The Alarming Health Toll of Job Loss
As anyone who's ever lost a job knows, it's a traumatizing experience. The first time I lost a job, I was 23 and got fired from a Greek restaurant for clearing a woman's appetizer plate before she was finished, though it had been sitting untouched for some time (and she didn't say anything to me, of course -- she just let me clear the plate and then told the owner).
Regardless of the injustice of my dismissal, I was shaken by it. I didn't sleep well for weeks after that, worrying about money but also wondering what losing a job said about me.
A few years later, I was laid off from my job at a magazine as part of the dot-com fallout. Again, something that essentially wasn't my fault led to a sudden evaporation of more than my income: my peace of mind.
So you can imagine my alarm when I read that losing your job can actually reduce your lifespan by a full year or more, according to new research [PDF] by Daniel Sullivan of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Till von Wachter, an economics professor at Columbia University.
Matching death records with the employment and earnings data of workers in Pennsylvania from the 1970s and '80s, the two researchers found that mortality rates for high-seniority men spike in the year following an involuntary job loss, and they "remain surprisingly high" as much as 20 years later.
But it's not just those who lose their jobs who are at risk, according to Sarah Burgard, a sociologist at the University of Michigan. Her research suggests that simply fearing that you'll lose your job is enough to exact a toll on your health, as feelings of insecurity can keep you awake just as much as panic about a lost paycheck.
In his article on the issue for Miller-McCune, Tom Jacobs goes into detail on the various triggers that can impact your health, including those that might provide some benefits, such as obtaining a high-paying position. He writes that it's not entirely black-and-white, since different industries rely on different standards and measures of success.
An IT guy, for example, will earn more and advance professionally if he routinely jumps from one company to the next. Thus insecurity is part-and-parcel in that field. Meanwhile, an adjunct professor and freelance writer (like myself) is more likely to forever feel like the Apollo 13, circling precariously above the earth with a finite amount of oxygen and food.
But as I've come to believe, all things in life are temporary -- even supposedly secure jobs. You've just got to do your best to appreciate the work you've got when you're fortunate enough to have it. And with more and more people working freelance, I anticipate a nationwide correction to the idea that job security is normal.
Perhaps we'll begin recognizing that work, like love, can be fleeting, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be passionately sought after and embraced when it comes our way.
[Image: Daily Mail UK]
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The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) administers the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which governs retirement plans (including profit-sharing and 401(k) plans) and welfare plans (including health, disability, and life insurance plans). ERISA also includes the health coverage continuation and portability provisions of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This information sheet focuses on job loss and its effect on workers’ health benefits and retirement benefits. The United States should be planning for a possible second round of fiscal stimulus to further prop up the economy after the $787 billion rescue package launched in February, an adviser to President Barack Obama said. Wage restraint remains one of the main hopes for rectifying Britain’s budget deficit, despite opposition to a pay freeze from public sector unions. These days, almost anytime someone borrows to fund a business, buy a car or get a mortgage, the debt gets repackaged into a security that can be bought or sold like a stock. But critics say abuses in the securitization market helped bring about the housing meltdown. Consumerism and materialism have been the new religions in this country for years. The Making Home Affordable Modification program has a $75 billion commitment to support personal loans modifications so that up to 3 to 4 million borrowers at risk of foreclosure can keep their homes.