Linda Blair Bounce back from redundancy
In each of the first six months of the year, some 95,000 individuals were made redundant, according to ONS figures. While some redundancies are handled with greater sensitivity than others, losing your job nonetheless represents a huge blow, not only financially but psychologically as well. The effects are so distressing that some researchers have likened the process we go through after job loss to that of a bereavement.
Stanislav Kasl and Beth Jones at Yale reviewed the literature on redundancy. The most frequently reported association between job loss and mental health is an increased risk of depression, but there are other negative impacts.
For example, every four weeks for six months Graham Stokes and Raymond Cochrane at the University of Birmingham interviewed participants who had been made redundant. Data were collected on levels of psychiatric symptoms, hostility, self-concept, interpersonal relationships and family relationships. A matched group of employed workers was interviewed at the same time. The redundant workers showed greater distress on all measures and on every occasion.
James Laurence at the University of Manchester, collected information on 6,840 adult volunteers for the GB National Child Development Study. He compared findings in 1991, when his cohort were 33 years old, with responses in 2008 when they were 50. He found those who had been made redundant had a significantly lower sense of trust – not just with regard to their employability, but also more generally. That distrust was still evident even a decade later, and even for those individuals who had been re-employed.
Certain factors magnify the negative effects of redundancy. Laurence noted that the more an individual valued their job, the greater was their distrust following redundancy. Lea Walters at the University of Melbourne compared adults who had been made voluntarily redundant with those who’d suffered involuntary job loss. Those forced out had higher levels of depression and were less likely to look for new work. Even if they did find another job, they remained more depressed, felt less committed to the new job and worried more about losing that job.
So if you’ve been made redundant, what can you do to ease your distress?
First, measure your progress against yourself, rather than against others.
Secondly, create structure. Prioritise the following every day:
Before bed, write down what you plan to do the next day and when you’ll do it.
Go to bed and get up at the same time if possible. Focus on relaxing and resting, and don’t worry about how much sleep you’ll get.
Take aerobic exercise, in the morning and outdoors ideally, to boost endorphins.
Allocate time – about two hours – to look for work.
Finally, speak to at least one other person face-toface every day. This helps maintain that vital feeling of social connection.