History Main / UnconfessedUnemployment

* 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.

* ''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.

* Jennifer Pan convinced her parents that she got a scholarship to attend the University of Toronto and was volunteering at a local hospital. In reality, she sat in cafés, worked part-time, and kept on dating her boyfriend even when her parents threatened to disown her. When her cover was blown, Jennifer tried to kill her family by staging it as a botched home robbery in 2010. During her trial, investigators called her a CompulsiveLiar with the façade of an innocent-looking woman when they poked holes in her testimony. Besides receiving a life sentence, Jennifer was disowned by her father and brother. The murder sent shockwaves in the Asian diaspora and raised awareness about the cons of tiger parenting.

** Don Draper forces Lane Pryce to resign after he discovers that Lane forged a bonus check to pay his taxes. That evening, Lane's wife proudly announces she's just purchased a Jaguar, without him telling her that he's now out of a job. After attempting to kill himself with the car by running its exhaust through a garden hose fails after the car doesn't start, he goes to his and hangs himself.

** Don Draper forces Lane Pryce to resign after he discovers that Lane forged a bonus check to pay his taxes. That evening, Lane's wife proudly announces she's just purchased a Jaguar, without him telling her that he's now out of a job. After attempting to kill himself with the car by running its exhaust through a garden hose fails after the ca doesn't start, he goes to his and hangs himself.

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

** Don Draper forces Lane Pryce to resign after he discovers that Lane forged a bonus check to pay his taxes. That evening, Lane's wife proudly announces she's just purchased a Jaguar, without him telling her that he's now out of a job. He goes back to his office that night and takes his own life.

* On ''Series/MadMen'' Don reaches an emotional low and tells an important client about his childhood growing up in a brothel. This does not go over well with the client and the other partners are furious. As Don is a founding partner they do not fire him outright but instead put him on paid leave and hire someone else to do Don's job. The unspoken understanding is that Don will quit the company on his own and everyone saves face. However, Don is unwilling to quit and instead spends his days hanging around his apartment. Megan, Don's wife, is living in California at the time while pursuing an acting career so she does not find out about the situation until months later. Whenever Don flew to California to spend time with her, he pretended that he was still employed and nothing interesting was happening back in New York. Similarly, Sally, Don's daughter from his first marriage does not find out about what happened until she is on a visit to New York and decides to surprise her father at work. Instead she finds a strange man occupying Don's office. Don is able to patch things up with Sally but Megan is furious that Don chose a soon-to-be-gone job over her. Don is very wealthy so he would have had no issue with moving to California to be with Megan full time.

* 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.

* ''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.

* In ''Film/TheGreatOutdoors'', Dan Aykroyd's character is a pompous and wealthy stock broker, but in the end he reveals that he lost his job some time ago, and his family is actually broke without their knowledge.
* 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.

* ''Film/UneEpoqueFormidable'': Michel Berthier is a qualified employee in a company specialized in sale of mattresses, until he is laid off. Absolutely wanting to have a child with his wife Juliette, who already has two children from her first marriage, he tells her nothing of his dismissal, and soon finds himself in a situation where he is forced to leave the family home.

* Inverted in this joke from shortly after TheGreatDepression. Two stock brokers meet:

* ''Series/GoodTimes'': James invites a successful relative to dinner in hopes of borrowing some money, but during dinner he breaks down and reveals that he lost his job weeks ago and when he says he's at work, he just sits in a movie theater all day long.

* In ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' one episode focuses on a man who had been posing as a high level United Nations official for most of his life, having failed to secure either a lasting position or his college degree and instead living a double life to cheat others out of their money to provide for his family. When he kills an ex-con who happens to be the brother of his girlfriend, who is unaware he is actually married with children he tries to kill her to keep his secret safe, and attempts to kill his own children out of shame when the police catch on to his actual identity.

* ''Theatre/DeathOfASalesman'' has the protagonist Willy Loman laid off, and trying to hide this fact from his family. [[spoiler:As the name suggests, it doesn't end well.]]

** 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 can't bring himself to tell Marge and in desperation ends up getting a loan from his hated sister-in-laws, who use the loan to extort Homer into letting them abuse and humiliate him in return for keeping quiet.

* A not uncommon condition. Many addicts, particularly alcoholics or gamblers can dress up and go to job which they lost months ago.

* This was the reason [[https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bartlett_Whitaker Thomas Bartlett Whitaker]] had a hitman kill his family. He told them he was about to graduate Sam Houston State University, when he had not attended his classes in a long time and was spending his tuition money on luxury items. After his family had a dinner in his honor, they went home only for a gunman to shoot his mother, brother, and father. It turned out the gunman was a friend of his that he had hired to murder his family so that he could inherit their estate and continue his lifestyle. His father survived the attack and actually defended him, getting him commuted from death row within an hour of his scheduled execution.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' covers this in their episode "Brownsized"- Cleveland agrees to a planned severance at Waterman Cable in exchange for an unrevealed (but in Cleveland's words so large it had a comma in it) amount equivalent to 6 months severance pay. However, the ''moment'' his wife Donna finds out, she makes it clear she wants him to spend the time off doing ''her'' usual tasks. So he travels back in time to backtrack it to a less advantageous degree, then proceeded to completely blow his severance pay within weeks on extravagant food and novelty items, including a local restaurant on top of a rotating tower... where Donna got one of ''three'' jobs to cover the loss. He quickly realized there was no easy way out, and fakes a protest which almost succeeded... until Mr. Waterman announced all he needed to do was pay back the severance. Which Donna only ''then'' finds out about. Needless to say, she is ''not'' happy, and punches him off the tower onto a crashpad (which she was unaware was there). He proceeds to ''sue his wife'', and uses the settlement to pay back his boss, with Donna keeping her jobs to pay off Cleveland's settlement.

* The works of Seth MacFarlane cover this surprisingly often:

* The pilot episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Peter, due to drinking too much at a StagParty, was suffering from a hangover, and he ended up falling asleep at work. Note, he 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 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.

* This was the reason [[https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bartlett_Whitaker Thomas Bartlett Whitaker]] had a hitman kill his family. He told them he was about to graduate Sam Houston State University, when he had not attended his classes in a long time and was spending his tuition money on luxury items. After his family had a dinner in his honor, they went home only for a gunman to shoot his mother, brother, and father. His surviving father defended him, getting him commuted from death row within an hour of his scheduled execution.

* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': InvertedTrope in the season finale: Francis kept the fact that he was actually employed in a steady job a secret to his mom for reasons that are strongly implied to be spite.

* The case of [[https://forensicfilesnow.com/index.php/2016/07/28/craig-rabinowitz-2-deception/ Craig and Stephanie Rabinowitz]] was similar. Craig told his wife that he ran a business that imported and sold surgical gloves. In reality, he was running a Ponzi scheme, convincing friends and family members to invest in a business that didn't exist. Craig ultimately murdered Stephanie so that he could pay off his investors and carry on a relationship that he had started with an exotic dancer.
* This was the reason [[https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bartlett_Whitaker Thomas Bartlett Whitaker]] had a hitman kill his family. He told them he was about to graduate Sam Houston State University, when he was not attending his classes. After his family had a dinner in his honor, they went home only for a gunman to shoot his mother, brother, and father. His surviving father defended him, getting him commuted from death row within an hour of his scheduled execution.

* The case of [[https://forensicfilesnow.com/index.php/2016/07/28/craig-rabinowitz-2-deception/ Craig and Stephanie Rabinowitz]] was similar. Craig told his wife that he ran a ran a business that imported and sold surgical gloves. In reality, he was running a Ponzi scheme, convincing friends and family members to invest in a business that didn't exist. Craig ultimately murdered Stephanie so that he could pay off his investors and carry on a relationship that he had started with an exotic dancer.

* ''The Elephants' Graveyard'': This is the premise for the two protagonists.

* ''Series/MajorCrimes'': A minor character in "Curve Ball". The man is arrested for using a murder victims credit card. When questioned, he admits that they found the murdered man's possessions in the dumpster behind the restaurant where he had been manager until he was fired several months ago. He apparently had not told his wife and had been scavenging food from the dumpster, and used the credit card to buy a Christmas present for his sons.

* ''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 off as theft.
* ''Series/GoodTimes'': James invites a successful relative to dinner in hopes of borrowing some money, but during dinner he breaks down and reveals that he lost his job weeks ago and when he says he's at work, he just sits in a movie theater all day long.
* ''Series/DeathInParadise'': One of the suspects in "Murder Begins at Home" claims to have been on a sabbatical from work for three months. However, when the police contact his employer, they learn he has actually been suspended for anger control issues. And he hasn't told his wife.

* [[NoNameGiven Man]] in ''Who's Afraid of The Working Class'' was laid off his job some time before the play begins. He spends his days riding trams around the city in his business clothes. [[{{Hypocrite}} At one point he bitterly mocks a young bogan woman for being unemployable.]]
* In the 2013 musical version of ''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', Mr. Bucket loses his toothpaste factory job a week before the action starts. While his wife knows about this, they mutually keep it a secret from their son Charlie and their own parents -- he leaves and returns to the shack at the same times he always did, but is ''looking'' for work in the interim. They are finally forced to reveal the truth when the Golden Ticket contest is announced and must break the news to Charlie that they won't be able to afford his usual birthday bar of chocolate this year (whereupon Grandpa Joe decides to give up what little change he's saved to make sure he gets it).

* In Radio/RevoltingPeople, resident ButtMonkey Ezekiel goes out and hides up a tree most days whilst pretending that he is working.

* 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.

* Main plot point of ''Film/MadCity'' (1997). John Travolta's character lost his job as a museum security guard. He fakes going to work for a while.
* 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. William "D-FENS" Foster'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''.
* An inversion of this trope that makes it, if possible, even more sad: in ''Film/BillyElliot'', Billy's father, who had been on strike for months, decides to resume work as a scab in order to pay for Billy's dance lessons, without telling his older son who is still on strike. But the latter recognizes his father going to work while picketing the mining facility. It's a heartbreaking moment for both of them.

* 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.
* Related to this trope: In ''Literature/HouseOfSandAndFog'', the male lead doesn't want to admit to his family that the only work he can find is as a construction worker. He makes a point of wearing a suit and tie whenever he's at home.
* Mona in ''Film/{{Amreeka}}'' pretends to work in a bank when she's actually working in the fast-food joint next door.

%%* ''Tokyo Sonata'' by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
%%* ''Sonata'' by Aoyama Shinji.
%%* ''Une Epoque Formidable''
%%A film title on its own is not a proper example. What happens in these films that makes them fit this trope?

* ''Cider with Rosie'' by Laurie Lee features a particularly humourous variant. Every time Loll's uncle Sid gets suspended without pay from his job as a bus driver, owing to his chronic drunkenness, he attempts suicide (but always in a manner following which he is assured to survive). His motive?
--> '''Loll:''' You see, Uncle Sid reasoned, quite rightly, that Aunty Alice's anger upon hearing of another suspension would be swallowed by her larger anxiety upon finding him again so close to death. And she never failed him in this, and always forgave him as soon as he recovered.
* Old Nick from ''Literature/{{Room}}'', in the early part of the story. When he finally admits it six months in, it motivates the woman he's been keeping prisoner for years as a SexSlave to try to escape, by fear that he may use a radical method to cut costs.
* The American Girl Kit, whose stories are set in the Great Depression, initially believes her father when he says he's going out to lunch interviews every single day. Eventually, though, she discovers that the "leftovers" he's bringing home are from a soup kitchen.

* On ''Series/MadMen'' Don reaches an emotional low and tells an important client about his childhood growing up in a brothel. This does not go over well with the client and the other partners are furious. As Don is a founding partner they do not fire him outright but instead put him on paid leave and hire someone else to do Don's job. The unspoken understanding is that Don will quit the company on his own and everyone saves face. However, Don is unwilling to quit and instead spends his days hanging around his apartment. Megan, Don's wife, is living in California at the time while pursuing an acting career so she does not find out about the situation until months later. Whenever Don flew to California to spend time with her, he pretended that he was still employed and nothing interesting was happening back in New York. Similarly, Sally, Don's daughter from his first marriage does not find out about what happened until she is on a visit to New York and decides to surprise her father at work. Instead she finds a strange man occupying Don's office. Don is able to patch things up with Sally but Megan is furious that Don chose a soon-to-be-gone job over her. Don is very wealthy so he would have had no issue with moving to California to be with Megan full time.

* [[PaterFamilicide John List]] is [[MurderIsTheBestSolution an extreme]] version of this. When the bank that he worked at closed down, he continued to get dressed and leave home every day (he was actually going to job interviews) and tried to remain solvent by encouraging his children to take part-time jobs and skimming money from his mother's bank account. When his debts got to the point where he could no longer hide them from his family, he shot them all to death and spent the next 18 years as a fugitive from justice.

* This was the reason [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bartlett_Whitaker Thomas Bartlett Whitaker]] had a hitman kill his family. He told them he was about to graduate Sam Houston State University when he was not attending his classes. After his family had a dinner in his honor, they went home only for a gunman to shoot his mother, brother, and father. His surviving father defended him, getting him commuted from death row within an hour of his scheduled execution.

* Mona in ''Amreeka'' pretends to work in a bank when she's actually working in the fast-food joint next door.

* [[PaterFamilicide John List]] is [[MurderIsTheBestSolution an extreme]] version of this. When the bank that he worked at closed down, he continued to get dressed and leave home every day while skimming money from his mother's bank account to pay off his mortgage. When his debts got to the point where he could no longer hide them from his family, he shot them all to death and spent the next 18 years as a fugitive from justice.

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