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March 03, 2003

Job Loss

It doesn't seem to be difficult these days, nor unexpected, to hear about a friend or family member losing their job. The effects of the recent economy compression seem to be felt in all areas of employment this time around. It was because of my history of employment that a copy of the article Test of A Model of Coping With Involuntary Job Loss Following a Company Closing was recently given to me to read.

First point is that the article was published in 1999 before the end of the great Internet bubble. It makes me wonder how much (if any) of the points and concepts raised have changed. For example after hearing about company closure parties, and former employees better able to keep in touch with each other via the internet, and what not. Second major point is this doesn't cover layoffs, although I'd fathom that they aren't terribly different from those in the company closure cases. Again in this case there are stories of Pink Slip parties, and I question the idea of Social Support like "Are family and outside work friends the main support received?" If you're partying with your former coworkers, isn't it hard to talk with your non-work friends?

One of the points I'd like to argue is the "Given that education is generally associated with greater marketability, individuals with more education should have greater expectations that they will be reemployed...". I can probably argue this one based on personal experience, saying that even with my short career I've been unable to get much (if any) in the way of responses from potential employers. Now the question becomes is this actually part of the effect of the economy downturn and a huge market flood of qualified applicants, or did the idea of a bachelors degree become equivalent to a 1950's high school diploma? In any case, 50-100 resumes a day didn't get a single response.

"Symptom-focused coping refers to nonwork activities such as ... increased alcohol consumption." Amen to that! Pat and I called that phase San Francisco! Now if only it was a cheaper experience...

Anyways it's an interesting read to see that people typically deal with unemployment the same all over, especially if you've gone through the whole ordeal.

The link above to the article is just to an abstract, unfortunately I can't seem to get the Journal of Applied Psychology to share it's secret copies. If you find a link online feel free to leave it in the comments section.

Posted by Dan at March 3, 2003 07:25 AM

Comments

Posted by: Vera at March 3, 2003 01:12 PM