Layoffs have been implemented across industries, and millions of people worldwide have lost their jobs. If you’re one of them, our sympathies go out to you. Bad things happen to good people, but a lost job isn’t the end of the road. When one door closes, another one opens.
It’s just a matter of time before you bounce back. But it’s important you take action immediately so that you can pay all the bills, maintain a healthy dating life and feel confident.
Losing an income takes a tremendous toll on your mental health and requires you to adjust your lifestyle. The good news is that situation is temporary if you use our guidelines to get back on track. Even if you’re still employed, you need to know what to do if you lose your job.
How Job Loss Affects Your Life
Losing your job affects almost every aspect of your life. It can feel like your whole world has been turned upside down.
Your lifestyle
Now that you no longer have an income, your entire lifestyle has been impacted. You may struggle to pay rent or a mortgage, vehicle finance, and consumer debt. Eating out and buying clothes is no longer an option, especially if you don't have savings to fall back on.
You may even need to cancel your subscriptions and decline your friend’s invitation to a weekend getaway. You’ll have to reduce your expenses or not have them at all. That’s a drastic change to your lifestyle and comfort.
Dates
Whether you’re in a relationship or dating, taking her to dinner or a paid activity may no longer be an option. You need to save every dollar, and that limits the places you can go and the things you can do with her.
If you’re in a relationship, there are only so many movies you can watch together before she gets bored and wants to do something more exciting. She expects you to take the lead, yet you feel stuck in a financial rut.
You’ll have to opt for dates that don’t break the bank.
Choice of women
Let's be honest: the moment a woman finds out that you don't have a job, she will be less inclined to want to date you. There are some women there who will be supportive, but most women will think, "Uh oh, I may end up paying for all our dates."
Then there's the issue of meeting women in the first place. If you live in a big (expensive) city, you may need to limit yourself to hangouts that won't put a huge dent in your savings. This significantly reduces the number of women you end up meeting. Now if you live in a smaller city or town where there aren't lots of women to meet, you'll need to spend money traveling to go on a date with someone you met online.
That’s difficult to do when you don’t have an income. Not only does a job loss limit your options in activities, but it may prevent you from meeting various types of women. This is especially true if she is high maintenance.
Losing your partner
It’s foolish to believe that most women don’t care about a man’s finances. Some will date you only for the lifestyle your money provides them. And even if you don’t spend money on them, most women don’t want to foot the bill always, and that may be necessary if you don’t have money.
Besides the financial aspect, most women want to be with a man who makes more money than them. It’s not uncommon for a woman to lose attraction for her man and leave him after he has lost his income.
What Happens When You Get Fired
There are common things that happen to people after they get fired. While some of them are psychological, others are part and parcel of the dismissal process.
Stress
Not only will you stress about meeting your financial obligations, but you have to worry about getting a new job. Searching for work and attending interviews is an arduous process.
Interviews can be nerve-wracking, especially when you desperately need work. You then have to stress about the outcome, hoping you were the chosen applicant. All of that stress can exhaust you mentally and physically.
More stress follows the disappointment of not getting the job. It can feel like you’re starting from scratch several times.
Getting severance pay
It’s better to be laid off than fired. Being laid off increases your chance of receiving a severance package. Federal law requires a company to give you at least a 60-day notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
Apart from the notice, the company should provide a severance package of one to four weeks for every year worked at the employer. Make sure that you also get a letter of recommendation.
However, if you were fired, you might not be entitled to any of these privileges. In the event of being fired, the company may request that you leave your position immediately without severance pay.
Low self-esteem
Losing your job as a man can emasculate you. Society has put tremendous pressure on you to take care of yourself and your partner, but you’re unable to fulfill that role without an income. It’s normal if you feel less of a man without an income.
You’re embarrassed to tell her that you can’t afford to take her on a date. Even worse, you feel you’ve let yourself down. It’s like your masculinity has been stripped because you’re not doing your part in society.
These issues eat away at your self-esteem, making you feel less valuable than you are. And not having work lined up exacerbates the problem. It can feel like you’re in a downward spiral that you don’t know how to get out of.
What to Do if You Lose Your Job
The costs of a lost job are severe. It’s important for you to take a moment to process what happened and accept the situation. There’s no point in dwelling on what you could’ve done differently to have an alternative outcome.
The good news is that there are actions you can take to improve your situation.
Sell your stuff
Since you no longer have that income source, you need money. Replacing your income may take time, which you likely don’t have because of pending bills. The easiest way to get your hands on cash is by selling the items in your house.
Grab a pen and paper. Enter every room in your home and make a list of the things you haven’t used in a while or no longer need. The list should include items such as chess boards, clothing, extra pair of sneakers, and golf clubs.
These items are taking up space, and you should convert them into money by hosting a garage sale and advertising them online.
Compile a new budget
It’s inevitable that you’ll have to lower your lifestyle. You can’t maintain it until you’ve replaced your income, and you definitely shouldn’t finance it with your savings.
Compile a budget and analyze each expense. Your goal should be to exclude all non-essential expenses from your budget. The main expenses you need to cover are housing, utilities, and food. Everything else is considered a non-essential expense.
Make an arrangement with your creditors to pay lower installments or request a deferment, enabling you to delay the payments to a future date.
You may need to consider having roommates and selling your car if you’re not going to use it to generate income.
Reevaluate your career goals
Everything happens for a reason. Use the lost job as an opportunity to reevaluate your professional goals. Do you want to search for another job in that industry? Maybe you just got fired because your performance was subpar, which was caused by your lack of passion for the work.
What do you do when you lose your job?
Use the free time to consider starting that business you never had time for when you were employed. What seemed like a pipedream may materialize because you can dedicate time to them.
Search for work
You need to jump back onto the wagon immediately and find a job. Even if you are considering starting a business, you need an income to sustain yourself while building up the business.
Your confidence will boost even with part-time work. Any income is better than nothing, and being productive makes you feel more useful. You can pay off debt with a low income.
Thanks to technology, you’ve got more options now than ever before. Consider remote work, or use your car for Uber or deliveries.
The new job doesn’t have to be in your industry, as a new one can help you discover a passion. Your ego shouldn’t prevent you from downgrading positions.
Don’t be picky about the work you seek or feel that certain work is below you. The last thing you want to do is use your savings to sustain your lifestyle. Even worse is if you don’t have any savings—more reason to accept any work you’re offered.
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