FALL FROM GRACE
38-years old Himanshu Mishra, MBA (Marketing), was working for KG Electronics – a worldwide multinational. On July 31, 2000, Himanshu was given the golden handshake after working for 12 years for the company. Downsizing of the staff and closure of 2 units were cited as reasons. Today about one year has passed and Himanshu is at home scanning all newspapers for a job opportunity. Technological advances, increase in multinational firms and the current global recession have contributed to his state. His chances of finding comparable work with comparable salaries and benefits are becoming increasingly worse. He is a wreck; he is irritable all the time and has become very acquisitive in nature. He is constantly blaming his former employers for his pitiable condition. He has become very bitter about multinational companies, about corporate structures and advances in the field of industry; the very guidelines that he had been advocating before 1 year. There had been some offers here and there but he dismissed them as to be below his dignity and pride to be associated with such work. There is an underlying fear that he might not be able to adapt to other kind of work. As a result even those opportunities have trickled down. He has stopped attending family functions for the fear of having to answer questions about his employment status. Himanshu’s wife and daughter are the invisible victims of his jobless state. They are bearing the burden of his tantrums, the loss of financial freedom and are apprehensive about how to survive an unemployed Himanshu and that too without money.
For Himanshu, the traditional concept of job security does not exist now. He believed that fulfilling the expectations of a job, honesty, hard work and loyalty were rewarded and brought security to his position. These beliefs were exacerbated by the underlying ideology that success should be measured in terms of economic worth; freedom was equated with the opportunity to choose one’s standard of living and justice was interpreted as everyone having an equal opportunity to obtain a satisfying job. Success at work is often a major component of self-esteem. At present, old adages are being challenged and new rules are being written. What was typical and predictable no longer exists; loyalty, solid performance and longevity no longer guarantee a position within the world of work.
Himanshu’s present plight represents the pattern of response to job loss. There is initially a phase of shock, anger and disbelief. This is followed by a stage of optimism with active job searching. If fruitless, there is passivity, withdrawal, self-doubt, despondency and depression. Ultimately there is a state of despair with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness with resignation that the situation is beyond one’s control. A lot also depends on his past and present experience with loss, change and shifting locus of control. The reaction of his family members to the job loss, the size of the severance package provided, the amount of warning time and the emotional support of family members, employers and friends also contribute. His previously developed patterns of perception determine whether the blame is externally focused or on own self. There may be additional feelings related to guilt and retribution for his previous level of success. The deprivation of financial security, prestige, daily structure, companionship and purpose may lead to lethargy, inactivity and depression. Right now, Himanshu is facing a double-barrel gun. Not only does he have to tackle his depression and the other symptoms but also solve the problem of his unemployment. His anxiety and negativity do not allow him to focus on his job search. He has an external locus of control – the control over the situation is in the hands of others and not him. On the other hand if he had an internal locus of control, he would be more focused on searching for problem-focused strategies. The long period of inactivity, unemployment, and greater emotional intensity has increased the feelings of helplessness. This now becomes a vicious cycle. He is setting a course for himself that would result in permanent failure.
What should Himanshu do?
Job loss is viewed as a crisis in need of an expedient response or resolution. The intervention in most cases is restoration of equilibrium or reemployment. The goal is to be reemployed in some structured work. It might be difficult to establish the same level of comfort as existed prior to the job loss but a start has to be made somewhere. There has to be a clear delineation of goals and accompanying tasks and responsibilities. The first intervention is to take care of the fear of being inadequate and the resultant depression and loss of self-esteem. He has to come out of the strong denial of the importance of work in his life. What he does to earn his living is going to make an important contribution to his self-esteem also. The rationalization that he is on a higher plane avoiding the system rather than fighting it from within has to be discarded. He has to start networking and shrug off the reluctance of asking for help. With that the shame he feels for his withdrawal from action and depression about his limited prospects for success in returning to meaningful work will also disappear. He also has to identify patterns in his coping techniques which compounded his condition and take remedial measures to overcome them. He does not have to feel the heightened tension of all eyes being on him and be in a constant state of appraisal because he wants to prove to the world that he has not lost it. He should partialize the problem into reasonable tasks that he can start meeting head-on. Rather than set reemployment as the only acceptable evidence of success, he should reframe success into smaller components like number of networking contacts, number of job applications, number of follow-ups and interviews given. As he becomes more involved in the job-seeking process, the activity will take a life of its own. He has to maintain an optimistic, assertive, proactive stance.
