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It’s Okay to Miss Your Co-workers
Humans need other humans
With the unemployment rate floating around 11% in America, most of us are aware of the financial implications. If you lose your job, you lose your income. This is obvious. The consequences of losing your co-workers are much less obvious but just as dangerous.
In a year where our mental health is suffering, most of us can’t afford to have any less social interaction. Psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen predicts that by now half the U.S. population has an anxiety disorder.
Isolation is one reason for this. Humans need other humans. Friends and family are nice, but co-workers are (or were) around every day. You didn’t need to have a plan or a reason to be with them. They were there, hopefully moving toward the same common goal as you, constantly.
My own termination was brutal. Losing the income sucked, but it didn’t cripple me.
Losing the community was much worse. During my first eight weeks of unemployment, my mood spiraled further downward every day. I snapped at my wife for no reason. I slouched out of bed and screamed at commercials on Hulu. Nobody had changed but me — I was very, very, very lonely and taking it out on everyone who came into contact with me.
