adjective · first recorded 2009 · status: emerging
Funemployed
1.Unemployed, but treating the time away from paid work as an enjoyable break, often while supported by savings, severance, benefits, or family. In tech, it commonly describes the interval after leaving a company and before taking another job or starting a new venture.
After the layoffs, she spent three funemployed months traveling, taking midday fitness classes, and deciding whether to join another startup.
01Origin
The underlying noun funemployment predates the tech industry usage. A 1975 Bay Area letter used "unemployment or funemployment," Punch used funemployment as a heading in 1991, and Urban Dictionary recorded it in 2004. No individual can be reliably credited with coining the word.
Funemployed and funemployment became nationally prominent during the Great Recession. A June 4, 2009 Los Angeles Times article by Kimi Yoshino documented the term spreading on Twitter and profiled laid-off Yahoo designer Michael Van Gorkom. It later became familiar in Silicon Valley: Chris Messina called himself funemployed in San Francisco in 2014, and Envoy founder Larry Gadea described being funemployed after leaving Twitter while searching for his next startup idea.
02Notable sightings
Aubrey Howell · @unknownUnemployment or funemployment?
03Spread the ism
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