Who does not have a currently unemployed person in their family? The answer is very likely to be affirmative in most cases, perhaps we know little about what it means to lose a job, even though it is now a very common situation that comes to be the background argument for some television series.
The loss of employment is considered by psychologists as one of the strongest and most disturbing life events, estimating that it affects 10 million people in the world each year.
The psychophysical effects that people who are in this situation face are presented in the form of anxiety, strong damage to self-esteem, feelings of guilt, deterioration of self-concept, psychosomatic symptoms, irritability, hypertension, tension, depression, abandonment and that can cause more severe pathologies, such as alcoholism or other addiction to psychoactive substances. In general, it affects the deterioration of psychological health, the loss of well-being and dissatisfaction with one's life.
These and more are common signs for people who have been laid off from a company. At the family level, if it is the dismissal of the head of the family, family relations gradually become tense, cold or distant, friction and arguments increase, lack of tolerance, social friction and the change of roles that eventually forces To the wife if she works to support her at home or to look for a job if the age and qualification required allows it, the man will therefore be obliged to take care of domestic matters. The disturbances even reach school-age children. Parents will be forced to change their children's college or university, from the particular one in which they were to a state one, because the economic situation is simply not the same.Cases have been described in the unemployed, including extreme reactions to dismissal, such as aggression (Burning the workplace) or others of an intra-punitive nature (Suicide). The case is more serious, it is if the head of the household is over 40 years of age or older, it will not be very easy to get a job soon and worse, if he does not have the required professional and technical skills, he will have to settle for venturing in minor activities or trades that he was never used to or that may initially represent a decent job in his social environment.It will not be very easy to get a job soon and worse still, if you do not have the required professional and technical skills, you will have to settle for venturing into minor activities or trades that you were never used to or that at first may represent a decent job before your social environment.It will not be very easy to get a job soon and worse still, if you do not have the required professional and technical skills, you will have to settle for venturing into minor activities or trades that you were never used to or that at first may represent a decent job before your social environment.
In the case of the cessation of senior executives, according to Temple (2001), people think that those who leave these positions or positions of power do so with so much money and contacts that they should not have problems to continue their professional life. The hard truth is that with more power and lost position, it is even more difficult to adapt to new situations and logically to live without power. It happens that many executives find it difficult to position themselves and rethink their new identity, to return to the plain and face unanswered phone calls, invitations and greetings that do not arrive, doors that do not open as before; and realize that you have fewer friends than you thought. It is important for this, while having power and position, to avoid the isolation and vanity that this can bring; we are not used to listening only to those,they tell us what we want to hear or who they always claim to be our faithful collaborators.
Loneliness in these positions can disconnect us from the reality of the market, the organization and our own life; worse still to become inflexible victims of our own success. Many times, the "lack of time" and interest leads us not to spend real time with our family, to dedicate ourselves to leading roles and social gatherings; at the same time forgetting the same old friends, each call not returned or an unattended friend will be charged later and with interest.
Among the reasons that have motivated job separation in recent years, in the first place, are explained, that the world of work is really changing significantly, as a consequence of the globalization of the economy, technological development; The mergers of companies, closures, reductions, restructurings, outsourcing (Outsourcing of services), reconfiguration of jobs, change in job profiles, reduction of staff payroll; These are some of the consequences of this global phenomenon that affects all the countries of the world. Technological innovation and adaptation to the modern world, constitutes today a strategic imperative of life for all organizations, in which they must firmly commit,to ensure their survival in an increasingly competitive and changing environment; This inevitably demands from companies the need to optimize staff efficiency and therefore the quality of their products and / or services.
Secondly, the causes that originated this change are the economic recessions of the 80-90s, which are still getting worse today, together with the long deterioration in the global competitiveness of companies, causing many firms to innovate technology, become over-staffed, feeling sluggish and inefficient.
Third, a fundamental reason is the lack of vision for the future of some workers who, protected by the "Traditional job stability" or their contacts or affinity with prominent executives, made little effort to update and train permanently, optimizing their professional skills, personal and work, a sine qua non condition to stay in employment, emphasizing the need to maintain personal marketing, which favors assertive behavior and favorable interpersonal relationships at all levels, projecting trust, loyalty and commitment within your work team and in front of their superiors.
Fourth, we consider that the high competitiveness and supply of the markets, with the consequent impossibility of maintaining prices in products and / or services, generating increasingly lower profit margins, is another reason that has led many companies have been forced to reduce personnel costs to maintain and increase their profits, which has led to downsizing (reduction of structure and personnel costs), being one of the alternatives to implement, therefore; These programs have not been a mere temporary phenomenon, but a trend that is still in force in all countries of the world, with serious repercussions in developing countries such as Peru; where it was applied massively from the 90s,without taking into account an effective outplacement program in both public and private institutions and companies, increasing the number of unemployed more and more and with a tendency to increase.
In the last decade, a management tool with great psychological emphasis has emerged in many North American, European and Latin American countries, called “Outplacement Programs”, to face the trauma of dismissal and make it perceived by the worker, not as a situation fatal without solution, but as a new challenge to face towards finding a new job or occupation.
Organizations should consider in our country, in the near future this technique, as a real response to their moral concerns, making a mea culpa and trying to make "A GOODBYE WITHOUT PAIN" OR "WITH LESS PAIN", trying that the impact of Dismissal is not traumatic both for those workers who are disengaged, and for those who will continue in the organization, affecting the current business psychological atmosphere as little as possible, which surely under these conditions will be fraught with tensions, uncertainties and fears.
Outplacement programs (OPC), bring together a series of support strategies, psychological and technical guidance, for those people subject to job separation. Originally, it received the name decruiment or dehired, it is attributed to North, having coined the expression "Outplacement", which does not have a specific translation in Spanish. The most widely accepted definition is attributed to R. Kabana (1987) who defines this technique as: “A process of advice, support, guidance and training directed at the person, to graduate or be transferred in search of a new job or activity similar in level or conditions to those of their previous occupation in the shortest possible time ”.
The contribution of psychology to these work transition processes is significantly important, especially in the initial stages of the process, both in psychological support, as well as in psychometric evaluations of abilities, occupational orientation, psychological counseling and search for the job market. The emphasis of this task is also aimed at those people who are about to retire either naturally or early, providing training, assisting in the company of a family member, allowing them to establish a strategy to plan their life plan outside of work and of course to prepare to live, with a desirable quality of life level and in which undoubtedly the family nucleus play an important role.
The benefits of the OPC for the organization that develops this program with the respective external psychological counseling, are many, we will summarize the most important:
Recognize that the human factor is really important, as the main strategic asset of organizational development.
The OPC process that is developed in the organization, constitutes in itself a moral commitment, which enhances and enhances the values of the organization.
Maintain the credibility and trust of the staff towards the executing executives of the program, having acted with adequate moral criteria and with respect for the working class.
Ensure and maintain in the company, the continuity of commitment, motivation, dedication and loyalty of the workers who continue working.
Make staff more flexible and sensitize to accept and face the new changes that the environment demands, in which process their participation is unavoidable as the main “strategic partner” and main collaborator.
Offer support for a successful transition, helping the worker to accept the "Voluntary and Conciliated Retirement" plans, also allowing a trauma-free separation for the organization and for the staff, minimizing labor conflicts and dignifying the employee.
Strengthen and maintain the good image of the organization before its clients, suppliers, financial entities and public opinion in general.
The benefits of the OPC for laid-off workers:
With the worker's participation in an OPC program, he manages to overcome in a short time the personal and family crisis and the trauma that may have caused the untimely dismissal; transforming the crisis into an opportunity for professional and personal development.
Provide participants with the opportunity to analyze all the options for planning their professional, family and social life, with the possibility of developing and undertaking a plan of new activities.
Reduce the time of unemployment, achieving a faster relocation in the labor market, having training in the most effective techniques for finding a new job, performing appropriately in job interviews, preparing a winning resume and above all strengthening your self-esteem and personality.
Make known what skills you have, to start your own business.
In our country, we will mention the work carried out by DBM del Peru, an organization that has been developing successful Outplacement programs, aimed primarily at Peruvian executives.
An additional contribution in the country, constitutes the findings of the quasi-experimental research developed in 2000, by the author of this note, which allowed him to opt for the master's degree in Organizational psychology.
In this research, the differences in the levels of depression, self-image and adaptation were studied in a group of workers separated from work who participated in an OPC program (Experimental group), in comparison with another group of workers equally disconnected, who did not intervene in said program (Control group).
The results obtained according to the statistics applied in the tests and retests administered were highly satisfactory for the workers who participated in the OPC program, observing a substantial improvement in the levels of self-image depression and adaptation, compared to those who did not intervene in said program.
The Alonso Fernández Tetradimensional Questionnaire for Depression (CET-DE), the Morris Rosemberg Self-Image Scale and the Hugh M. Bell Adaptation Questionnaire served as sources of diagnosis.
