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A vent: why is it any of your business why I had X months without work? Maybe I had enough money not to work for a bit and felt like doing something different. Why am I obligated to continuous labour even when I don't need it. Why am I subject to your judgement for not renting out my life at every possible moment?

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Corporations want obedient wage slaves, so if they find out that you may have some "Fuck you" money that you can use to stop working for them at your whim, they will avoid you.

I understand what you're saying, but corporation is made of people. How is this communicated to my hiring manager and why do they agree to play this stupid game?

Because hiring managers and HR have different incentives and it's therefore in their interest to play the game.

See: every manager and CEO that gets a bonus from cutting down head count or keeping the hiring budget as low as possible.

In complex systems, no one sits down and does this. It's the revealed preferences and aggregate outcome when budgeting decisions, or hiring decisions are made. It's the equivalent of stereotypes in organization behavior.

Similarly, having a mortgage and dependants is seen as a "reliability plus point" let's say. Skin in the game.

You may have developed the capacity for independent thought in that period.

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