Getting fired: Worse than divorce, the death of spouse

“IT’S just not working out” may be some of the most heartbreaking words in the English language, leading to months of anguish, self-questioning and sleepless nights. Even worse: when they come from your boss.

Fired employees never quite recover to the same level of well-being, a measure that includes mental health, self-esteem and satisfaction with life, according to data provided to Bloomberg this week from a review of more than 4,000 research papers.

Losing a job can be a sharp blow, one that causes a bigger drop in life satisfaction than being widowed or getting divorced, according to the review conducted by the University of East Anglia and the What Works Center for Wellbeing, an independent body set up by the UK government.

Unemployed people continue to become increasingly unhappy over the next few years. Their best hope is to find a new, permanent job — preferably with high pay and high prestige — that can smooth over some of the shock.

People who lose a partner, on the other hand, can bounce back. “After someone loses a partner, [well-being will] take a big dip and then, on average, it’ll get back to previous levels,” said Tricia Curmi of the What Works Center for Wellbeing. “But with unemployment, we just don’t see that happening.”

British men’s well-being returns to normal levels two years after losing their partner and four years after the breakdown of a relationship. But losing a job? Their well-being continues to decline for more than four years. Men are more likely to be hit harder by the blow than are women.

People can get over bereavements and divorces. The excitement of meeting someone new after a split can send the heart soaring, while people struggle to shake off the disappointment of becoming unemployed, according to a 2011 meta-analysis of research carried out by academics at the Freie Universitaet Berlin. —