- I'm a serial job hopper.
And the reason why I wanna make this video today
about serial job hopping
is because it's something that has brought
a lot of instability to my life,
and it has brought a lot of shame,
and embarrassment, and whatnot wrapped up in it.
And the more I've talked to people
who are living with schizophrenia or schizophrenia disorder,
or some kind of chronic mental illness like this,
the more frequent I think this happens in people.
I think a lot of people who are dealing
with chronic serious mental illnesses
oftentimes hop around from job to job a lot,
or more than the average person.
And like I said, it creates a lot of instability,
and you know, it makes it hard to build up a career.
It makes it hard to build up stability in your life.
It makes it hard to form social connections.
It makes it hard to find financial security.
And so there's a lot of ways
that this can potentially impact someone's life.
I think it's probably important
to kind of explain a little bit why I am a job hopper,
and why people who have similar illnesses to me
can be job hoppers as well.
So basically something that's happened for me multiple times
in jobs is I would get a job,
and I would either enjoy it or not.
So you don't enjoy every job you get,
but most oftentimes I would become stressed.
And the stress would accumulate,
and I would be too embarrassed
to ask for any kind of accommodations or anything.
And it would just spiral, and build up,
and build up until I kind of just broke down.
And sometimes this would end in hospitalization.
Then all of a sudden you are absent from work
for weeks to months at a time,
and you're hospitalized for this.
And so they get a letter saying that you're hospitalized,
and it's probably from a psychiatrist,
and that is embarrassing.
I don't know why, it shouldn't be embarrassing, but it is.
And then you have that all to navigate
in terms of coming back.
And I've kind of had my tail between my legs, so to speak,
coming back to after hospitalizations like that,
where they then know
that I have some sort of mental illness.
And it's hard to talk about with them
if I am worried at all about stigma.
And so, that alone can be really difficult to manage,
but even if there is no hospitalization involved,
just dealing with symptoms on a day to day basis
in the workplace can be
a really really difficult thing to do.
There have been times where I have been
even mildly symptomatic,
but it has affected my ability to show up to work
in a meaningful way.
And so I have needed more flexibility
than my employers have offered.
I've needed more flexibility,
I've needed mental health days.
I've needed, I guess accommodations in the workforce.
And part of the reason why I didn't get these
is because I never went to my employers
in the first place to ask for these types of accommodations,
and this type of flexibility.
And I think a big part of why I didn't do this
is because of the inherent stigma that is present
within society, and within places like work environments.
And so that impeded me from getting accommodations
in the first place that maybe would've
alleviated some of the stress that builds up,
or alleviated some of the times where I was so symptomatic,
and I just didn't wanna go into work.
And then that snowballed into feeling
like I was inadequately performing,
and feeling like I just wanted to flee the situation,
and quit ultimately.
And so there's a lot of factors at play here
in terms of why I would ultimately decide to quit the job
without having much time at a job,
or where I would be forced out due to stigma
where they were like, well, you've been away for a while,
so you might wanna resign.
That's happened too,
where I've basically been ask to resign,
because of my mental health difficulties.
And so, what can be done to address this?
I think I already kind of mentioned that
it might be important to ask for accommodations
from the get go,
but I think that that is maybe unfairly placing
the onus of creating these kinds of work environments
on the employee.
When really, I think it should be more the employer
who is taking measures to create more
positive mental health in the workplace.
And that goes for people who have mental illness,
and people who don't have mental illness,
just creating a more suitable workplace
for good mental health.
And so some of the ways that this actually can be done,
you know, I think there's a lot of,
I've talked about this before,
how I get annoyed with
mental health initiatives in workforce, workplaces,
like bringing in puppies for puppy play
as a means to boost mental health in your employees,
or bringing in a yoga instructor to do lunchtime yoga.
Those are fun,
maybe it's a fun way of kind of team building,
and creating kind of a positive environment,
but they're not really that good for mental health.
So ways that you can actually address mental health,
and building positive mental health in the workplace
if you are an employer,
are being preemptive about asking your employees
about if there's any accommodations they need
in order to do their work in a meaningful,
and as productive a way as possible.
Creating flexible work structures for your employees
if they need it.
I think that increased flexibility would benefit anyone
regardless of if they have a mental illness or not.
But especially if they're struggling with a mental illness,
this can be really, really important.
Also providing mental health days,
just like you provide sick days,
I think is really, really important.
I think it's absolutely silly
to expect employees to just be ready to work
every single day,
and to just be filled with productive energy
every single day.
Everyone needs a break every now and then.
And especially if you're dealing
with a chronic mental illness,
and maybe you're experiencing more symptoms
on a particular day,
you might just need to take a mental health day.
And I think that that will ultimately improve productivity
overall in the long run.
Another thing that has been stressful
as an employee is not having benefits
for things like covering my medication,
or for things like therapy, or for seeing a psychiatrist.
And so those can be really important factors
to make sure you cover for your employees too.
And, you know, I've kind of been talking about this
in the context of the workplace,
but a lot of these reasons that I've outlined
for being a serial job hopper
are the reasons why I've had difficulties keeping up,
and staying in schooling as well.
I feel really, really grateful that I have found
this YouTube channel as a means of sustaining myself,
and as a means of being productive in society,
and contributing to society,
because it is actually the longest job I have ever held.
And I think that largely speaks to the flexible environment
I'm able to provide for myself,
and I work for myself, and I work with my partner, Rob,
who also provides a supportive environment for me.
And there are days when I just don't have the capacity
to work at the same capacity as I would otherwise hope to,
and understanding that that is okay.
And to give yourself space to kind of work through
the ebbs and flows of your own personal capacity,
I think is ultimately the best way to go about working.
I think that this is a really critical mind shift
that needs to happen
in the way our workplaces are currently constructed.
They're very much the capitalistic nine to five, go, go, go.
But that just doesn't accommodate a huge number of people.
And it's just not actually ending up
being the most productive way to have people doing work.
So if you are living with a chronic mental illness like me,
and you are also experiencing this idea
of being a serial job hopper like me,
I just want to reiterate that you are not alone
in this struggle,
and there are concrete reasons why it is difficult
to stay employed for any length of time.
And also if you are an employer,
and you are looking to create better mental health,
or to support your employees better
with their mental health,
think about some of the things
that I've mentioned in this video,
and think about how you can work with your employees
to accommodate them in the most meaningful ways.
Anyway, thanks for listening to why I'm a serial job hopper.
I hope that you found this video helpful.
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Thank you so much for while watching,
and as always, wishing you and your loved ones good health.
We'll see you in the next video, bye.