(Physical labor jobs) Why is Unemployment so Depressing?

February 22nd, 2010 admin Posted in employment |

By Josiah Walter

Toiling away at our daily grind, we dream of running away to Hawaii or the South Pacific where we can lie on the beach and do absolutely nothing.

Some of us are lucky enough to take a vacation there and temporarily cut ourselves off from the world of responsibilities and demands and worries. We breathe easier, sleep deeper, eat more heartily. It is truly paradise.

It’s wonderful because we have a life waiting to be reclaimed when we step off the plane. Our job is waiting for us and we go back to work with renewed energy and zest from our long overdue break.

It is like the first few days of unemployment, that honeymoon period when we find ourselves with extra time on our hands and no reason to get up early or fight the rush hour traffic. But honeymoons are not designed to last forever and it is only when they are over, that reality and the hard work of building a marriage starts.

The obvious stressors of unemployment are widely recognized: financial strains, the drudgery and frequent humiliation of job search, the family disruption, the loss of self-confidence and self-esteem. While none of these can be lightly dismissed, we are going to concentrate for a moment on an area that is often overlooked. It can cause inner turmoil, pain, significantly increase the emotional fallout of layoff, and exacerbate the depression, anxiety, and negative self-view that so often follow.

To feel productive seems to be an inherent human need. We feel good about ourselves when we are contributing — to our own independence, to our family, to our community. Many of the great discoveries, inventions, and explorations of history were made by individuals born to family wealth who had no need to ever lift a finger to ensure adequate self-support. Yet these individuals wanted to contribute to the world in some way and left their homes, worked through the night, and even died trying to be part of some enterprise.

Those who sat back on their laurels, and never found any venture to engage them, lead empty lives, drifting through their days without personal value or commitment. Today we see their empty faces in the society pages and read the tabloids to hear about their drug problems and their tawdry efforts to find excitement and meaning.

Those of us - most of us - who have no choice but to work, dream of having enough money to have a choice. Few of us really want to drift around the world without goals or ambition. We simply want to do something meaningful to us rather than the career we fell into which has long since lost its charm and excitement.

It is when that career, boring and humdrum though it may be, is suddenly taken away, that we realize how much of ourselves is invested in the role we have worn for so long. Our belief in our own value is tied up and interdependent with our productivity. We feel a vital part of our marital partnership, someone our children respect and follow, an important person in our community who has earned the right to voice an opinion or vote for a principle. We bear ourselves with a certain pride in that we are bonafide members of the working class and clearly differentiate ourselves from those who fail to contribute: the welfare class, the criminals, the idle rich, the various parasites who dot the fringes of our society.

When we lose our job, the lines start to blur. Our sense of personal importance starts slowly to fracture. We see the reflection of ourselves in the eyes of our friends and family start to change. While we concentrate on finding other work and jumping through the multiple hoops required by any job search campaign, we also withdraw more and more into ourselves, seeking to escape the new image of ourselves emerging in the minds of those around us.

As a vocational counselor, I heard a repeated litany of concerns from spouses and family: “Since this happened, she’s totally changed . . . He’s not the man I knew . . . I don’t know who she is anymore . . . he won’t talk to me about what’s bothering him . . . I want my husband back. I don’t care if he’s working or not . . .”

Have you, or someone you love, fallen into this trap?

Address the problem now, before a situation not of your choice and for which you bear no blame, mushrooms into the too frequent personal devastation of the unemployed - broken marriages, family dispersion, substance abuse, shattered lives.

The discomfort and emotional pain of losing your job also provides an opportunity to cement bonds and build strength if you take action to address problems head on. Above all, communication must not lapse. In fact, it needs to be expanded and enriched. Reach out to family and friends, those who love you as you are, “warts and all” as the saying goes.

Express your fears and your worries. Let them know how uncomfortable you are and how disappointed you feel that you cannot contribute to the family in the way you always managed in the past. Seek out ways to be a productive, even if non-working, member of the team. Take on new chores and responsibilities around the house and with the kids. Pay extra attention to your spouse. You may not be able to afford presents or a night on the town, but you can give of your time and your appreciation, gifts more valuable than anything you could buy at a store.

Share the rigors and discouragement of your job hunting efforts. Those who love you want to share in your failures as well as your successes. Encourage them to share their own feelings and fears about your plight, and express their anxieties about the future. Not only do we tend not to express our deepest fears, we also tend not to consciously formulate and define them. They just sit at the back of our minds as a faceless, nagging worry. When we fail to bring them out into the open, where they can be clearly defined and therefore contained, we live in a constant state of unease. To comfort ourselves, we look for something or someone to blame: “Everything was fine until she lost her job . . . if he hadn’t got laid off, I’d be registering for college this year . . .” It is an easy slide from such vague thoughts to full-fledged blame and you become the scapegoat on which all problems can be hung.

If you are newly unemployed, take steps now to ensure that such a direction is avoided. If you have been out of work for a considerable period of time, and may have already seen this pattern develop, take the time to stop it in its tracks. Redirect your energies into developing a positive team spirit in which all can have a voice and a contribution. It can turn the destructive nature of unemployment into a lightning rod of family cohesion, strength, and deepened affection.

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Top Interview Questions and Answers

By Josiah Walter

1. Can you tell me something about yourself?

This is the probably the most terrifying interview questions of all time and the most difficult to answer as well. As an applicant for a certain job, you’d be wondering what the employer wants to know. What’s the point of asking this kind of question? I suggest that you should relax and think of this situation as a great opportunity to impress your employer. Well, the technique here is you should answer them with something that supports your career goals. Avoid telling those things about your name, your birth date, where you live, hobbies and other extra curricular activities. It would be better if you tell them something relevant about your qualifications and employment history.

2. What are your strengths?

Be sure that you tackle those points that would help you do the job you’re applying for. Tell something about your technical skills and your qualifications and be sure to support them with specific examples.

3. What are your weaknesses?

With regards to your weaknesses, you should answer them with things that you are improving upon and make sure that it is work related. Do not just tell your weak points; you should back up your statement with things that you are doing to improve your weak points.

4. How do you handle stress/pressure?

Some companies have a type of interviews where in a group of interviewers ask you a set of questions. Some interviewers purposely stir up emotional responses by asking questions in a challenging manner. Their purpose is to find out how you handle the stress.

If you were asked about this question, just relax and keep your self calm because they are already observing you. Just describe how you handle pressure by being honest and direct, but avoid being anxious.

5. What do you know about our company?

Before you can answer this question, you must have a research about the company you are applying to. Knowing their mission and vision can help you make the interview more interactive. It would be better if you tell them that you want to know more about the company. This shows that you are interested to the company and you really wanted to be part of the team.

6. Why do you want to work in our company?

If you were asked about this question, the first thing that would come into your mind would be “Because you have a job opening”. Well, those are clear answers but it won’t give you additional points on your interview. Those kinds of answers might sound sarcastic and may possibly annoy the interviewer.

The point of asking this question is to determine whether you have an idea about where you want to work or you’re just applying to any company that has a job opening.

Having a brief research on a company before your interview can help you to stand out as a competent applicant. It would be helpful if you can think of some reasons about what you can contribute to the company.

7. Why do you want to leave your current job?

Not all interviewee can deliver a straight forward answer to this question. Of course you have your own reasons why you want to leave your current job. You should be careful in answering this question. By all means you should keep your answers in a positive manner. As much as possible, do not give them a hint on how much you hate your current officemate or your boss. At this point, the interviewer is testing your attitude. The firm wants to hire someone who has the potential to become part of their team and not a negative one who can pull them down.

8. What can you contribute to our company?

Tell them your qualities that are related to the position you are applying for. Give them some ways in which you can help the company grow and be productive by sharing your thoughts and ideas. Show them your dedication and your willingness to be a part of the company.

9. Why should the company hire you?

Basically, this question is about selling yourself. Just like the first question, telling something about your self. Develop a sales statement and be more detailed as much as you can. Tell them something about what makes you unique and what you can contribute to the company. Think of your qualities you have to offer that match on what the employer is looking for.

10. Where do you see yourself five or ten years from now?

In answering this question, you should focus on your career-advancement goals that are related with the job you are applying for.

Interview questions are very tricky and you should be more careful in answering them. Your future career relies on how you deliver your answers. Respond appropriately, just relax and be yourself.

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