“Prolonged job loss takes toll in Reno area” |
| Prolonged job loss takes toll in Reno area Posted: 15 Nov 2010 09:40 PM PST It's a story that's playing out across the nation and particularly in Nevada. Mike Steele has been looking for work for close to two years since he was laid off as the western regional manger for Harry & David, the gift basket company, in southern Oregon. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of October, the median duration of unemployment is 21.2 weeks. Unless Steele finds a job soon, his situation could worsen with the pending expiration of federally-funded unemployment benefits. He and about 2 million other Americans will lose extended unemployment benefits beginning in early December unless Congress acts during the lame-duck session that begins Monday. Last May, Steele moved to Reno because it offered a better opportunity to find another job in manufacturing distribution. He left his wife in Central Point, Ore., to try to sell their two mobile homes on 11 acres. Steele said his wife, Vivian, is unable to work because of a back problem but is not on disability because he previously earned too much for her to qualify. Steele now lives in a studio apartment that shares a kitchen with three other renters while he hunts for work. 'I lost a job back in the '90s, but that was different because I found a job in four months. It was still emotionally difficult, but I just stuck with it, and I'm going to persevere this time, too.' Steele said. 'It's just taking longer and there's more at stake,' he said of the declining value of his property, lost savings and medical benefits. 'That's the hard part. It's an emotional roller coaster. There are days you're absolutely at rock bottom, other days when you have hope that everything's going to work out and some days in between,' Steele said. A closer look It's that emotional toll that unemployment counselors typically don't address, but a University of Nevada, Reno doctoral candidate has completed a study that looks at the impact losing a job has on people and what they can do to cope with the fallout. Robyn Maitoza, a graduate teaching assistant at UNR, conducted an online survey of 74 people who had lost their jobs. (2 of 3) While the death of a loved one and divorce are recognized as major life changes that cause people to grieve, Maitoza found that losing a job also can result in the same prolonged grieving symptoms as depression and anxiety. 'Losing your job ranks up there with the top life-stressers, but it hasn't been the subject of a lot of research, and looking at it as a cause of grief is what is new,' she said. 'That has implications for career counselors and people who work with the unemployed because some of them have to come to terms with grieving the loss of their jobs before they can effectively search for a new one,' Maitoza said. Among the factors that determined how well people cope with being unemployed include the extent to which they identified themselves with their jobs, how long they had held their positions and whether they were the primary breadwinner in the family, she said. Maitoza conducted the study under the direction of Tony Papa, a UNR assistant professor of psychology who worked with survivors and family members of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Suggestions offered Papa said one of the best ways unemployed individuals can improve their sense of self-worth is to do something that makes them feel good about themselves while they continue looking for another job. 'That can be a tricky balance because you could fill your life with things to avoid dealing with your unemployment,' he said. 'But if you do things in addition to trying to find a job, like walking dogs at the humane shelter or improving your work skills, that gives you something to feel good about instead of just sitting around thinking about not having a job.' After moving to Nevada, Steele did something to improve his skills by joining ProNet, a networking association in Reno for unemployed management and professional people. A branch of JOIN (Job Opportunities in Nevada), ProNet offers free training and educational programs to increase members' job-seeking skills. Some numbers Pieter Droog, branch manager for ProNet, said about 5,000 people have gone through the program since it started in 1994. (3 of 3) The number of people joining ProNet has nearly doubled in the last year and a half, he said. 'We now have about 184 members,' Droog said. 'In 2009, we started the year with 96 members.' Steele, who has an impressive résumé in manufacturing distribution, has kept a positive attitude in his hunt for a new job. 'You have to have perseverance in order to come out OK. That's really the bottom line,' he said. 'You have to have an underlying thread of energy and positiveness. And, for me, I want to contribute. I mean I'm missing not being able to contribute to a team or a company right now, and that's the hard part.' The 54-year-old Steele has been hunting for work as a distribution manager, hoping to capitalize on his years as a warehouse manager for companies like Nike, where he worked for seven years. He also spent 10 years as the distribution manager with a Fujitsu facility in the U.S. and had the same position with the medical cable manufacturer Tyco Electronics before his five years with Harry and David ended in January 2009. 'If I can convince somebody to give me a shot, I think within a couple of months they'll see that, yeah, I'm a special kind of manager, and I have a special kind of motivation that can get results,' Steele said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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