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How do you navigate losing a job? That question has been on the minds of tens of thousands of federal employees as the Trump administration continues to terminate workers. A financial cushion helps, of course, but research shows that other factors can also determine how well someone weathers a job loss. NPR’s Katia Riddle has more.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: One of the most difficult things about losing a job, especially a job that you love, is that it becomes part of your identity. Like for this man, John, who worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a program analyst. He remembers taking an oath there on his first day.
JOHN: You stand up and, you know, put your hand over your heart, and you take the same oath that elected officials take to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. It was just one of the proudest moments of my life.
RIDDLE: John is 39. He was cut from the CDC a few weeks ago. Since then, some of his colleagues that were also fired were doxxed, and he’s worried about that happening to him. That’s why he asked to use only his first name. John upheld his oath at the CDC for 14 years. He was awarded employee of the month for the entire agency at one point. Now, he’s wondering who he is.
JOHN: I want to be a public servant. I want to help people. It’s a part of me.
RIDDLE: Some who study the impact of job loss say people need to process this kind of grief. If not, they may struggle to move forward. Jeffrey Anvari-Clark is a professor of social work at the University of North Dakota. He’s looked at identity issues around job loss in his research.
JEFFREY ANVARI-CLARK: People didn’t know how to handle that, and that’s what made it perhaps an even bigger catastrophe than just simply having a reduction in income.
RIDDLE: Anvari-Clark has done research that shows that job loss can compromise physical and mental health. He says in addition to identity loss, the way people think about their finances can have an even greater impact than their actual financial situation.
ANVARI-CLARK: And particularly when we start getting into money disorders - that it actually doesn’t matter how much money you have, it’s how you feel about it. And so you can have people who are billionaires and who still feel like, I don’t have enough.
RIDDLE: People who can avoid these snags are less likely to get bogged down in despair, he says. But the difference between theory and practice on this directive can be vast. John, for example, is disabled. He’s struggling not to be despondent over his finances.
JOHN: I’ve always had a plan to have more in retirement than the normal person because I’m going to need specialized care, and the cost of that care is probably only going to go up.
RIDDLE: When he was a teenager, he had an accident that left him paralyzed. He says what he would receive on disability would not be enough.
JOHN: The absolute worst-case scenario for me is ending up in a nursing home under the age of 40.
RIDDLE: But he has been keeping himself busy working on a public health AI project. He says that’s helping.
JOHN: That’s really given me a lot of energy and kind of kept me going.
RIDDLE: This is exactly the kind of thing experts like Anvari-Clark advise people to do. Even if it’s not paid work, it brings connection, a sense of purpose. And John says if there’s one thing his disability has given him, it’s tenacity.
JOHN: I had to relearn how to do everything again after my injury, so you get really good at problem-solving.
RIDDLE: Losing his job, he says, is one of the single biggest problems he’s ever had to solve. Katia Riddle, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOLLY HAMMAR SONG, “SHORTCUTS (I CAN’T WAIT)”) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
