Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2012, during the Spanish economic crisis and its high unemployment, which shape the situation the article describes.
Most of us already know someone close to us whose company has had bad luck and gone under, leaving them on the long list of the unemployed. Sometimes the situation is dramatic because of the circumstances they live with, especially if they belong to the group of people over 45.
If these circumstances are traumatic for anyone, they are even more so for this group. They have spent many years at the company, their age makes them reluctant to change, and they have family commitments, or failing that, financial ones. They find themselves at a hard moment: disoriented, lost, with low morale and diminished capacity.
What should I do if I lose my job after 45?
There is never a magic formula for getting back to being an employee with a monthly salary, but some guidelines and help do work, for example:
Don’t wait to look for work; do it as soon as possible. Being active will lift your spirits, you’ll be back in touch with the real world and, with luck, you’ll get back into the routine of going to work as soon as possible. Besides, your unemployment benefits will keep accumulating for any future situation.
The world has changed so much that, even though some companies look for recent graduates for the freshness of their studies, you must not let up on your job search. Keeping up an active job search should be your hope and your daily work, even though it will motivate and disappoint you in equal measure.
Learn to adapt. The immediate consequence of being dismissed is having to adapt to change, a skill that comes easily at a younger age and is hard for adults. You need to know how to adapt, first to the new employment situation and then to a new way of life and a new trade, wherever you find the opportunity to work.
Adapting to change will mean training in activities you don’t know. Your trade may not be the same in the future, and neither may the place you live; the job opportunity may come up outside your usual surroundings.
Salary expectations and duties may also change. You must adapt and accept the opportunity you are offered, even if it means a lower salary or tasks very different from the ones you’re used to. You can keep looking for work, and you’ll even have a better chance of improving your situation by job hunting while already in a job. At the very least, you’ll have an income and be busy, feeling useful.
Lean on your friends, family and colleagues in your job search. Word of mouth is another positive factor in finding new opportunities. It’s a pyramid effect: one person tells three, and each of them tells as many more. Perhaps at some “crossroads” you’ll find what you’re looking for.
Be patient. It’s a battle you end up winning, but all great goals are hard to achieve and take time to pay off. Use this time to update your training, finish your studies or look for other courses that could open up new opportunities.
Featured image: Seattle Municipal Archives from Seattle, WA, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
