Surviving the Stress of Job Loss

One of the biggest stresses in life is job loss. Whether you are let go from a position or you have to give up your job due to illness or injury, it can be a real shock to the system which can leave you feeling under extreme pressure.

If you are currently experiencing job loss and the stress is getting to be too much for you, here are a few things you can do to ensure you survive and overcome the strain of job loss.

Feel your feelings

Losing a job can be tough. You worry about where you are going to find the money for day-to-day life; you worry bout being unproductive you miss your friend and you miss your job. It is hard and allowing yourself you feel your feelings of loss and upset is the starting point to healing from them. Let it all out and feel how you feel and this will be the first step on your journey to feeling better.

Draw up a budget

If you have lost your job, then you might be most stressed about money. It’s not easy to go from having a regular income to potentially having no income at all, so it is important that you sit down and draw up a tight budget to get you through. You may also want to look at any money you can claim such as welfare or perhaps workers’ compensation benefits if you were injured and unable to work. Once you get on top of your finances, it’s much more likely that you will stress less and start to feel better faster.

Talk to someone

Talking to a trusted friend or therapist about how you feel is a good way to de-stress. Once you say things out loud, they often have less power over you, and not only that, but talking to people is a good way to get lots of new perspectives about job loss and how you can get through it more effectively. Not only if this a great stress relief, talking to others about the circumstances of your loss and what happened may be a good avenue to discover if you could be owed legal compensation. This could fall under the wrongful termination statute of limitations or a myriad other laws for dismissing employees. This could give you better closure and some compensation for the stress you’re going through.

Look at it as an opportunity

If you are looking at your job loss as wholly bad thing, see if you can try to think of it as an opportunity instead. Yes, you have lost one job, but that just means you can start searching for another job that pays better or aligns with your interests more closely.

Start networking

While you’re out of work. The worst thing you can be is bored. This will zap you of your motivation and make your stress more intense. So, joining new clubs. Starting new hobbies, and allowing yourself to network with as many people as possible will help you to stave off stress, but it will also give you plenty of chances to meet new people who could help you find that all-important new role too.

Losing a job is always going to be stressful, but if you follow the above steps, you will be able to get back on an even keel all the sooner. Good luck.