Psychologists say something scary happens when you're unemployed for a while

[Starry Messenger]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/psychologists-something-scary-happens-youre-184300337.html

Three people in my family (including me) had this experience. It's interesting that they studied personality changes, but didn't mention much about the attendant stress that needing to have a job to survive puts on a human.

<snip>

research suggests that long-term unemployment takes a significant toll on physical and mental well-being.

Now, a new study finds that unemployment can actually change certain aspects of your personality. Over time, you may become less friendly, less hard-working, and less open to new experiences.

The study, led by Christopher J. Boyce, Ph.D., at the University of Stirling in Scotland, drew data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, focusing specifically on the experiences of a subset of participants between 2005 and 2009. In 2005, all participants were employed. 6,308 remained employed; 251 were unemployed and then re-employed; and 210 were unemployed for one to four years.

Results showed that agreeableness, which is similar to friendliness, decreased among both men and women during long-term unemployment (one to four years). But during the first two years of unemployment, men experienced increases in agreeableness.

The researchers can't say for sure why that gender difference exists, but they suspect it's because men initially try to be agreeable to cope with the situation and placate those around them. Then they end up getting disheartened and agreeableness decreases.

<snip>

[shenmue]

1. True

Not having work blows.

[Starry Messenger]

4. I was just looking on the letter that Social Security sends out every year.

2005 is marked "0." It still gives me a pang to look at it. I quit a job because it was completely getting horrible and kept applying for things all year. Unsuccessfully. I finally got this job when an old teacher of mine found me and told me to apply. I am now super-cautious and cling to this job like a hermit crab, even though the pay is low and there are no real health benefits.

[shenmue]

16. I've got a choice between two interviews

Part time at Home Depot, or full time in a marketing company.

Better than bank robbery.

[Starry Messenger]

18. ((hugs)) to you too!

It is better than bank robbery, you are right! Some days it seems tempting though...I hope this comes through for you, one way or the other.

[shenmue]

19. Thanks

Last edited Wed Aug 26, 2015, 12:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Sometimes I almost want to walk into a bank and say, "I'm here for $7.80. I just want a turkey special at the sandwich place."

[LiberalEsto]

27. I hope one of them works out for you

Good luck!

[Demeter]

2. Unless this correlates over many different societies and economies

it would be more a reflection about how the society and the individual interact than a cut and dried causation: unemployment=character changes that society doesn't like.

[Starry Messenger]

5. Great point.

I wish they would do this study in other countries, from reading it seemed like this study was done in Germany?

The study seemed narrowly focused on the mental health/traits needed to function in an industrialized country that is merciless to those without a perceived function in it.

[FlatBaroque]

10. The unaccounted for factor in this equation is the safety net

that the unemplooyed worker has underneath. In France, for example, the healthy unemooyment benefits and the health care is a far different background than the American experience.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. True,human nature will

cause one to build barriers around one self.

[Starry Messenger]

6. Fear of not being able to survive.

You don't want people to know that you're going through bad times, sometimes it feels like others get superstitious and don't want your bad luck to be contagious.

[Wellstone ruled]

9. Been there done that and

got damn lucky to pull out of that funk. When you loose 20 years of your life to one place,you loose 20 years of what you thought were your friends. Then you come to the realization,damn,they are experiencing the same thing. Have a special Spouse who always kept me up beat and positive and that did it.

[Starry Messenger]

14. (((hugs)))

I think my husband and I pulled each other through too. This country is hard on people, I wish we didn't tend to get isolated and fearful when bad things happen. Knowing others are experiencing the same thing, even then it is hard to reach out.

[Wellstone ruled]

28. Sure as hell make me a better more

caring and listening person. Help many of the guys who took the hit with me,all it is to help the other guy regain his self esteem and confidence. Went on to have a twenty year career in a job that was fun and if it was not for mandatory retirement at 67,would still be their because not everyone has a fun job and get paid to enjoy each and every day. To this day we still keep in touch with all those people who help me and in turn help others. You do good Karma,you get good karma. Trust me,Karma can be a bitch,so treat her well.

[Starry Messenger]

29. Words to live by, Wellstone ruled.

When we help each other in our time of need, we can really build something lasting, for our people.

[TBF]

7. I was laid off several years ago -

it was after I had a child and my priorities in the workplace changed. Up until then I was completely devoted to work. Even though I was in a new area of the country after the baby was born and I tried to be careful to take a job that wouldn't be as demanding as I had held previously in my career it was still hard for me to keep up the appearance of someone who wanted to devote everything to their work 24/7. I got laid off after about a year in the position - maybe year and a half. I did get a new position quickly but I only worked six months and then quit that job to stay at home. I was in the position where we could afford that (as a family) but I'm sure my lack of enthusiasm was due to the layoff earlier that year. I didn't feel like I was valued at all. So many of these companies just want a body sitting there - and it doesn't matter if you have other things you'd rather be doing (I'm talking after the normal 40 hours). As a new parent who suddenly had other obligations my perspective had really changed but the employers' did not.

[Starry Messenger]

8. The way this country treats moms is insane.

Some companies are starting to grant paid family leave--but honestly, not having had a kid, I had no idea how soon mothers who had recently given birth were being put right back into the workplace. Like within days! wtf.

And then being devalued for wanting to be a parent and not the profit-machine for the boss, and treated like you are not really a person. I think all parents who stay at home to raise a child should get some kind of pay or credit for childcare, but also if you want to work outside the home, there should be a balance. Jobs shouldn't be the center of human existence, but a part of human experience that enriches life.

[FlatBaroque]

12. There should be a mandatory 90 days

for maternity leave for both parents. The amount of loss that bith baby and parents experience from the practice of being droped off at KinderCare at 7AM every morning is immeasureable.

[Starry Messenger]

15. I agree.

I read one story recently about a mom having to return to work a few days after a c-section. (!) Families need bonding time and being with the baby.

[Sanity Claws]

11. Did the changes persist if the person gets

Another job? I wonder because I had a long spell of unemployment but have now been employed for 3 years. I feel like a different person but not sure why. Is it increased compassion? Just becoming more mature?

[Starry Messenger]

17. The study suggests that you rebound, but caution that further study is needed.

"The bright spot amid these relatively dismal findings is that, once you're re-employed, personality seems to rebound. Boyce cautioned that he and his coauthors need more data to verify whether that's true, but it's what the current data implies.
It's important to note that the experience of any individual unemployed person could differ completely from the general picture that the study paints. At the same time, the study has some important implications for the way we think about unemployment."

I know when I got work again, my outlook improved. Another family member got a job and he's still very disagreeable and fearful. I think his trust in himself and life too big a hit. It hasn't been three years though, so maybe he just needs time to trust again?

[HFRN]

13. very surprising that people in that situation would act like they're unhappy

I swear half the things I learned in sociology and psychology, were an incredibly obvious concept, that I had to remember someone's name for 'discovering' it, so I could pass the test (and class), so I could check the box of taking the course and get on with my major

[jtuck004]

20. Pick a population. Disrespect them like we do unemployed people, people of color, people in or near

poverty - in other words, people who are worth less than the money the country sees as more important than they are...

That continues to give us a many-lifetimes supply of people who become "disagreeable".

I wonder what happens when there are more "disagreeable" people than the others. Because as jobs disappear, whether moved offshore or replaced by automation, the problem of "disagreeable" people seems destined to grow.

[TBF]

21. Well without jobs/healthcare they die -

or alternatively if they are young they are fodder for the military machine. I think that's about what we've become as a nation.

[jtuck004]

23. We have millions of people without jobs or healthcare who don't die before spending decades

paying fees to the bank$ter/donors that help choose a candidate that will make them wealthier.

The military is no longer an option for the tens of millions who need work, and it doesn't return anything now. Just a cost, financially and emotionally.

Lots of countries like that, it took us a while to work down that far. On the other hand we are overachievers, so we can probably take it much lower.

[Hydra]

22. I'd be curious to see if the people forced out of the workforce

Did well if they were paid the same as when they were working and were not under stress to find another job.

That was always the killer for me- not getting enough to survive on and then having the UI people counting my leftover weeks down.

[TygrBright]

24. It would be interesting to add in the self-employment group to such a study.

Many of us find our way to self-employment via (short- or long-term) unemployment.

I'd be interested to know how self-employment differs in effects (if it does) from re-employment or continued unemployment.

curiously,
Bright

[huhu]

30. interesting

Self employment is a relatively new concept for most americans because the common technologies have become more and more productive.

But in the end this about values- when you dont have work, or any way to contribute in a concrete way to your family or society, it all seems a wash, and you begin to devalue yourself according to the marketplace, which has no values. Alternatively, you find some niche idea and shuck and shuck till youre comfortable working 60 hours a week to keep your head above water as a self employed individual, who has "COME TO TERMS" with market values.

either way this is a backstep from one of the high points of american culture, labor theory, and a certain set of definitions of market value- all values aside, naturally.

Are we aiming at heartier competition for work? Or a more robust and civil economic. The only way to curb the negative aspects of the 'welfare state' is to provide education and opportunity . .. neither of which seem to be priorities.

[thebighobgoblin]

25. It seems consistent with what I've observed

When people lose hope, they lower their expectations. This is also reinforced by interviewers or by not getting any responses to your pitches for employment. This could be a college course by itself.

[LiberalEsto]

26. Definitely true in my case

I was unemployed for 5 years. Then I turned 62 last year and went on Social Security. My husband has a job, thank the Goddess, so we've managed to get by.

Being without a job over such a long time period soured me. I quit going to one Unitarian church because I felt nobody seemed to understand or care how being unemployed was hurting me.. I hardly ever go to the one we currently belong to. I went through a long, serious bout of depression, although that eventually lifted with the help of several medications.

I stopped going on Facebook because I feel like everyone is just re-posting drivel. I almost never call people and hate answering the phone. I have little interest in socializing. I've given up the hope of ever working again. DU is pretty much my entire social life. The only people I talk with are immediate family and one friend from when we lived in NJ 25 years ago.

[Starry Messenger]

31. Hey, LiberalEsto, glad to see you here.

People don't know what it is like until they have to face it themselves. I almost didn't post this story, I was afraid a lot of patronizing replies would result about how you just need to shine your shoes and put a smile on your face and get out there, but this group usually keeps those folks steered clear.

The Great Recession caused a deep psychic fault in the world, I think. I'm not sure we're ever going to be completely healed from the damage it did.

[Wellstone ruled]

32. Filled in for our H-R person for two days.

What a learning curve. I plain and simple admire any HR person doing Retail Hiring. By the end of the second day,you didn't even have to read or brief their apps. You are able by instinct to pick the winners for all the others. You want to just take folks that have lost their self worth and sit them down and help them,but,corporate rules are corporate rules. Would thank each and every person for coming in and usual would bent the rules in order better prepare them for their next interview .