According to A Study, Losing Your Job is Worse Than Losing Your Wife/Hubby

Last Updated on 2020-02-01 , 2:34 pm

Turns out that however much we complain about our jobs, it is still really crucial for our mental health and self-confidence.

We can bitch about our bosses, colleagues, or the job itself, but at the end of the day, we really need it.

According to a review of more than 4,000 research papers, employees who were fired from their jobs almost never return to the same level of mental well-being. Their mental health, self-esteem and life-satisfaction all take a huge hit.

Even more so than losing your spouse, apparently. Both getting widowed or getting divorced do not hit a person as hard.

The review, conducted by the University of East Anglia and the What Works Center for Wellbeing, an independent body set up by the UK government, also concluded that recovery after the hit is nigh impossible.

People bounce back from losing their spouse, as the excitement of meeting someone new can help recovery. From the study, British men recovered to previous levels of well-being after 2 years after losing their partners, and 4 years after relationship breakdown. Getting fired, however, caused their well-being to continue to drop after 4 years.

Men are also more likely to be affected more intensely than women.

There is currently no conclusive reason for why this happens, but researchers suspect it has to do with the sense of purpose from having a job. No matter what someone says about their jobs, they actually do care.

And younger workers get affected more.

It’s not all a downward spiral after losing your first job, however. According to the research, help from family and friends can mitigate the worst of the impact. Religion can help too, as those who attended church frequently had a buffering effect. Extroverts also bounce back faster, if not completely back to normal.

Tough luck, if you’re an introvert. Better hope your boss doesn’t fire you.

Also, you should probably not tell your spouse about how losing your job would affect you more than losing them. They’re probably not going to take it very well.