Sudden Unemployment: Finding a New Career
Once you have dealt with the psychological and emotional consequences of losing a job, it’s time to move forward and potentially consider a new career. Here’s a four-step framework you can follow: »
Transitions
Rebuilding Self-Esteem After a Job Loss
“When I can no longer proudly say ‘I am a mechanic’ my self-esteem gradually wastes away. I meet a stranger and admit that I am unemployed, perhaps have been for an extended period of time and I feel that my stature diminishes from the look in their eyes. I talk about what I used to do but I feel somehow tainted and incomplete. I talk too much about why I have no job because I wa... »
Coping Effectively with Change: Carla’s Case Study
Carla is a 37 year old woman who works as a manager in a large engineering firm. She is married with two children a boy aged 10 (Carlos) and girl aged 8 (Anna). Her husband Rodrigo is great with the kids and very devoted and loving to Carla but he has recently been laid off from work (clothing factory supervisor) because the company became liquidated and folded. »
Effective Options to Cope with Change
Experience and the literature inform us that transitions or changes in life are inevitable and you can fight them, flee from them or preferably accept that you need to prepare for and adapt to the changes in some way. Having confidence in being able to plan for and adapt to change, by having skills and knowledge that you know will work, by building resilience so that you have the emotional strengt... »
Ineffective Options to Cope with Change
It is a bit difficult to define ineffective options simply because it is easier to describe those situations where people have ineffective options to react to change. »
Change: Understanding Feelings and Emotions
Obviously there may be many different feelings and emotions that a person could experience depending on the situation or circumstances. One person may fear change whilst another may revel in it and enjoy the challenges. A child about to enter early adolescence may also have a sense of fear or anxiety about what changes to expect, embarrassment about bodily changes, heightened sexual desires and bo... »
Positive Aspects of Change
People often avoid change; opting for predictability and control, rather than the more stoic, flowing style of embracing life’s challenges. But life is a dynamic balance of negatives and positives, and focusing on the positive aspects of change can be the difference between growing under duress and thriving in any environment, or experiencing continuing stress and anxiety. Let’s explor... »
Series: Coping with Transitions in Life
“It isn’t so much that hard times are coming; the change observed is mostly soft times going” ~ Groucho Marx (cited in The New International Websters Pocket Quotation Dictionary, 1997: 36) »
