Unemployment rife with stresses

Many people think that loss of income is the primary stressor for the unemployed, but there are other stress-producing factors the unemployed person may feel.

There are several aspects of work that appear to be most 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 king 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. Since it may be impossible for dynamics within the family to meet these needs, the unemployed person will feel this loss. 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.

Recently I was with a friend who lives on an island in the Caribbean. During our conversation he asked what month it was. At first I thought he was kidding. Then I realized that his sense of time and purpose was so different from mine that he truly did not have any sense of the day of the week or the month of the year. He has a general sense of the seasons of the year as they are marked by subtle changes in the weather. Having served as a fishing guide for many years, he owns no watch, no calendar and does not associate with any formal group that uses time as a measurement. He eats when hungry, sleeps when tired and seems happy and stress free. One cannot compare him with those of us who have spent time in a formal work setting as he has lived this way for most of the six decades of his life.

At first thought, the idea of being so unattached to time had appeal, but I feel certain that if I were in that position long I would feel restless and dissatisfied. Next week I will continue my discussion about the stresses of unemployment.

Copyright c 1990 Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D.