"I don't want to help them because they don't want to work"

Janesville, Wisconsin
March 16, 2017 12:23pm CST
How many of you are saying this? How many of us hear it over and over. We are called lazy, not wanting.. and every other bad name in the book, as an excuse to not want to help us meet our basic needs for health care, or other means of living. Newsflash to you people who believe in the topic above. Many people with disabilities and health issues constantly job hunt and are denied work not because they are not physically or mentally able to do the job and do it well. Instead of yelling at us who want to work, Why don't you turn around and yell at the corporations who are telling us. "We consider your health issue a liability so therefor we do not want to hire you." ... I can understand in some jobs not wanting to hire for liability reasons but can't an employer say.. We can not hire you for this labor job, but we do have an opening over here doing this or that job? or.. I can hire you to work 2-3 hours a day at the most... or just one day a week.. See numerous people with health issues want to work and many work harder than working people all the time... A because they are working against their disabilities and health issues to just survive daily life, and B Still value being a productive member of society contributing what they can. It is already a painful life as is for those with health and mental issue based on the mob stigma mentality... I am not saying there are not some out there who do not want to contribute and help... but you know what. Some got this way after years of job hunting, trying, and wanting to contribute as society shuns them over and over based on their illness and disability... others are forced into becoming mentally and physically dependent on others.. Not because they want to. No one wants to get into a car accident, have a tree fall on them, lightning strike, get caught in a fire.... No one wants fibromyalgia, or any other chronic dehabiliating illness... So where are the real human beings to understand this? Stop chanting the sloth mob mentality.. of "You are lazy and do not want to work"... You may soon one day be the next person who is not able to work... And or denied work.. And you might be told some health condition you deal with prevents you from being hired as a liability.
4 people like this
4 responses
pumpkinjam
@pumpkinjam (8876)
• United Kingdom
16 Mar 17
I absolutely understand what you mean. Personally, if I know someone is trying then I see no reason not to help them. Disabled people, I have found, usually want to work. My partner has an illness that means it is impossible for him to have a steady job. He also has other physical and mental health conditions. Mostly, he's hidden those conditions and worked until he was diagnosed with M.E. He is an ex soldier too. He doesn't like to claim the disability benefits he's entitled to (he doesn't claim most of them) but I remind him that he's more than paid into the system both financially and by being a protector of our country. Thankfully, everyone who knows him knows he's not lazy. I do, however, know other people who claim to have disabilities meaning they can't work but who actually are lazy. These people do not help the cause of the genuine. We all get into unexpected situations at some point in our lives. It's like when people say don't have children if you can't afford them, when your children are older and you've suddenly found yourself in a more difficult situation than when you had them. My partner didn't choose a life-limiting condition, just as I didn't choose for my son to have autism. It is understandable, in some situations, not to hire a person for a job eg. you wouldn't have a blind person doing a job that involved driving, but if they are capable of doing the job, and qualified, it shouldn't make any difference whether or not they have a disability.
1 person likes this
Sandy KS
@rusty2rusty (6771)
• Defiance, Ohio
24 Mar 17
I help people who are helping themselves if you know what I mean. I know people are struggling and falling on hard times. Every once in awhile we need a handout or lift a leg so to speak. I know I struggle being disabled. I see more able-bodied people make excuses why they can't find work.
Morgan
@OneOfMany (12150)
• United States
16 Mar 17
If you try you will find a way. I could claim disability or have special treatment because I was nearly killed in a car accident when I was 16. I had severe head trauma and numerous ailments that resurfaced whenever I got stressed (and we know full well that no job is stress-free). Severe migraines, breathing difficulties more severe than asthma attacks (said by a person who had asthma and heard my condition, thus thinking their ailment to be nothing in comparison), double vision, swallowing difficulties (it's hard to get through a whole meal without choking), and other things. It's gotten better over the years, but it was still terrible. It didn't stop me from working with the migraines and putting in long hours though it was difficult. I didn't want to be looked down on or shunned for inability, so I pushed through. I didn't even bother telling employers about it, because what was the point? I chant the 'sloth mob mentality' to those that are legitimately lazy and don't want to work. Like a group of people in my town that say "oh, I have an elbow problem, so I can't work." Yet I see them hauling heavy bags of groceries and laundry baskets with said elbow. If they can do that, they certainly can work. And if you can't do physical labor, then you can find something you can do. Where there is a will, there is a way. Coming from someone who has had a continuous headache for the last 17 (nearly 18) years. I know a forester who had a tree fall on them twice. They can't rotate their neck because it fused together. They also broke their back, but luckily did not get paralyzed. They still work in the woods, despite everyone that says otherwise. Why? Because they want to work, and show it by doing so. If you really want to work, you can. Even my uncle, who broke his back in a motorcycle accident, works. He collects disability, but he works hard as well. Maybe you just haven't found the right job you can do?
Mike
@Mike197602 (15504)
• United Kingdom
16 Mar 17
The genuine people are just put in a bad light by all the benefits cheats out there. So when someone has a genuine disability they aren't believed because it is always the cheaters getting caught that hits the news.