• A manager in a failing department store runs to the bathroom and throws up, consumed with the fear of losing her health benefits which, even with COBRA, will cost too much.
  • A teacher wakes up multiple nights a week with his whole body clenched, dreading that California’s annual pink slip won’t be retracted this time.
  • A factory worker grieves the loss of friendship and socializing at work as much as the lost income.

Very likely everyone reading this knows someone who has recently lost a job. Unemployment is a strange word; defined negatively, it fails to convey the meaning of an often devastating experience (though one that, together, we can mitigate). In a society that has allowed many supportive institutions to atrophy, job loss looms even more menacingly than it would elsewhere. Added to the practical economic blows are wrenching emotional wounds: fear, self-blame, despair, and lowered self-esteem.

The late Cambridge University professor Marie Jahoda (a Jew and former prisoner of the Austrian Fascists) noted in an important 1982 article, that having a job “imposes a time structure on the waking day; it compels contacts and shared experiences with others outside the nuclear family; it demonstrates that there are goals and purposes which are beyond the scope of an individual but require a collectivity.” Unfortunately, for too many, work is the only significant collective activity they have outside the nuclear family.

The Toll of Unemployment

Alone in a one-bedroom apartment, or at home with a worried and dependent family, unemployed people can suffer severe stress. Womenslaw.org reported that when a male experienced two or more episodes of unemployment, he was almost three times as likely to be violent toward his female partner as when employed. The Suicide Prevention Resource Center notes that the anticipation as well as the actuality of “humiliation, shame, or despair” associated with unemployment brings some vulnerable people to suicide. An unemployed worker quoted on the National Employment Law website said, “I pray to God every day for those of us who have lost our homes, cars, basic necessities, and most of all, our dignity.”

The dominant culture (not necessarily the majority, but the most visible in the media and marketplace) says, “You are your job title. You are your possessions.” This is a mindset we need to actively rebut with both words and deeds.

Because of my family history of poverty and living on the fringe of society, my own experiences of unemployment or underemployment have brought with them bouts of visceral dread and anguish. The nightmare appears before me of not having a place, both literally and socially, of knocking on the glass walls of society and being refused entry, of having no cloak to hide my vulnerabilities, no listeners to my cries, no way to connect or become visible.

The Consumer Culture’s Idiotic Answers

A quick Google scan reveals socially and spiritually bankrupt suggestions for the unemployed. They usually come in ten easy answers, some as ludicrous as turning to a “hot celebrity hairstyle.” But most focus on individualist solutions: positive self-talk, better job research, networking, etc. It’s all about what I can do about my problem.

Ofer Sharone of the Institute for Labor and Mental Health, noted in an article about unemployment and self-blame (in last September’s Tikkun) that “A real solution must be collective in nature.” I vehemently agree.

Where Can We Begin?

I hope to have a lot more to say about solutions in future postings, but for now, let me sprinkle a few grains of hope.

Because of our extreme focus on work (and consumption?) we may have missed participating in or even knowing about groups that have been there all along, steadily working for the common good. Once you start looking, you’ll find inspiring organizations everywhere that are absolutely free to join: religious-affiliated organizations like the Sacred Heart Community Center planting gardens in low-income back yards, offering free food and interview clothing, helping people with utility bills, and financial hurdles to citizenship; Twelve-step groups giving people a place to be heard and supported as they grow spiritually and serve others; the Working Class Studies Association offering conferences and a monthly calendar to connect many small efforts to help working people on every level and spread the truth about their lives.

Because of the blessings I’ve received from my connection to non-work groups and because I know how critical it is for people with minimized financial resources to connect, I plan to start a weekly unemployment support group in my home if I have no job this fall.

Joining these group endeavors gets us out of our self-obsessive head and into a bigger world where we need to be to create collective solutions to our collective problems.


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