If you have experienced involuntary job loss within the last two years and are interested in learning more about the research, please email me at: jdy@integerleadership.com.

Thank you,

Jeffrey D. Yergler, Ph.D.

A spate of negative news released this week suggests that the economy may well be headed for a double-dip recession.

Focusing only on the jobs report, the NYT (July 3-4, 2010) reported that nonfarm payrolls fell by 125,000. Some of this loss was accounted for by the government’s elimination of 225,000 census workers. The private sector generated only 83,000 new jobs. Though the unemployment rate fell from 9.7% to 9.5%, the report also showed that 652,000 workers dropped out of the labor market which means they were not counted as unemployed in the latest statistics.

Simply put, the economy is not generating enough momentum to add enough jobs to lower the unemployment rate. 100,00 jobs must be added each month to accommodate new job seekers entering the job market. Only adding jobs at the clip of 300,000, to 500,00 per month will lower the national unemployment rate of 9.5% which, when you add those who have dropped out of the labor market, totals some 16.5 million workers.

Economists are beginning to sound a shocking alarm: high levels of unemployment may be with us for “years to come.” The impact on the psychological well-being of increasing numbers of longer-term unemployed men and women is ominous and may prove to be devastating and debilitating longer-term. The psyche and morale of the american worker in particular and the american workforce in general are being reworked and not for the better.

I am grateful for those who have supported me beginning with the decision to matriculate at Gonzaga University in the summer of 2004. There were many who played a major role in keeping me on this long and often arduous path especially when I wanted to be released from this doctoral pursuit. Thanks for your unrelenting commitment to my own growth.

Most of all, it is my hope that my research and findings will find their way into the lives of those men and women for whom I wrote and to whom I have dedicated my research: organizational leaders who have experienced the psychological trauma of involuntary termination and wonder if there is any possible way to believe that good may one day emerge from the ashes.

Indeed, good shall arise again. Indeed, when the insights have been teased-out from the pain and the wisdom gleaned from the wounds of failure and human finitude, you shall see with new eyes. And these eyes that see with tempered vision will be the eyes of a leader!

Jeffrey D. Yergler, Ph.D.

I have just concluded my dissertation which addresses The Psychological Impact of Involuntary Job loss and the Process of Posttraumatic Growth. The research and findings will be made available through Gonzaga University. Five senior organizational leaders who had experienced involuntary termination were interviewed about their experience of termination. They described in detail the very difficult journey of this experience and how they have attempted to cope with the many losses as well as grow through what was and continues to be a traumatic experience.

In a new research article by the title, Short-Run Effects of Parental Job Loss on Children’s Academic Achievement by Stevens and Schaller, the case is made that the children of parents with only a high school education show evidence of increased academic struggles. These scholars have made a connection between the well-being of children and the economic/employment status of their parents.

This is significant for obvious reasons. Coping resources notwithstanding, unemployment through IJL immediately injects stress and anxiety into the lives of adults which then can be systemically translated to the children of those parents. Not only are parents stressed by IJL but children as well are damaged collaterally as a result.

My concern is that the deep and broad emotional burdens placed on unemployed adults because of their involuntary terminations are also affecting children. The toll of this is beginning to unfold. I am reasonably confident that if an aggregate qualitative or quantitative measure of the mental health of the nation during this period of massive unemployment were available it would show great reasons for concern.

It will take years, not months, to grow employment form the current employment malaise. The very fabric of the labor market is experiencing a “significant tectonic shifting” that is unsettling. These longer-term shifts are, even now, impacting at psychological and existential levels, the unemployed person’s psyche and spirit. As a by-product, this stress is fracturing the well-being and stability of the family. And the children, the most susceptible because they are unable to process their own anxiety, will continue to be listed as the casualties along with their unemployed parents.

I do not mean to “horriblize” here but rather to say that we have work ahead of us. Step one is getting people to work but, close on the heels of this, is ensuring that we “stand in the gap” from an emotional perspective with dads, moms, and their children.

The 9/7/09 online edition of the NYT had a very informative editorial by Michal Luo addressing the formidable head-winds that beat against many of the unemployed. When the Bureau of Labor Statics reports early each month on the unemployment numbers, it includes a group described as “those who have stopped looking for work” or more simply, “discouraged workers.”

As Luo noted, “These are people who have looked for work at some point in the past year but have not looked in the last four weeks because they believe that no jobs are available or that they would not qualify, among other reasons. In August, there were roughly 758,000 discouraged workers nationally, compared with 349,000 in November 2007, the month before the recession officially began.

But even this figure is probably an undercount of the extent of the jobless problem in this country. There are about 1.4 million more people who are not in the labor force than when the recession began. Some of these are retirees, stay-at-home parents, people on disability and students. But it is also rather likely that many of these people have given up looking for work at least partly because of economic reasons as well.”

What is it exactly that leads a one-time active seeker of reemployment to grow discouraged? Luo quotes the responses of four individuals in his article.

“There are thousands of people applying for every job I’m looking at, and potential employers won’t even give me the courtesy of acknowledging I applied. The entirety of that causes me to not bother. It’s a waste of my time and theirs.”

“The meeting with the interviewer has lasted 10 minutes. The man did not even open a folder in front of him to study MR. Rucker’s resume. Ray Rucker came home, sat down in his living room with his suit still on and wept.”

“The process of searching for work and coming up empty left Jenny Salinas feeling spent. “I was just discouraged, fed up and angry, feeling like my career had betrayed me.””

Tatjana Jovanovic-Grove, a biology researcher at a prestigious research institute in Belgrade, said this, “I stopped looking because that feeling of being rejected again and again is hard, It’s just like somebody punching you in the face.”

In the world of unemployment, looming discouragement is the scourge of the hopeful job seeker. It appears quite clear that most us have no idea of the depth and breadth of this discouragement or depression that exerts its insidious grasp around the throat of hope. Yet, though this is reality for millions which, by itself, should take your breath away, there are vital steps that can be taken to mitigate and keep-at-bay discouragement-creep.

First, acknowledge that this interim period is exactly that…an interim period. Though it feels permanent and immovable, it will change at some point. Seasons give way to still more seasons which are new and offer new expressions of hope and possibility…hold on to that with all your might.

Second, acknowledge that the search for reemployment is both a sprint and a marathon. This process has been characterized by many as brutal and potentially debilitating. In other words, be a ruthless realist and prepare yourself for the long haul. In this saturated labor market it may well take you longer than 6 to 12 months to land on your feet. Keep in mind that “good fortune” or “good luck” in the job search process is where opportunity meets preparation. In other words, those who appear most “fortunate” in this process are looking constantly for opportunities (networking, calling, emailing, “showing-up and following-up”) and engaging in constant personal preparation (expanding skill-sets, acquiring new professional/technical skills, attending workshops, enrolling in the local community college for continuing education, volunteering, and interning).

Third, surround yourself with solid friends…this is absolutely and unequivocally indispensible if you plan to get through this season of unemployment. Those who have no advocates or champions are the ones most at risk of sliding into a more permanent depressive disposition. Sometimes, the only voice that can keep you going are the voices from beyond yourself reminding you to keep moving, to take one more step, to believe.

Fourth, network, network, network. Get on Linked-In (www.linkedin.com) or another networking program and extend your professional network (www.xing.com; www.ryze.com; www.ecademy.com).

Fifth, nurture faith and belief. Explore and get involved in a faith community that can connect you to support, encouragement, and hope. Much of the empirical research I have examined relating to surviving involuntary job loss mentions the meaning of a faith community for those who are dealing with the discouragement of unemployment.

Sixth, sleep, eat, and exercise. These are the no-brainers for staying internally balanced but are often the first to get expunged from a routine. Whatever you do, take care of yourself first so you can take care of the business of finding work.

When you go to bed at night, when your mind refuses to turn-off at 2:30 am and stress and fear loom large, and when you wake in the morning, remember Churchill’s famous quote, “Never, never, never, never give up.” And with all due respect to Churchill’s quote, when it comes to persevering in the search for employment, I would add at least three more “nevers.”

Press-on….

Jeffrey