Coping with Layoffs

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Coping with Layoffs

Survive a Depression With Your Smile Intact

When coping with layoffs or long term unemployment, you must meet these three emotional needs to keep your smile intact. In addition to our basic needs for food, shelter, and safety, the psychologist Abraham Maslow identified three other basic human needs including the need to;

belong,
have self-esteem, and
self fulfillment

to keep mentally and emotionally healthy and thriving.

Many people meet these emotional and actualization needs through their work and they need other avenues when coping with layoffs and unemployment. This might also be true if the bad economy has you in the less than perfect job.

Three Ways to Meet your Emotional Needs Outside Your Job

1. Join a Group
We join groups for a sense of belonging and to accomplish things that are too big to do alone. Look for groups that meet regularly and are large enough to provide many connections with people who you will look forward to seeing. The group should be a place where you really feel like you fit in. If you can develop at least one close relationship with someone in the group you feel really cares about you, so much the better. You might also join groups for networking and it is possible for a group to give you a sense of belonging and networking benefits, however, having at least one group where you really feel a sense of belonging is important for your emotional well being.

2. Use Your Talents and Skills to Contribute
One form of happiness, called flow, comes when we are completely engrossed in a challenge that uses skills we enjoy. Any craft, or game, or project can meet this need. When we enjoy a skill and we are naturally good at it, that skill is often called a strength or talent. Our happiness is magnified when that challenge also does some good in the world. There are lots of worthwhile projects waiting for skilled volunteers. You might even find a way to volunteer that feels good and builds your resume.

3. Focus on Your Purpose
In the book Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl explains how the people who survived and recovered quickly from the Nazi concentration camps all had a larger purpose to their lives that gave their struggles meaning. When you can identify a mission or cause or theme to your life that is larger than your current circumstances, it is easier to put tough times and unexpected changes into perspective. If you identify with a career rather than a job, or a personal mission rather than a career, there are always fulfilling options.

When coping with layoffs, fill your time with activities that use your strengths to contribute to your life's mission. Work with a group to accomplish something larger than you could do on your own. Keep a regular schedule and stay busy as this will help with the ups and downs that are bound to come during the lean financial times.

Keep your emotional bucket full and you will survive a depression with your smile intact.

If you enjoyed Coping with Layoffs, be sure to read Part 1, Surviving a Layoff. How to Stay Positive When Coping with Job Loss, and Part 2, Coping with Job Loss, Emotion Focused Coping Skills to Help You Stay Positive.