Strategies to Cope with Unemployment

 

It's a few weeks, possibly months down the track and you've got over the novelty of lying in bed, strolling down the road for a cup of coffee on the way to the library; or maybe not. This would be a fine lifestyle if only you had the funds to sustain it, but maybe you still have a mortgage, the kids haven't finished university or you hoped to have saved way more in your retirement fund. With all the things you hated about your job, whether it was the politics, the bullying or the boss, you're feeling nostalgic about how your salary magically appeared in your bank on a regular basis. 

• If offered a career mentor as part of your redundancy package, accept the offer. During my first redundancy I resented this like hell yet found the experience really helped identify what kind of role I was best suited for and the kind of workplace environment I flourish in.
  
• Work and rework your curriculum vitae. Remember your CV should not be a tombstone for dead jobs, so remove any experience more than ten years old unless you are, for example, an architect with an award winning built project. Get professional help if you can afford it, failing that some up-to-date books on building your CV.
  
• Maintain a job search spread sheet with all jobs applied for, contact details of who received your application, and your impressions overall if you get to an interview. This process of keeping a record is a good aid to memory if you go for a position at the same agency or company later on.
  
• If you missed out on a position you were particularly sold on, politely phone the employment agency or company and ask if there was any specific reason you didn't get the job. Explain that this is to assist you with your future job search. Express appreciation for their help.
  
  
• Up-skill. Find out what is offered through local institutions such as Citizens' Advice Bureaus, high schools or universities. I have found some free self led courses surprisingly helpful. It will never hurt to add a few more skills to your CV. Remember any positive action taken, however small, will help stave off the onslaught of hopelessness and depression you could be experiencing.
  
• Undertake volunteer work. While it may be difficult to commit when you believe that your next job is just around the corner, the experience is beneficial in a number of ways. It directs your focus beyond your navel offering social contact with purpose. Volunteer work creates a sense of being employed whether paid or not.
  
• If you must deal with Work and Income New Zealand, do it online where possible. I find my self-esteem goes down a hundred points the moment I enter the portals of a WINZ office. In my experience WINZ is not about empowering individuals but rendering them victims serving a system in which boxes must be ticked.

• Finally, find someone you can talk to who knows how to listen. The best person is someone who has shared a similar experience and come out the other side. While most people want to leap in and offer a reason you may not have got the latest job you've applied for, remember again this is for them to try and make some sense of your situation, rather than you. With this in mind, I suggest you nod and smile politely. 

You have already gone through massive rejection with redundancy but believe me there is more to come. Like endeavours to find that one true love, rejection is all part of the process. You'll feel flat, disappointed and wonder if anyone is going to want to employ you / love you ever again. Take a break from job seeking for a while, then gird your loins and get on with it!

 Retirement? No way

Retirement just isn't an option right now; I want and need to work for reasons other than money. Like many other New Zealanders I have experienced multiple redundancies. My income has never been high although I worked full time from the time my children were young as I was a sole parent. With my meagre savings long used up, I still have a mortgage, ongoing home maintenance and the modest aspiration to cross the Tasman once a year to visit my family. Then there is my dream of one day undertaking the famous pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago across Northern Spain before my other knee, or either of my hips require replacement surgery! This would have to be under the public health system of course, for along with my job, the ability has gone to afford medical insurance just when I am mostly likely to need it. But redundancy has meant giving up more than just a salary. Gone are the social networks I so blithely took for granted, whether Friday night drinks at work, meeting with friends for a meal, the gym or the twice weekly dance classes.  

Retirement has been imposed upon me without my consent. Futile efforts to even get a part time job in the current market are sending me the message that I am surplus to society's requirements. More ever, this is propogated by the young women "consultants" who are generally the employment gatekeepers in the recruitment agencies. They are careful to say rejection for a position is never to do with age but when pressed they will admit that it is the employers who call the shots and this lets them off the hook.  We, the Baby Boomers, scrub up well, we're ready, willing and able and as long and as long as we remember to take our blood pressure medication and fish oil, we would be a great asset to any business. Furthermore we're not planning our OE just yet; maternity leave won't need to be factored into our employment conditions and we are not necessarily on the career path which might pose a threat to middle management. From contemporaries I've spoken with, we are working to live, no longer living to work; the cliched work-life balance. We don't shy from taking on responsibility and most novel of all, we turn up to work when required, on time!

As a fanatical reader of Jane Austen I no longer see my self as an amalgamation of the spirited Lizzie, cautious Eleanor or autocratic Emma, rather I am Miss Bates, subject alternatively to the flattering attentions and the hurtful whims of Emma Woodhouse's charity in order to survive in genteel yet desperate poverty. In my case substitute Work and Income for Jane Austen's obnoxious heroine minus the occasional flashes of charm the fair Emma was known to display. I have the etiquette, the bone china tea cups and a frayed lace cap, but just can't afford the tea.

Retirement lingers forlornly like fog in a shadowy no man's land of burnt tree stumps and poverty. Inability to gain employment has issued a loud wake up call that I am totally unprepared for it both financially and mentally. While I've managed to put aside a modest cache in Kiwisaver, the growth of my savings is dependent on my ability to continue working. Rather than spend all my time job hunting which otherwise could be seen as setting myself up for further rejection, I am currently undertaking intensive training on a volunteer programme to do something that will enrich my life in other ways. The situation remains though that in order to retire with any sort of dignity and quality life, I need to either marry well, the optimum outcome for any Jane Austen heroine, or find a job to generate income.