Fighting Your Corner

At the jobcentre:

I’d like to give you this leaflet about RESTART scheme,
Which is a way of helping you get back into work,
But they take into account what kind of job you’re interested in,

Oh I’m nowhere near being able to think about that,

How come?

For the last 3/4 years I’ve been fighting with such basic things,
Like homelessness and OCD,
And even right now I’m about to be evicted and rehoused,
And I’ve had no support at all for OCD,
Besides other things;

(This is before even getting onto the issue of my physical knee disability and my sensory issues with enclosed indoor environments such as offices; The as-yet unsolved challenges of getting enough exercise and of being outdoors. There’s no way to quickly explain the list of priorities, you just have to pick the top one or two.)

Even when you consistently see the same work coach in the jobcentre, it’s necessary to always describe and explain your situation from first principles. This is a difficult skill when you find yourself explaining your situation multiple times in multiple contexts, to be able to explain it in the simplest terms with no apology or feeling the need to be defensive. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, you cannot bend to societal pressure to harm yourself further. It doesn’t matter that there’s been a pandemic and more unemployed people and job vacancies and government pressure to get people back into work. Simply state the facts, come what may.

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I do like the woman’s hair on the leaflet though lol.

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