Layoffs: The Employee’s Nightmare

What Are the Effects?

There is a twofold impact to all of this: Laid-off workers are hit both financially and emotionally. The financial strain is obvious. With less income, one’s standard of living must be adjusted. And unemployment has an emotional effect as well. For example, the outlook of young people toward job security changes. Sporadic employment becomes a normal accepted way of life. The Wall Street Journal noted that off-and-on unemployment has turned many of Britain’s youths into “permanent adolescents.” There are more deep-seated emotional implications for these who are laid off after years of steady employment. “When there’s a layoff,” said management psychologist Neil P. Lewis, “its not just losing a paycheck, but losing a bit of your self-concept.”

In fact, psychologists have noted that the trauma of being off is similar to the trauma associated with the death of a loved one and with divorce. Initial shock gives way to anger, which in turn leads to grief and then to acceptance. “Some people go through it all in two days,” says Lewis. “Others take weeks and months.” The emotional toll is also seen in that those laid off become more susceptible to alcohol and drug abuse. Despair can even lead to family violence or breakup. “Those feelings have to go somewhere,” stated Stephen Pilster-Pearson, director of employee assistance at the University of Wisconsin, U.S.A., “one of those places, of course, is home.” In an even more tragic reaction, a university graduate in Hong Kong chose to end his life after five years of unemployment. He stepped into the path of an oncoming train. So when jobs are lost, more than the wallet is affected. Thus, it is imperative to see beyond the financial aspect of the problem. Highly charged emotions are involved, and families must pull together and unitedly work out solutions.