The job loss roller coaster

Posted on 01. Feb, 2006 posted by Bill in Employment News

Ed Widdifield got his first full-time job at 19 and thought he was set for life working for an automotive battery-manufacturing company. In the nineties, the company switched gears and got into fibre optics. Then came the telecommunications crash and, after 21 years, he and 250 colleagues lost their jobs.

“It was very stressful. I lost my home,” said Mr. Widdifield, a single dad who had one of his four children, his five-year-old daughter, living with him at the time.

Downsized, laid off, redundant, voted off the island or just plain fired. Whatever words the boss uses, it doesn’t make it any easier.

Last year in manufacturing alone, more than 100,000 jobs were lost. Ford Motor Co. has announced restructuring that will cost 2,300 jobs in Canada. And besides the members of Parliament who were defeated in the election, many other Canadians will be handed their walking papers this year.

In addition to the lack of a steady paycheque, there’s often the loss of part of one’s identity. And dealing with the fallout — depression, strained relationships and a lower standard of living — makes finding work even more difficult.

With many of his fellow workers battling marital problems and depression — some of his old pals even had suicidal thoughts — Mr. Widdifield felt very lucky to have the support of his family. He and his daughter moved in with his mom.

Still, he never thought he would spend his 40th birthday living under his mother’s roof. “It takes away your pride, you know, to have to do that.”

Laurel Ritchie, a national representative of the Canadian Auto Workers, said losing one’s job can take a tremendous emotional and financial toll.

“It’s a real roller-coaster ride for most people,” she said.

Many layoffs are affecting people who joined the work force when they were in their early 20s and at a time when high school or post-secondary schooling wasn’t a prerequisite for so many jobs, she said.

“It is one way in which employers do their initial cull when they are hiring. And it is an issue for a lot of people.”

Colleen MacDougall, a psychologist at the Leadership for Life Institute in Edmonton, points out that many people knew what they wanted to be when they were little kids. They invest time, effort and money in fulfilling that dream.

“And if you lose [that job], there is a major impact on one’s identity and self-esteem,” she said, adding that there are two ways people react to job loss. They either get depressed or use it as an opportunity to do something new or different.

Many don’t see embarking on a new career in midlife as a completely foreign idea; lots of people are doing things they are really interested in as opposed to what they studied for 15 years ago.

But there is a difference. MacDougall points out changing jobs because you decide to is a completely different mindset than being forced out.

“If we are laid off, we all take a hit for a while,” she said. “No matter how strong you are.”

“Still, there isn’t quite the social stigma [around losing a job] as there once was.”

Widespread layoffs have been going on since the 1980s, and most people tend to know someone who has lost a job.

Also, there is more support than in times past: unions are stronger, buyouts or severance packages help financially, counselling can help people find other work and more Canadian families have dual incomes so there is still money coming in when one partner is out of work.

Ms. Ritchie would like to see financial support, education and retraining programs in place for at least a year after someone loses a job. She said a year falls short of what some European countries make available for laid-off workers. For example, assistance is available for up to four years in Austria.

In addition to a helping hand from his mom, Mr. Widdifield said his saving grace came from a centre that rose from the ashes after the layoffs at his company.

The action centre, started by the CAW with funding from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, was almost like a support group. People who were laid off learned how to write résumés, apply for work, search for jobs and approach employers.

“When I was laid off I didn’t even know what a résumé was,” Mr. Widdifield said. In addition to the skills he learned, he said he got support from peers at the centre.

While he is once again working full-time as a machine mechanic, Mr. Widdifield said there were some tense times between taking low paying part-time jobs and bartering with friends and neighbours; he would run errands for them and fix things around their homes while they would watch his daughter as he couldn’t afford daycare.

In addition to the monetary hardships, Mr. Widdifield said being unemployed can be very lonely. He had no wife or partner, and the possibilities of meeting someone were practically nil.

“Well I didn’t have much of a social life, let’s put it that way because you know, you got no time, you got no money. What can you do?”

EmploymentDigest.net

The job loss roller coaster

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