I have a friend who is out of work and hasn't been able to find a job in their field all of this year so far.
They were fired from their last job due to insomnia making them sleep in a lot, but they never went to the doctors about it, and played a lot of computer games all night whilst they couldn't sleep, as well as fueling the issue with alcohol some nights.
Whilst I have every sympathy for their situation and have been nothing but compassionate, their constant negativity about the situation is starting to wear me down, every time we hang out. They blame the potential employers for choosing the wrong people to hire, they blame the job centre for making them go to weekly meetings and wasting their time when they say they could be working on building their portfolio, and they blame the boringness of job applications for their depression.
Now recently something really difficult and challenging came up in my life and I didn't mention it due to a history of them minimising my circumstances (I'm a single mum with disabled child and my own disability). Eventually they pushed me to share a little bit of my issue and I did. It's something I have no control over. Every time they've been moaning, I've tried to be optimistic and encouraging and say things like 'you can always look in other fields for now, just for something to do and for the money', 'you could join hobby groups to meet people'. I've encouraged them to maybe use their skills to freelance, but they're not interested, and I've given them business ideas they could use their skills for which I said I'd be happy to help set up and get involved in. I've pointed out local services where they could socialise as they're so bored also, and offered them to come to the gym with me. All they want to do is hang out and order take away with me and watch TV.
I try to remind them that it could be worse, they could be in my situation as a single parent, and it's easier for them to find happiness, because they've got their whole day to do whatever they like with to improve their situation and they respond with things like 'your situation isn't even an issue'.
They just can't seem to get past their dissatisfaction with their employment situation and find other positive things to focus on, or a new direction to go in, and they're putting all their negativity onto me when I need positive people around me right now.