there where no jobs, was very narrow minded and people in no way suited to working in these areas were forced into it. Similarly to CE schemes, social welfare were forcing anybody and everybody to partake in childcare courses, we're now in a situation where childcare workers are finding it difficult to get jobs and due to an over subscription of childcare assistants, the wages reduced and theyre paid pittance....I digress

TLDR - I dont see similar issues happening with this recession, the last one was very badly handled.