The Unspoken Grief: Job Loss in Pandemic

A look at how our work roles impact our identities.

The US economy is still down 11.5 million jobs since the pandemic hit in February. This amounts to more than a financial crisis.

Beyond economic hardship, some individuals who have lost their jobs are likely grieving — a response that most people only associate with bereavement. In my work as a clinical psychologist, I replicated an earlier study, which found that some people experience grief after a variety of losses. Both studies found that just as the bereaved experience grief, so too can those experiencing job loss — including the emotional pain, shock, and confusion that we typically associate with deep grief.

How can this surprising pattern of grief across losses be explained? Death and job loss are patently different, but they both involve losing specific roles. If you lose a loved one, then you lose not only the person, but also your role as a partner, family member, or friend. This role helped form your identity. Similarly, if you lose a job, then you lose not only the income, but also your role as a worker. This role also helped form your identity.

Think about it this way: if you’re used to performing a daily work routine, feeling productive, and connecting to a network, and this existence stops from one day to the next, then how would you feel? Who would you be?

For some, job loss is a transient stress. But for others — typically those who strongly identify with their work — it’s a devastating disruption to their being. This also can apply to those who identify as providers, including many low-income individuals who do menial jobs out of necessity and can no longer serve this vital function for their families. For these grieving people, recent job loss is layered on top of the stress of navigating life in a pandemic where stability is already hard to come by.

As a result, beyond trying to get people back to work, we need to expand our definition of grief. We need to realize that surging job loss can bring not just financial stress, anxiety, and depression, but also grief on par with the loss of a loved one.

Understanding this connection between job loss and grief is critical for healthcare professionals. While grief can normally help individuals slow down and regroup following a loss, it’s a very risky time to be vulnerable given the ongoing spread of coronavirus. Research shows that grief acts as a stressor on the body and temporarily lowers immune functioning, which in turn increases the risk of onset of other mental and physical disorders. By being open to the possibility of grief from job loss, and attending to the significant impact of job loss on one’s sense-of-self, healthcare professionals can support more people in both their suffering and healing — especially now as talk therapy has been shown to increase immune functioning.

Acknowledging that grief can come from job loss is important for the general public, too. We can be more supportive of our family members, friends, and neighbors who have recently lost their jobs by checking in with them and validating their feelings. While the majority of individuals who experience grief don’t need professional help, there are options for those whose grief is more debilitating and prolonged. There are free online resources for coping with grief after job loss. Due to the rise in telehealth, there’s also greater access to talk therapy, which is highly effective for managing distress.

Finally, my study is part of a growing body of evidence that suggests that grief can be associated with posttraumatic growth or positive change as a result of loss. Through the process of struggling with new realities, some individuals who lose their jobs experience greater personal strength, closer relationships, and changed priorities. While many who have lost jobs are currently in survival mode, remembering that we’re often more adaptive than we think, and that growth is possible in hardship, helps us hold on to some hope during dark periods.

For all of us, it’s beneficial to think about the variety and versatility of our roles right now. That way, when we face a particular loss, we can borrow strength from other ongoing roles in order to regroup and pivot to the best of our abilities. May we be multifaceted and resilient during this ongoing difficult time.