Interviewer: Thank you very much for participating in the study that focuses on the effect of unemployment on psychological well-being. I will start the interview by asking you a few general questions. You can stop me at any time during the interview if there is a question that is not clear to you. I will explain it again until you understand. How long have you been unemployed?
Respondent: Uhm ... for more than a year now. Interviewer: Are you looking for work?
Respondent: Yes. [Pause]
Interviewer: Have you handed your CV in at a few places already?
Respondent: Not yet. But my last work was at Pep Stores in De Doorns. I resigned my job and returned to Worcester. Ever since then I haven’t handed my CV in at other places.
Interviewer: What general feelings do you experience on a daily basis as a result of being unemployed?
Respondent: Uhm ... Must I know explain about the things that I can’t achieve because I am unemployed?
Interviewer: Yes. And how it makes you feel.
Respondent: It makes me feel very inferior and ... helpless sometimes. Because I can do nothing about my situation. And I have a child ... and the All pay money that she receive is not enough. I can't give her the things that she wants. It makes me feel very uncomfortable. And sometimes when I have to go out with my friends, I can't. Because I never have money.
Interviewer: Okay. How does unemployment affect how you see yourself? Respondent: [Pause]
137 Respondent: Yes! [Pause]
Interviewer: Can you elaborate on this?
Respondent: For example I stay with other people .... and when they complain about a shortage of food in the house I feel inferior. Then I feel guilty because I am unemployed and can't make a contribution. And the children in the house are also complaining because the food doesn’t last for long. So this is the kind of things that will make my turn to other things.
Interviewer: What kind of things?
Respondent: Like for example ... I go and drink alcohol. I drink until I’m drunk! Or I'll go and use drugs. I do just as I please!
Interviewer: Are you satisfied with your life as it is currently? Respondent: Not at all! Not at the moment.
Interviewer: Why do you say that?
Respondent: Because everything is too difficult for me at the moment. Especially since I am a young girl. I need a lot of things, and I look forward to many things that I still want and that I want to achieve. But I can't! Currently it's not a nice living that I have now.
Interviewer: Does unemployment have an influence on how you spend your time? Respondent: [Pause] I don't understand the question?
Interviewer: Like for instance the things that you during the day. Do you do it because you don't work?
Respondent: Yes! Unnecessary things! Maybe my friends and I will plan to go
somewhere. We will maybe find a man who can buy us alcohol. We will do 'that' with the man. [She doesn’t name the 'that'. Can it be sex?] I do all the negative stuff because I don't work!
138
Respondent: I wake up at 11h00. Then I will stand up, sit for a while in the lounge, and then I will prepare something to eat. Then I will clean the house. I don't leave the house unless someone comes to call me. Then I will sit at home the whole day. If maybe my friend come and calls me, I will go with her and we sit in the park. Then we plan a lot of things. Look we are not working! Like we plan to go to a guy who will support us with alcohol and we drink the whole day until we are drunk. When I return home, I am difficult at home.
Interviewer: Okay. What is your attitude towards finding a job in the nearby future? Respondent: [Pause] Sometimes I will think to myself I ask for a work but it never comes
my way. Whenever someone tells me he or she found a job ... I feel almost jealous ... even bitchy. Then I think by myself 'You are not going to last at that work'. And I think by myself I also ask God for a job, but I never get a job! And I am already 21 years old! And I haven't got a job yet! So it is. But I hope and trust that I will get a job. I am desperate to get a job by now. Interviewer: Do you think you will be able to stop using drugs if you get a job?
Respondent: Yes. Like in now ... I am without drugs. But sometimes I just snap. Then I feel I must maybe turn to it again. [Drugs] But I think to myself it's not always a solution. Then I walk somewhere ...go and sit at the Plein. [a peace garden with the statue of Nelson Mandela]. Then I sit there alone ... just to find myself again. Like that.
Interviewer: Okay. What do you think is your chance to get a job in the nearby feature? Respondent: Uhm ... like in?
Interviewer: Say for example if you apply for a job. What do you think is your chance to get the job?
Respondent: [Pause] I want to ... How can I put it? I want to give my all when I find a job now. I want to do my best ... really. I want to sacrifice myself for it. I don't want to lose it! Look, this is what I have been looking for all the way! So I will give it my all! Even if I feel uncomfortable in that work ... I will give it my all. I will do everything in my power to keep that job.
139 Interviewer: Do you believe you will get a job?
Respondent: The way my life is at this stage, I doubt it. I don't know! But I feel very discouraged in myself nowadays. I don't know! But sometimes I trust, sometimes I don't trust. Sometimes I believe I will get a job and sometimes I don't believe. But I believe like I am now! [Maybe because she is not using drugs now] ... then I will ... yes. It also depends on me.
Interviewer: How do you cope with your unemployment?
Respondent: Very stressful. [Pause] Like I said previously .... I do a lot of unnecessary stuff that I don't really want to do. That I am not capable of doing, but I do it. Like for instance, we will steal something and sell it for drugs just to fill our day. [She and her friends steal from others] When we are high on drugs we will go with men to undesirable places. Then we drink until we are drunk and we do unnecessary things. And tomorrow when I am back to my old self, I regret it. [When she is sober and the drugs and alcohol are out of her system] Then I feel withdrawn in myself. Then I don't want to see my friends. I always feel like that!
Interviewer: Why don't you want to see your friends?
Respondent: Yes, it's almost like ... I blame them. But I know I can't blame them! Because I did the things to myself ... I took part in the things. And my adopted mother will always ask me ....'M, how do you feel? 'M, why are you so sad?' 'M, why are you crying?'
Interviewer: How do you handle negative feelings the days that you feel down because of your unemployment situation?
Respondent: Sometimes I will lie in bed and think about a lot of things. Maybe I'm not made for it. One thinks a lot of things when you are on the way to turning to an adult. Like many times ... I think negatively about myself. I don't believe in myself sometimes. Then sometimes I believe in my abilities and that I can do a thing! But the days when I feel negative I will lie in the room alone the whole day. Then I will talk to the Lord the whole day. And sometimes I will just lie in bed. I stay with religious people ... which makes it easy for me.
140
Then I will lie in the room ... I will hear them talking in the house ... they won't disturb me. Maybe they know I want to be alone. Then I will lie and think about things ... like why I can't get a job. What mistakes did I make in life that has such a negative effect on my life now? I think a lot of things! Interviewer: What type of support do you need and receive?
Respondent: [Pause] [Seems like she doesn't understand the question]
Interviewer: Support can be in the form of financial help or maybe someone that listens to you.
Respondent: Like in someone that ... takes me by the hand and don't belittle me. This is the kind of support that I need now! Someone that tells me I know you can do it! And when I trip along the road he or she must pull me up and tell me that I can make it! I am looking for that kind of support now.
Interviewer: Do you think you get that kind of support at the moment?
Respondent: [Pause] Like in recent times I felt like I am not getting it. That's what drove me to the things that I did during this week. I only became calm from yesterday on. So I don't believe that I have it now.
Interviewer: What type of support do you feel you get? Respondent: Like at home?
Interviewer: Yes.
Respondent: Yes ... or I don't know if I can truly say I get that support. [Pause] Yes, I get! Like in you must just believe and trust. I get that type of support!
Interviewer: Who gives you that kind of support?
Respondent: From my adopted parents ... I call them my mother and father. [She is staying with them because her biological mother is staying in an old age home in Tulbach.] I get that a lot from them. And they will talk to me a lot.
Sometimes I tell them I know I will not make it ... they will be very hard on me. Then they will tell me they know I can make them proud ... and I am a strong person. So I get a lot of that type of support from them. But in the last
141
time they didn't understand me ... and I didn't understand them. That is why I believe that I don't have support now. [Pause] But sometimes ... like when I woke up this morning ... I felt discouraged. I asked myself when will I be able to work for them! Because I am 21 years old ... but I have to ask them to buy me toiletries when I don't have. I feel ashamed because I should be able to buy stuff for myself. If I have a job ... I know I must give them my
contribution. They deserve it as well as I do. That is what I strive towards ... but it just doesn’t happen. That is why I feel very discouraged this morning. Every time when I wake up I feel like that.
Interviewer: Do you think job creation organisations in Worcester do enough to help unemployed young people?
Respondent: [Pause] I don't think so. I don't believe that. Because places like the
municipality has a lot of jobs. And there is as lot of jobs that can be allocated to young people! But they don't see the need. ... and I don't think they do enough to create jobs for us young people.
Interviewer: Do you have any suggestions on how jobs can be created for unemployed young people?
Respondent: Uhm ... I will say ... I am so desperate to work that I will do any job that comes my way. Even if I have to sweep floors or clean toilets. That is how desperate I am for work! The municipality must place young people at places where older municipality employees can't work. Because we are young and fit ... they can use us for jobs such as road work maintenance, sweeping the streets. Older municipality employees are not able to do heavy manual labour. Interviewer: What type of comments do you receive from community members regarding
your unemployment?
Respondent: You are not working but you have a lot to say! That type of stuff. Belittling words that are very hurtful to me.
Interviewer: Are there other comments that you receive?
Respondent: Yes, they will say for example, "she dresses well, wonder who bought her clothes' [maybe the men who buy her the alcohol and drugs] People have a
142
lot to say about me. And ... like the girl who also stay with me in the house... we don't get along. I stay with her parents. She gets angry when her parents buy stuff for me. She will gossip about me with her friends. She will say stuff like 'She's dressed up from my parents money' 'She doesn't even work' 'She is no use to my parents' ... and so on. That's why I say that I get a lot of
degrading words that really hurts me. And she will say .... 'She eats here for free, but she doesn't even contribute financially'. These kinds of things really hurts! Then I feel I will rather not eat my evening meal at home. I do that a lot to punish myself like that! Or I rather go to my friend’s house and maybe eat there.
143
INTERVIEW 12: MALE PARTICIPANT NR 12