Integer Leadership Consulting

One of the reasons that termination and unemployment exacts a toll on one’s psychological well-being is that we are too deeply connected to our work. In addressing the psychological meaning of employment, Freud (1930) observed that work was man’s strongest tie to reality and its reversal, unemployment, can loosens man’s grip on reality. Following Freud’s line of reasoning, Jahodia (1982) stated that the “psychological needs met by employment are probably deeper and more enduring than the institutional arrangements to which we have become accustomed as satisfying them” (p. 61).

When one experiences involuntary job loss, a number of psychological stressors are activated. The more meaningful our work the more disruption occurs psychologically. The more meaningful the work coupled with the length of time we have been engaged in that work, again, the greater the likelihood that psychological disruption will unsettle our sense of well-being. The process of appraisal and coping with this loss is determined by the amount of harm/loss and threat that the job loss represents (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).

Notice the massive increase in mental stress that often results during periods of job loss as reported in the media. The last 15 months, we have witnessed dramatic increases in the disintegrating mental state or mental homeostasis of those who have lost their jobs and as a result overwhelming mental health help lines. The issue is that for many, they have lost far more than employment and the resulting economic crises that can quickly follow. For many, they have lost a significant source of existential meaning. Freud was right…we are deeply connected to our work, more so than we may understand. What have we lost beyond actual employment? We have lost a sense of purpose (I work therefore I am) and we have a diminished sense of value (we are worth less as an unemployed person in a culture that worships productivity and professional contribution).

One might suggest that because the West has put far too much emphasis on the meaning of work, the subsequent identity attachment that is framed around employment as a result can be deleterious to well-being. The work becomes “the soul” and when work is lost the soul loses it’s way…it’s true north. Could it be, then, that our own culture’s propensity of attaching inordinate meaning and significance to work is ultimately destructive? In cases such as involuntary job loss and the resulting psychological repercussions, the answer may well be “yes.”

If you are or know someone who has experienced involuntary job loss, develop a new appreciation for the larger existential issues you (or they) are confronting. At times such as these, let us find ways to rally around those who have been “existentially wounded” by unemployment and do what we can to be a constant reminder that fundamental value and worth far surpasses the matter of employment. This is a difficult to message to hear when one is psychologically traumatized by the magnitude of this type of loss. Nonetheless, perhaps the crisis can be an opportunity to redefine our sense of meaning and purpose.

Jeff

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