Is Unemployment a "Worst-Case Scenario"?
The other day I came across a query on ProfNet from a journalist who was writing an article on how one should manage one's time after losing one's job. Specifically, she wanted to know if people should take time off, immediately start looking for a new job, or possibly get a temp job just to pay the bills.
I sent her my thoughts on the subject which boiled down to, "It all depends." That is, it all depends on whether or not losing your job is a "worst-case scenario," an overcomeable inconvenience, or a blessed relief. In the latter case, unemployment might give you some time to relax, reflect, and enjoy a life of leisure. In the intermediate case, you may need to get your resume in order and call around to see what's cooking, but you aren't really in a state of panic. In the first case, you've got a problem.
But what exactly is the nature of that problem? As fate would have it, I've been thinking a lot about worst-case scenarios lately thanks to Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled By Randomness. As far as I can make out, what distinguishes the worst-case scenario from your run-of-the-mill unpleasant situation is the fact that is, ideally, improbably rare, but for all that, overwhelmingly devastating. Its devastating character makes it a rather severe problem, but its rarity makes it all too easy to overlook, ignore, or otherwise pretend it won't happen to you. Which in a way is my point. What will tend to make unemployment a worst-case scenario is the false belief that it will never happen to you.
The fact that warning signs are often glaringly obvious in hindsight does not mean that they were even visible "before the deluge," so to speak. So, the first step towards ensuring that unemployment, especially of the sudden and unexpected variety, does not represent a worst-case scenario, you need to first acknowledge it as a real possibility. You've got to say to yourself, "I could walk into work on Monday and find out that I've been made redundant/that the company's been sold off or shut down/ that I've been fired for gross incompetence, etc." Try it (I'll wait). Now doesn't that feel better?
The other thing that can make unemployment something more than inconvenient is that fact that you are probably relying on the income you derive from working as an employee and loss of that income could have very unpleasant consequences. Hence, Step Two: Have a contingency plan. Saving for a rainy day and that sort of thing would be a good start, but, frankly, life sometimes conspires against us and the best we can do is live paycheck to paycheck. Assuming then that you do not have sufficient cash reserves to sustain prolonged unemployment, you will need to start looking for a new job pretty quickly and the best way to do that is to lay the groundwork before you lose your old one.
"Who has time for that?," I hear you say, and wholeheartedly agree with you. That's why I'm going to give you one question to ponder as a prelude to preparing a contingency plan against the eventuality that, through no fault of your own, naturally, you abruptly become unemployed: "If I had to start looking for a job today, who are five people I could call to help me find one?"
As you mull that one over, you'll probably come up with a lot of related questions - What do I want to do? What do I do well? Where would I like to work? Who do I know there? Etc. - but the most important thing to do is actually contact those people RIGHT NOW. Are you still reading this? STOP AND CALL THEM! I'm not kidding.
Sometimes, when people get fired, they say, "This may be the best thing that ever happened to me," seeing it as the kick in the seat they needed to make a change in their lives. In contrast to this sort of wishful thinking, I believe that getting fired is seldom a good thing and pretty much never the best. If you accept the fact that it's a possibility, however, and start planning with that in mind, then it will definitely not be the worst.
Image Courtesy of Daquella manera.
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