Job Loss

About the Book

The purpose of this book is to help a dismissed employee identify personal characteristics and professional situations that may affect emotions following a job loss. Although methods of coping with job loss may be distinctive, caring for oneself after job loss is somewhat similar to coping with life's other losses. Dismissed employees sometimes describe the feeling as if somebody had died. That is because bereavement is the state of having experienced a loss - whether death is involved or not. There are numerous comparisons between job loss and the grief response to death.

The characteristics and professional situations that affect emotions following job loss include personality, personal responsibilities, personal and professional goals, expectations of life and employment,loss history,length of service and employability,type of job loss and dismissal conditions.

Self-care suggestions include assess and reassess reality, give others an opportunity to offer support; determine if experts are needed; provide for mental and physical health, avoid indulging in self-pity, seek a health diversion, keep a sense of humor; lean on your spiritual foundation or consider developing one, and planning for the future.

This book also highlights the impact of the actual job loss process upon a dismissed employee for the use of any employee of large corporations or small firms doing human resource tasks.

About the Author

Jane Snyder, M.Ed., first studied business education and worked in various secretarial positions. After her mother died in 1985, she became a hospice volunteer and, eventually, became the hospice bereavement coordinator. During her years at hospice she studied with many of the well-known experts in coping with lossÑThomas Attig, Kenneth Doka, Earl Grollman, Harold Kushner, Doug Manning, Darcie Sims, William Steele, Granger Westburg and Alan Wolfelt.

In 2002-2004, she became one of the many individuals across the country who have faced job loss. She proceeded to conduct a job search, but was faced with a myriad of feelings very similar to having experienced other losses in life. She realized that resources are provided to assist in a job research and few, if any, offer emotional assistance to dismissed employeesÑeven the ones who face job loss due to no fault of their own, e.g. outsourcing, downsizing, etc.