Being unemployed, losing one’s job, can take a toll on a family.
In this day and age, in most cases, one salary is not sufficient to make the household turn, even with a tight budget. Two incomes are necessary as it definitely gives more financial flexibility. This is the reason why in many families both spouses have to financially contribute. In fact, when one spouse just stays home and does not work because of getting lay off or resigning there is less and less money to support the family. Some couples can hold on financially for two months or three months. However, beyond that period difficulties might not be too long to surface.
On the other hand, a significant number of families live from paycheck to paycheck. In such households unemployment can have immediate negative impacts. As a result, only one month of being jobless can wreak great havoc on their marriage financially and emotionally.
I know one case where the women stopped working because of a high risk pregnancy, and the fired partner did not do anything to get a job.
Rather, he stayed home, and slept in. He spent his entire days watching TV shows which was not considerate of him knowing that he was the only breadwinner. As such, his responsibility was to take care of his expectant wife and got ready to take care of the baby upon his arrival.
The baby needed a roof over his head, a crib, diapers, formulas, blankets, a set of bottles, and so on. The way Adam, the Husband, played it demonstrated that either he did not care for his family or not he was just not aware of it responsibilities.
Everytime friends and family members brought food for the future mom, because she could not cook as she was nauseous all the time and she was on bed rest, he ate them.
All that situation added further stress to Christina’ life, which complicated the pregnancy even more. She could not stop thinking about where she would live with the baby as the rent was overdue since a couple of months. If their current situation did not change quickly eviction would be inevitable.
Despite the precarious situation they faced, Adam did not do anything to get a new job. As you could imagine the family ended up being evicted with a newborn in their hands. That was so sad!
I know another couple which situation went very far.
After getting laid off, Sylvia’s husband never returned to the workforce anymore, pretending not getting any job that suited his qualifications. Apparently he was overqualified for all the jobs that his wife suggested that he applied for. When Sylvia opened a clothing store and asked him to be the manager, he categorically refused.
All the responsibilities fell upon Sylvia’s shoulders, she had to pay for the schooling of their three kids who attended private schools; on top of that, she had to take care of other bills including the mortgage. Her spouse did not contribute at all in anything.
Sylvia did not get married to be the sole financial provider of the family which put a tremendous amount of pressure on her. After two years have passed by, Sylvia had enough and filled for divorce.
When weeks and months go by and you still do not get a new employment, you should really think about your next steps. The fact that you stopped working does not mean that the bills stopped coming as well. Hell no. We all wish it was the case, unfortunately this is not the situation. You have responsibilities and you must take charge the future of the family.
It is necessary to find another source of money to continue to support the family. You cannot stand idly and watch your family going homeless. This is a big no. You cannot afford letting months go by and not working. There are jobs out there; get one. Although they may not be directly related to your specialties or fields, what you studied in colleges and universities, keep it for the time being.
Some works are regarded as small jobs by some people. But I am pretty sure that the money you get paid does not have small jobs written on it. As long as what you do is legal and decent do it because it can secure a continuous flow of cash for you and your family. Because you do not know when you will find a job in your field again; for the couple that I aforementioned , finally got a job seven months after being fired, this s why the family financial abilities got ruined.
Here a non exhaustive list of what you can do when looking for new position .
Sometimes jobs hunting can last a long time do not get discourage, keep seeking for jobs, and do so on a daily basis.
Get alerts as emails delivered to your inbox, or on your mobile phone as a text messages for not missing any potential jobs.
Also it is the time to review your resume, time to polish it too, as resumes are important tools when it comes to get a job.
Other people start to search for a new position then just give up when they cant get job interviews. I know it can be very frustrating, because to each job we apply, we hope to fill the position. Looking for new employment can suck.
Likewise, it is even more frustrating, raging and depressing that after attending a job interview that , in our views went pretty well, we never get a phone call to let we know that we have been selected.
On the contrary, we receive an email notifying that someone else was a better match for the position.
To the persons who went through that my advice is to keep trying, because if we stop searching for jobs how could we work again?
For some people working is very stressing. if you find yourself in that category try to have some profesional help. And or talk the union, if your work is unionized. They may hel to reduce your stress so that your work is not a stressor anymore and your manage r can also change his way of communicating and interacting with you.
Unemployed spouse keep searching for a job as the wellbeing of your relationship depends on it!
