In these unprecedented times we have ever increasing uncertainty in the job market.
With inflation increasing, you basically have the perfect fear factory that's slowly erradicating everybody's comfort which eventually leads to them making bad decisions that are fueled by emotion.
Additionally, this drives the reduction of everybody's QOL (Quality of Life) as they accept conditions that allow them to temporarily numb the fear they've been exposed to.
In my eyes, the perfect opportunity for corporations and governments to increase the pressure dial on the working class (this includes you unless you are very rich).
1. Do NOT panic apply to every single position you find...
...unless you have starving children sitting at home and are additionally behind on rent as we speak.
When bad things happen, you enter an negative emotional state.
These put you in a fearful position which in return makes you desperate and that's where you make really bad decisions such as applying to roles you are brutally overqualified for.
These roles can absolutely trap you by draining you more than the job you've been hating for years. Trust me I've been there.
Nothing is more painful than signing a contract for a job that's a downgrade to your last one and then realizing that being unemployed for a while wouldn't have been as bad as signing this contract that screwed up your entire future.
You have to imagine your brain is a little house plant you need to take good care of every single day.
Sunshine. Water. Fresh air. You get the drill.
If you put your little brain into a position of stress or fear, your little house plant will absolutely get destroyed as you metaphorically put it in some security bunker devoid of sunshine and fresh air.
When exposed to fear and stress, it shrivels up to conserve energy to keep it from dying too quickly but drastically lowers its total lifespan. It's like a tradeoff to survive the present moment.
2. Do NOT break your routines and habits you developed during employment.
What happens to many people when they lose their jobs? They destroy the routines they've built throughout the years. Including every habit they had.
Now they don't pack lunch. Meaning they just eat whatever is available in the fridge. No more cooking in the evening before.
Hell, they start ordering food because they feel too sad to make anything now.
And the worst part? They start to sleep in. At first this is such a freeing feeling, but the novelty eventually wears off.
Now you wake up and feel horrible about yourself for not waking up early anymore.
And since you feel horrible, you take your phone and immediately check messages and even doom scroll for 30 minutes. Horrible way to start the day.
And in no time you are now unemployed and also unreliable AND sad. Terrible position to be in for your brain because now you need some crazy discipline and motivation to get yourself out of this rut.
Please, just keep to the old routines if you just lost your job. You are brutally underestimating the effects no-schedule can have on you. I am speaking from experience.
Pretend a manager is waiting for you in your kitchen at 7 AM. Pretend you're leaving for lunch at 12. Pretend you have a meeting at 10 AM to discuss the progress you've made the day before. Write a list for the things you've done.
Just keep the routines running because they maintain your sanity.
3. Do NOT believe that you are stuck looking for roles that exactly match your previous expertise
There might be a reason why your performance is going down that warrants the increased possibility of getting laid off.
Maybe you aren't as enthusiastic about your work as you initially were. Maybe you have learned most of what you could learn at that job.
What you potentially need is a new perspective. A new field of work in an industry you might not have considered working in.
This could ignite never seen before motivation in your life that will fuel immense progress in your career to give you more valuable skillsets. Maybe your current skillset is losing value. Who knows.
Just be open to new paths. There is many employers out there who are looking for experienced people that are open to learn something entirely new. They just need someone who is reliable and is in the mood to get sh*t done.
Don't be afraid of role descriptions requiring absurd expertise or whatever recruiters put out there.
At the end of the day, they will have to stick with that they can get.
It's actually quite similar to the dating market. You enter with high expectations just to realize wait you know what, this person isn't too bad after all. Let's try this out.
4. Do NOT believe that you are now a loser because you have no job and receive unemployment benefits.
I mean this is self explanatory. Obviously the economy is in horrible shape right now.
And the craziest move you can make is to put blame on yourself and further destroying your future by entering victimhood.
Businesses are becoming more cruel, cutting expenses in an attempt to save themselves.
What they tend to do is push blame to the workers to avoid accountability.
And weirdly enough, people seem to fall for this and seek blame within themselves rather than within the structures they were thrown into that nobody seems to question.
Bad management? Can't be, let's cut all of the real workforce in an attempt to to keep the profits high enough.
Completely ignoring inherent efficiency problems within the organizational structures that manage the workforce (workers that have no impact on how they're managed).