We are juggling many crises in America right now.  The issues of race relations and the novel coronavirus are front and center, and should be.  But coronavirus has caused another issue impacting millions of Americans – job losses.

Last Thursday, the federal Labor Department reported 1.5 million new unemployment claims have been filed.  The federal reserve just issued a statement to Congress about the outlook for the economy Friday, saying, “The path ahead is extraordinarily uncertain.”

Some  may remember the 2009 film “Up In The Air” starring George Clooney.  It’s all about a company that makes its money sending specially trained people to companies laying off employees, so the local management doesn’t have to break the bad news.

New York Times opinion columnist Jennifer Senior cites research done by economists in England and Australia, concluding it takes longer to adapt to the pain of losing a job than it does to adapt to losing a loved one.

Senior writes that we must not only think about the economic loss when one loses a position, but the emotional and spiritual considerations as well.  It does not help that most employers, including major corporations, are not very good at informing people being laid-off.

One example provided by Senior is WW International, once named Weight Watchers, informed laid-off workers with a series of Zoom calls lasting three minutes each.  She also cites a scooter rental company in California for laying-off workers by luring them to a Zoom “webinar” which featured a slide with a disembodied voice announcing the job losses.

Here is the final paragraph in Jennifer Senior’s Times opinion piece:

“A number of cautionary tales are going to emerge during this annus horribilis. But if we want to survive this recession with our dignity and our sanity intact, it’s clear we should keep two things in mind: How people are laid off matters. And layoffs should be a last resort. They’re often the lazy way out.”

As we all try to cope with people close to us coping with a layoff, keep in mind the stress they are under, which is much more than economic.  In America, our work is a lot of who we are and related to our self-worth.  Let’s keep this in mind as we cope with an economic challenge that is sure to get much worse before anything starts getting better.