Unemployment’s silver lining

This last year has seen a new breed of person collecting their P45 and joining the ranks of the unemployed. Never before have so many middle aged, middle class professionals with six figure incomes seen their worlds collapse, as global economic pressures have forced their employers to shed even the most valued staff.

For many of us, our jobs define us and make up a large part of our sense of self. When that is unexpectedly taken away, we are left in shock and denial – we have all heard an urban legend of the investment banker who loses his job but keeps going out “to work” each morning because he can’t bear to tell his wife. For many, this shock and the threat to their identity sees them paralysed into a cycle of sending off application after application for the same role that they have just lost, irrespective of the fact that the market for that specific job is clearly shrinking as their contemporaries suffer the same fate and unemployed graduates also arrive on the scene.

To make matters worse, many of the middle classes are ashamed to ask for help through these periods, even though financial aid is often available for families. ‘Handouts’ go against the work ethic that they were raised with. This quickly sees desperation set in, as mortgages and school fees cannot be paid and life appears to be unravelling. The spiral continues as a large salary becomes more necessary to try and hold onto the lifestyle that is slipping away and the ability to think laterally diminishes.

However, a small but growing number of people are seeing this enforced change in their life’s routine as an opportunity to question the direction that their lives were taking, often with surprisingly successful and satisfying results. In my work with clients who have experienced this sudden loss of a high profile role and large income, we prefer to adopt this different approach.

First and foremost, we get practical. Every home, like every business, has a P&L and we work to cut costs and maximize income immediately. Government benefits, hardship bursaries from schools, even selling surplus possessions on eBay can all bring in much needed cash which will buy time.

Time gives us the ability to look for the opportunity in the situation. Are my skills transferable? Is what I do as a hobby also something that I could profit from? In a shrinking job market, could I freelance to companies the skills that they can no longer afford to keep in-house? Do I enjoy my lifestyle or do I want to make fundamental changes to where or how I live?

By taking time to really question oneself, a new map of the future emerges, with different roads and directions. No guarantees are given, but there are suddenly choices to be made. The ‘newness’ in itself can be exhilarating and the hope of a better way forward can translate quickly into proactive behaviours that create the positive changes necessary.

One client of mine in her late 30s lost her job as Communications Director of a PLC. With a six-figure basic salary and generous package, she comfortably supported her sole parent household of three children, nanny and housekeeper. When she lost her income, she felt hopeless – not able to see how she could keep her childcare without her salary or get another well-paid job without the flexibility childcare provides. She also struggled with negative feelings of shame and failure that threatened to push her into a clinical depression and render her unable to improve her situation.

By dealing with the practicalities first, she was able to re-evaluate her lifestyle. Through a process of questioning and challenging her previous assumptions, she ultimately has started her own business providing communications advice to a number of businesses. This new structure has maintained her lifestyle whilst allowing her to spend more time with her children. Six months on, she is earning 90% of her former salary but spending 30% more time with her children and rates her satisfaction with her life as much higher than when she was employed.

A positive programme of change encompasses practical damage limitation, acceptance of the situation, widening of horizons to embrace opportunity and the building of a new relationship with and understanding of ‘self’.

Even though we are told that the worst of the recession may be over, unemployment is expected to continue to rise through 2010 and many more professionals are going to receive their P45 instead of a payslip. There will still be shock, frustration and anger when this happens, but with a different approach to the situation, there can also be hope, and even a better future to come.

 

About Rachael Wood:

Executive Coach and entrepreneur Rachael Wood has a view on almost every subject imaginable through both her own professional and personal experiences and those of her clients. She will be sharing those views most pertinent to today’s woman in a new column on FMWF.com.

Company director, mother and wife are just three of the hats Rachael wears on a daily basis and like many women she thrives on the different challenges and rewards that each role presents.

After graduating from University College, London with a degree in Psychology, Rachael began a career in investment banking, becoming the youngest director in Capital Markets.

Rachael went on to co-found and float Imprint Plc, a recruitment business that grew to 600 employees across eight countries with a market capitalization of over £110m before its eventual sale in 2007.

In 2008, Rachael founded OgilvieDavies, her executive and life coaching practice, and works with a range of professional, celebrity and private clients across the world.

Rachael has been featured in numerous publications focusing on successful women, has been shortlisted for a number of awards and appeared as a Panelist on The Apprentice in 2008.

She says; “Through the good times and bad, I have always dared to dream and I try to put ideas into practice straight away. Hesitation encourages doubt, action is invigorating.”

Aside from business, Rachael enjoys her country home, which she shares with her husband James, and children, 2-year-old Phoenix and 2-month-old India.

She has even found time to become involved in the restaurant world, co-owning two London venues within the Marco Pierre White Group.

Tags: Rachael Wood, unemployment

Posted by Rachael Wood on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 4:45 am.

Filed under Columnists, Rachael Wood, Tagged as: , Rachael Wood, unemployment.