So, it happened. You lost your job.
Faced with this new reality you’re probably feeling an array of emotions—sadness, disappointment, anxiety, shame, anger. You’re worried about what you’re going to do now, who you can ask for help, and what people will think.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. According to the August 2020 Devex report, 59 percent of development practitioners had either lost their job, or knew somebody who had—up from 36 percent reported in April 2020.
As it turns out, job loss can produce different levels of stress depending on how threatening the event appears to you,what resources you have available to deal with this loss, and how much you had invested in your job.
Related article: Managing your career during COVID-19
Based on my experience as a leadership coach, and lessons learned from researchers who have studied the effects of job loss, here are some tips on what can help:
You are probably going through the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). While developed in 1969 in the context of bereavement, Dutch researchers have recently found that the same cycle is applicable in the context of job loss. This is normal.
It is possible to accelerate your journey to acceptance.
The good news is that you don’t need to go through all five stages, and you don’t have to do it in the given sequence. It is possible to accelerate your journey to acceptance. It might be hard, particularly if you are experiencing ‘workplace betrayal’, where you believe you were treated unfairly by your colleagues, boss, or organisation, and hence experience anger as well. Given that, strategies that might help include:
However, if your job loss is leading to a significant deterioration in psychological, physical, and social well-being, then you may be going through what Dutch researchers call, ‘Complicated Job Loss Grief’ (CJLG). This is characterised by separation distress combined with difficulty accepting the loss, moving on, and finding meaning in life, causing persistent suffering and impairments in functioning. If so, speak to a therapist.
Do not jump head-first into the search for a new job. Neuroscience tells us that deep anxiety triggers fear-circuits in the brain, which is expressed as hyper-vigilance and extreme behavioural responsiveness towards fearful stimuli. With this context, it is easy to understand that when reeling from the after-effects of having lost your job, you might not be in a position to make the best choices (this includes choices about your next role, career direction, and even interpersonal choices).
When reeling from the after-effects of having lost your job, you might not be in a position to make the best choices.
Here, it is important to caveat that not everybody has the privilege of taking a pause between jobs. If, however, you are able to take a break, then appraise and recharge your health at a mental, emotional, relational, physical, spiritual, and financial level, what I call a MERPS-F model. Here, there are some tips that might be useful:
Related article: Productivity at the cost of well-being.
Your reset consists of answering three pairs of questions—articulate clearly your life purpose and ‘flow’; your long-term financial goals and life’s liabilities and assets; and the applicability of your skills in the future. Use these three factors as a lens to see how your current career measures up, and the changes you may need to make to realign your career trajectory to make it more purposeful, financially appropriate, and relevant to the market. As an impact sector professional, articulating your purpose will likely be the easiest; but also the hardest—like a good theory of change, you need to determine your personal definition of success in defining impact. The other two aspects, financial and market relevance, tend to be neglected by most in the treadmill of day-to-day work.
But that’s where the good news about this lay off may be. It has thrown you off of the path of inertia. This emergency may just be the opportunity for the emergence of a new you.
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