Unemployment more than just loss of job

Dear Dr. LeCrone: “My husband received notice that he is going to be laid off of his job. He hasn’t said much but I think he is still in shock. Can you please write on the stress of job loss?”

As the unemployment rate creeps up, more people find themselves jobless. Many people think that loss of income is the primary stressor for the unemployed but there are other stress producing factors.

There are several aspects of work that appear to be significant in terms of promoting the feeling of loss in the unemployed.

• Jobs provide a sense of purpose. A job ties an individual to the community and helps define his role in that community. Work serves as a source of identity not only individually, but it can also define the individual’s role in the family. Sociological studies have shown that many people are categorized, at least in part, by the kind of work they do. If that individual becomes unemployed, this anchor can disappear and leave him or her without a sense of identity.

• Jobs develop relationships outside the family. Many individuals have essentially two sources of communal relationships – those at home and those at work. Friends at work serve as an outlet for certain types of communication and provide an opportunity to play out certain roles. Work also provides an opportunity for the individual to separate from the family in an acceptable way for a defined period of time. Studies show that families get along better when there is some separation of space and time. Couples, after retirement, feel this stress when they spend entire days together and are deprived of stimulation from outside activities.

• Jobs help define time. For the unemployed, days blur together. A sense of anxiety and depression can result without the delineating parameters of time associated with work hours. Weekends lose their means. Some individuals lose the ability to use a portion of their time to rest and renew themselves because they have nothing to “rest from.” Retired individuals without a purpose, plan, goal, or even a sense of being needed can develop this same feeling of diffusion in time.

• Jobs often provide exercise, a component of good health. Lifting, bending, climbing stairs, walking, are but a few examples of work related exercise. For many individuals, the only source of exercise they have is when they’re working so that work also provides the activity necessary to help them sleep well at night, burn off a few calories and assist in maintaining some level of fitness. Retirees often become more and more sedate as they spend time watching television, sleeping more and decreasing their overall level of activity when work demands are absent. Those who become unemployed often suffer this same fate and over time, their energy level can decrease dramatically due to inactivity.

I will continue this discussion next week.

Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 2001