History Main / UnconfessedUnemployment

* [[PaterFamilicide John List]] is [[MurderIsTheBestSolution an extreme]] version of this.

* In the ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' fic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6343616/1/What-Your-Country-Can-Do-For-You What Your Country Can Do For You]], Japan meets one of his citizens, who is too ashamed that he lost his job to go home and face his family. Japan takes the man home, where his wife is just happy to have him back and is sure he'll find another job.

They still get up early, put on their business clothes, and leave for work--sometimes they will even complain how exhausting office life is, when they come home at the end of the day. But in the meantime they just drift about, desperately pretending to be one of the gainfully employed, (possibly looking for a new job, but never with the kind of success that might tempt them to brag about it to their family) until their lies come crashing down with ugly consequences (the ugliest case being PaterFamilicide).

* The VillainProtagonist in ''Film/FallingDown'' can't admit to anyone that he was laid off from his job as an engineer at a defense plant. "D-FENS"'s reign of terror begins when he snaps while stuck in traffic, [[{{Heatwave}} on the hottest day of the summer]], commuting to a job he ''no longer has''.

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* One of Despair's stories in ''ComicBook/TheSandman Endless Nights'' anthology is this. It is appropriately horrible. The poor fired guy is so afraid of telling his family that he turns to crime when his money runs out, while still pretending that he is going to his former job.
* Many of the ''ComicStrip/{{Alex}}'' strips use this joke - frequently, the poor redundant banker spends the first three panels trying to spin the situation positively before breaking the news. When Clive was laid off, he spent the best part of a year pretending to still be employed. His wife figured it out when she was able to spend a whole night without being woken by Clive's boss texting him.

[[folder: Fan Fiction ]]
* In the ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' fic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6343616/1/What-Your-Country-Can-Do-For-You What Your Country Can Do For You]], Japan meets one of his citizens, who is too ashamed that he lost his job to go home and face his family. Japan takes the man home, where his wife is just happy to have him back and is sure he'll find another job.

[[folder:Films -- Animated ]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': Bob Parr--AKA: Mr. Incredible--starts working for [[FemmeFatale Mirage]] (and [[BigBad Syndrome]]) after a complicated mishap gets him fired from his insurance job, and he can't bring himself to correct his wife's assumption that he was promoted. He uses the money he earns from Mirage's group to support his family, while spending his time "at work" getting back into condition.

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action ]]

* A variation is used in ''Film/{{Overboard}}''. After Joanne washes up on shore an amnesiac and her husband abandons her in the mental hospital where she's being held, Dean goes to the hospital, claims her as his wife, "Annie," and takes her home so [[WorkOffTheDebt she can pay off the cost of the shoe cabinet she refused to pay him.]] When she accepts that she is indeed "Annie," they get into an argument because he insists on going bowling instead of staying home to help her raise his sons. She follows him and discovers that he works the night shift in a nearby fertilizer factory as a way to supplement his meager income as a handyman.

[[folder: Jokes ]]

--> Broker #1: "I lost my job, and now I'm selling toothbrushes door-to-door. And what about you?"
--> Broker #2: "Just among the two of us: I'm still at the stock market. But I tell my wife I was playing piano in a brothel."

[[folder: Literature ]]
* ''Literature/AmericanGods'': Mrs. Olsen's former husband in Lakeside.

* ''Literature/ThePainterFromShanghai'': Pan Yuliang's husband.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/AliensInAmerica'': The father did this once.

[[folder: Manga ]]
* ''Manga/DominaNoDo'': Takeshi's father lost his job months earlier but his wife and son only find out when Takeshi gets abducted. All this time he pretended to go to the office, when in fact he just spent his days in internet cafes.
* In ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka'' this happens to the father of Prof. Teshigawara: he was a politician who got disgraced in an [[NoodleIncident unspecified fallout]] in which he ended up being TheScapegoat. Said father still "goes to work" every day, acting as if he's still a big mover and shaker, and even his son doesn't know the truth.
* Happens in ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'' with Godai, who was laid off from his part-time job as day-caretaker and couldn't tell Kyoko about it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', a nameless {{Salaryman}} you can meet around town loses his job and just continues his normal routine as if nothing happened to avoid the shame of his family finding out that he was laid off. He pulls it off for almost a year. [[spoiler:In the PlayableEpilogue, he tells you he managed to get a new job before they ever found out about his losing the first one.]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Happened in real life in France (the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Romand Romand case]]) and the story was adapted into a novel, ''L'Adversaire'' (later adapted into a movie), and formed the basis for a second movie, ''L'Emploi Du Temps''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': Bob Parr--AKA: Mr. Incredible--starts working for [[FemmeFatale Mirage]] (and [[BigBad Syndrome]]) after an unfortunate mishap gets him fired from his insurance job, and he can't bring himself to correct his wife's assumption that he was promoted. He uses the money he earns from Mirage's group to support his family, while spending his time "at work" getting back into condition.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': Bob Parr--AKA: Mr. Incredible--starts working for [[FemmeFatale Mirage]] (and [[BigBad Syndrome]]) after a mishap gets him fired from his insurance job, and he can't bring himself to correct his wife's assumption that he was promoted. He uses the money he earns from Mirage's group to support his family, while spending his time "at work" getting back into condition.

* Mr. Incredible, in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' -- he starts working for [[FemmeFatale Mirage]] (and [[BigBad Syndrome]]) after losing his insurance job, and he can't bring himself to correct his wife's assumption that he was promoted. He uses the money he earns from Mirage's group to support his family, while spending his time "at work" getting back into condition.

* In ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'' Sergeant Colon talks to a guy who's in this situation. It's foreshadowing as he [[spoiler: was fired from the candle factory which has been using a (far too efficient, and insane) golem to make poisoned candles]].

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'', Ron Delite is fired from his job as a security guard, and worries that his wife will leave him if she finds out, especially as she is a big spender and "treats money like it's water". So he does the reasonable thing and [[spoiler: becomes a PhantomThief while guarding the secret from her.]] In the end after she discovers all, she tells him that she wouldn't have abandoned him because she truly loved him.

-> Look, I don't want your mom to worry, all right? When she worries, she says things like "I told you so" and "Stop doing that, I'm asleep." So, I'm just gonna tell a little lie. Now not a word to your mom about me getting canned.
-->--'''Peter Griffin''', ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''

They still get up early, put on their business clothes, and leave for work--sometimes they will even complain how exhausting office life is, when they come home at the end of the day. But in the meantime they just drift about, desperately pretending to be one of the gainfully employed, until their lies come crashing down with ugly consequences (the ugliest case being PaterFamilicide).

* [[Creator/{{Pixar}} John Lasseter]] got fired from Disney in 1982 for trying pushing their animation department to [[ItWillNeverCatchOn adopt computer graphics]], and he told his wife that he quit to peruse other projects. He didn't tell her the truth until 25 years later when he [[{{Irony}} became head of Disney Animation]].

* German bankd ''Tic Tac Toe'' has a song called ''Spiegel'' ("Mirror") about two young women and a guy in group therapy. The guy, Bernard (who is the last to get to vent) confesses that despite his best efforts and helpfulness he not only has never been promoted (they said he has no leadership qualities, cannot say no when he should and isn't assertive enough), but has been fired the day previously after 15 years. His last lines are, translated, "And what am I supposed to tell my wife now?! HUH?! I've had it!" - implying that he hasn't told his wife he was fired yet.

* One of Despair's stories in ''ComicBook/TheSandman Endless Nights'' anthology is this. It is appropriately horrible. The poor fired guy is so afraid of telling his family that he turns to crime when his money runs out, while still pretending he's going to his old job.

They still get up early, put on their business clothes, and leave for work--sometimes they'll even complain how exhausting office life is when they come home at the end of the day. But in the meantime they just drift about, desperately pretending to be one of the gainfully employed, until their lies come crashing down with ugly consequences (the ugliest case being PaterFamilicide).

->'''Peter:''' Look, I don't want your mom to worry, all right? When she worries, she says things like "I told you so" and "Stop doing that, I'm asleep." So, I'm just gonna tell a little lie. Now not a word to your mom about me getting canned.\\
'''Lois:''' What's that, Peter?\\
'''Peter:''' Nothing. Ooh, the lost-my-job smells great.\\
'''Lois:''' What?\\
'''Peter:''' Uh, Meg, honey, could you pass the fired-my-ass-for-negligence?\\
'''Lois:''' Peter, are you feeling okay?\\
'''Peter:''' I feel great! I haven't got a job in the world!
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''

* ''Tokyo Sonata'' by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
* ''Sonata'' by Aoyama Shinji.
* ''Film/TheFullMonty''

* ''Une Epoque Formidable''

** Mona in ''Amreeka'' does the same thing, pretending to work in a bank when she's actually working in the fast-food joint next door.

* The pilot episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', as shown in the page quote.
** To elaborate, Peter, due to drinking too much at a StagParty, was suffering from a hangover, and he ended up falling asleep at work. Note, his position at where he works is a safety inspector at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory, which means he was grossly negligent for sleeping on the job. He decided to try to keep it a secret, yet as his phrases indicate, he's doing a very bad job at trying to hide his being unemployed.

* Variation: Homer's life coach in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' persuaded him to quit his job at the nuclear plant and apply for a better position at a copper piping company. He didn't get it, but couldn't bear to tell his family and spends all day hanging out at Krusty Burger, filling out the map mazes on the back of the kid menus.
** Another episode has a different variation. After Homer accidentally loses all their money investing in pumpkins but stupidly hanging on to the stocks well after Halloween, he cant bring himself to tell Marge and in desperation ends up getting a loan from his hated sister-in-laws, who uses the loan to extort Homer into letting them abuse and humiliate him in return for keeping quiet.

* A variation with Mark Hacking who had his entire family and in-laws convinced that was attending college and had been accepted into medical school. In reality, he had flunked out of college and was carrying out a charade so as not to disappoint everyone. His wife discovered his deception when she called the medical school where he had supposedly been accepted and inquired about housing, only to learn he had never even applied. He murdered her (and consequently, their unborn child) when she confronted him.

* ''Series/InspectorGeorgeGently'': More like 'Unconfessed Bankruptcy', but the VictimOfTheWeek in "Gently Among Friends" is hiding the extent of his financial troubles from his wife, even while he is pawning their belongings and passing their disappearance of as theft.

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''Tokyo Sonata'' by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
* ''Sonata'' by Aoyama Shinji.

[[AC: ComicBooks]]

[[AC: FanFiction]]

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

* The premise of the Finnish film ''Film/AMansJob (Miehen työ) ''. The main character loses his job as a construction worker and doesn't dare to tell it to his depressed wife. He becomes a sex worker. Hilarity does not ensue.

* Creator/AshtonKutcher's character in ''Film/GuessWho'' quits his job as a successful broker and insults his boss ([[spoiler:a racist who insulted the protagonist's black fiancée]]) but doesn't want to tell his fiancée as they're going to meet her parents. Unfortunately, his pissed off boss spreads false rumors about him, which means he can't get employment (apparently, no employer fact-checks). Unusually, by the end of the film, he still doesn't have a job, but his future father-in-law accepts him after learning ''why'' he quit.

[[AC: Jokes]]

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:{{Music}}]]

[[AC: {{Theatre}}]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

[[AC: RealLife]]

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