Do you feel overpowered by your circumstances after losing a job? Take heart, because these wellness hints will help you get better one step at a time.
Mentally Bounce Back After a Job Loss
For months, the news has been dominated by reports of hiring freezes, layoffs, and withdrawn job offers in the tech sector and startup community. Currently, businesses in other industries are reducing their workforces as a potential recession approaches.
Although there is still a great demand for talent from employers overall, the recent upheaval has made workers uneasy. A recent survey conducted by LinkedIn found that 60% of participants were either worried or very worried about their careers as a result of economic unpredictability.
Losing a job can be challenging, especially if your identity and sense of value are shaped by your employment. The event could be much more traumatic if it came as a surprise. While losing your job is something you cannot control, how you react to it may.
Here are five useful suggestions to aid in your job loss recovery and help you emerge mentally stronger.
5 Ways to Keep Calm and Bounce Back After a Job Loss
1. Take Time to Process
The hasty search for new employment is frequently the first response to losing a job. While it’s crucial to think about your finances, it’s also important to give yourself time to comprehend what just transpired.
If this is your first time in this circumstance, this step is particularly crucial. A grieving process is involved with losing a job, just like it is with other types of loss. Allow yourself enough time to go through the stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance as needed.
While you don’t have to be jubilant, moving ahead will only be possible if you can accept what transpired.
2. Rethink Your Goals
If you can, now would be a great time to take a break. Often, quieting the mind is the only way to achieve clarity. Unfortunately, if you’re running around updating your résumé and filling out applications for jobs, you can’t do that.
Instead, pay attention to your well-being by engaging in whichever activity you find enjoyable. Spending meaningful time with your children, strolling your dogs, or playing golf are a few examples. Then, step back and think about what matters most to you in a job.
3. Spend Time With Family
Stress can increase if you try to handle these challenging circumstances alone. A study by Monash University research scholar Dr. Daniel Griffiths, Ph.D., reveals that social connection helps lessen the melancholy and anxiety that frequently accompany job loss.
Almost 30% of people who had lost their jobs and were questioned expressed psychological anguish. But with little to no social support, the likelihood of experiencing such discomfort increased by more than seven times.
So, try to rely on your family and close friends. You could even wish to work with an impartial third party, such as a career coach or therapist. These experts can give you a frank assessment and aid in changing your perspective.
4. Update Your Job-Searching Skills
It’s time to improve those talents if you haven’t been actively looking for work in a while. But keep in mind that the procedure probably hasn’t altered as much as you might believe.
It’s not surprising that 95% of recruiters are on LinkedIn seeking applicants, given that more than 50 million individuals search for jobs there each week. Therefore, ensure your LinkedIn profile accurately presents you for the career you want. Finally, keep in mind the explosion of remote employment alternatives.
5. Stay Positive
Success in your job search depends on maintaining a good attitude. Establish a daily job-search habit if you can. You’ll continue to be organized, driven, and focused in this way. At the same time, take pauses and schedule time for enjoyable activities. Volunteering is another method to keep a cheerful attitude.
Helping others is proven to improve well-being and lessen depression, according to research. Additionally, volunteering is a great method to meet people outside of your professional network who share your interests.
As a final reminder, concentrate on your controllable factors. When you land your desired job, the lengthy procedure will seem to have been worthwhile.
Conclusion
Losing a job feels intimate. That is true, after all. After all, the typical person works for about one-third of their life. It involves more than just losing your job. Losing coworkers, regularity, and a sense of direction are all consequences.
You are so much more than your career, and that is the most important thing to keep in mind. Once you grasp that, you’ll concentrate on creating a life rather than merely a means of subsistence.
About the Author
BCjobs.ca is Western Canada’s largest job board, with majority of the jobs coming from Vancouver. For nearly 20 years, BC Jobs has connected job candidates with companies looking to add talent to their team. If your team is looking to recruit, BCJobs.ca is the right tool for you. Our job board has grown through virtual career fairs, branding, and partnerships. Contact us at events@bcjobs.ca today.
