Some Tips to Follow When You Can't Find a Job

It is hard time for hundreds of people now, as the large-scale lay-offs break down not only people and families, but the whole countries. So many families now have one person who is working all the time--like, upwards of 70 hours each week--and one person who is still looking at the ever-shrinking want ads month after month after month.

Many people have given up, and I frankly don't blame them. If you are of a certain age and looking for work in a small town, your chances of finding a job are very, very poor. Everyone in my own immediate family has seen a shift in their family structure, such that where there used to be two fully employed people with normal hours, now there is one brutally overworked person and an adult or two at home who can't find work at all.

When you lose a job, at first it can be a bit of a relief. Sometimes job loss is sudden, but more often it is preceded by months of mounting anxiety and rumor, during which time everyone knows the company is in trouble and everyone is nervously waiting for the axe to fall. Maybe during this period wages and benefits are cut as well, and the workplace becomes much more stressful than usual. Coworkers are hyper-reactive, bosses are bad-tempered and demanding, and every little insignificant thing suddenly takes on huge importance.

So when that finally ends, it feels good for a short while.

Once reality sets in though, and it becomes clear that something large and intractable is under way with employment nationwide, and that furthermore, you personally may or may not be able to break through it anytime soon, life can get enormously stressful. Everyone in the family is now going through a major adjustment of some kind, everyone at the same time, and all of these adjustments are made more difficult by increasing financial insecurity and fear.

Being able to do something, even if it isn't paid work, can help.

If you've been out of work for over six months and your prospects just keep getting grimmer, the following list of options may or may not make you feel better.

Feel free to add your own thoughts and practical suggestions in comments.

1.Volunteer. I know this is really cliche, but the truth is that right now social service agencies are completely overwhelmed with new clients. Many are also overwhelmed with new volunteers, so you might have to be patient and persistent, not because they can't use you right this minute, but because they might not have the resources to check and train everyone who wants to help right this minute. Many, many people get into full time social service (paid) work by volunteering, and there's no shortage of things to do.

2. Learn a trade. Right now everyone is rushing into the health care field thinking that is where all the jobs will be now that industry is fast disappearing, but actually, in some parts of the U.S. health care workers are being laid off too. Skilled hands-on labor can't be outsourced though--You can't get someone in China to come fix your toilet, for example. While it's true that the trades are suffering too and many workers are being imported, it's also true that if you know how to do something, anything, with your hands you will always be able to pick up some work, and more importantly, you will always be needed. You can never know how to do too many things. If nothing else, you can use these skills at home.

3. Go back to school. This is harder than it used to be financially but it's still not impossible. If you never got that GED, now is the time. If you never finished your final year of college, what are you waiting for? Just having a goal and a direction will get you back in the mix and help you make some new connections.

4. Clean out your house, garage, and/or basement. You know how you're always going to do that when you get time except you never get any time? Well, now you have time. Lots of people can't let go of old stuff, but you can certainly go through it, get rid of what you can, and arrange the rest in a sensible fashion. You'll feel better and more organized, and weirdly, simply clearing out a space often results in opportunities opening up that seem totally unrelated to your cleaning project. I'm not going to go all New Age on your ass and tell you it's the universe or anything. I don't know why that often happens, but it does.

5. Hold a yard sale. Yard sales take a lot of time. You have a lot of time. If you can bear to part with any of that stuff you found when you cleaned out your house, garage and/or basement, do it. You know you can use the money, and the people who buy your old stuff will be happy too that they didn't have to pay retail.
Organize a swap. Don't want to charge for your old stuff? One hot trend is swap parties. They're like mobile yard sales where everyone brings clothes their kids have outgrown and old shoes, appliances, whatever, and then just trades this old stuff for stuff they can use now. It's all free, it just requires some effort and someone willing to organize the events. You can save yourself and your friends a bundle. Lots of info is available online to get you started, including Wikihow's How to Hold a Fashion Swap Party.

6. Plant a garden. It's late, but it's never too late. You can still plant beans, chard, radishes, carrots, summer squash, and tomatoes in most parts of the U.S. all the way up until the end of June, and lettuce and herbs grow quickly and easily too. Putting in a garden is mostly labor. Seeds and seedlings are fairly cheap, and you can use the dirt you have 9 times out of 10--you don't have to make a fetish out of soil amendment to get started. No, gardening won't get you a job (well, it might--but probably not the first time you try it), but it will help you fight depression and put some food on your table.

7. Can. Speaking of food, canning fruit kind of went out of fashion in recent years, but now it's coming back in a big way. As each fruit comes into season, buy it in bulk and can quarts or pints. Learn to make your own jam too--it's really easy and it's way better than the store varieties. You do have to buy jars your first year, but after that, canning can save you quite a bit of money, and home canned tomatoes, applesauce, cherries, peaches, and pears are delicious. You can also give some of your canned goods as Christmas gifts, which will save you even more money and please your friends and family.

8. Start a home based business. You don't have to be a business major to make a little money on the side mowing lawns, doing bookkeeping at home, taking in laundry, walking other people's dogs, helping out elderly persons, or whatever. I do freelance writing and some other internet based work, and I really like working that way. I'm not getting rich, no, but I do feel like I'm at least contributing something financially, and that means a lot.

9. Take yourself on a mini-retreat and reassess. Usually when people lose a job they immediately fly into a whirl of activity aimed at replacing what they just lost. While there's nothing wrong with that, if it isn't getting the desired results, sometimes it helps to stop and look inside yourself instead. Steady work is great, and without it, we'd all have trouble paying our bills and getting along, but sometimes people fall into a rut and forget that they are capable of all kinds of things.

10. Reassess your skills and while you are at it ask yourself what you still want to do or try before you die. Maybe this is the time to check out some of those things you put on the back burner and forgot while you were working. Write that novel. Build your own shed. You never know what might blossom into a new career if you just give yourself room to try.

Personally, I think the world is going to change pretty radically over the coming years. It won't all be smooth sailing, and some parts of the way of life as we've come to know it will go away and never come back. Some workers will be displaced for long periods of time, some will be displaced permanently.

On the up side, I do think that the world that comes after the mess will be simpler, that people will buy less and save more, that energy efficiency will become the new standard instead of the exception, and that we will learn to value each other for more than just the money we can or cannot generate.

That might actually be a good thing.