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Survivor Guilt Can Emerge In Aftermath Of Layoffs

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Mar 12, 2009 10:00 pm US/Mountain

Survivor Guilt Can Emerge In Aftermath Of Layoffs

Good Question - How can I handle survivor guilt over layoffs?

Written by Alan Gionet

Reporting
Alan Gionet
LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) ― If you're seeing fewer and fewer co-workers at work and feeling guilty about it, you're not alone.

"It's just, it's very sad," says one man in downtown Littleton. "The way I describe it to a lot of people is that when that happens you feel like you've lost somebody close to you."

And you have. "It doesn't make me feel good there are all those people out there," says a man eating a lunch he can still afford in a local restaurant.

A lot of us are feeling pretty crummy over seeing the people around us lose their jobs.

Psychologist Dr. Maximillian Wachtel says, "Everybody is feeling a lot more stress because of the economy in general. I think that people are also feeling a lot of stress and a lot of guilt because they're seeing their co-workers go away."

"I've heard several of my clients say things like the survivors envy the dead," says Wachtel.

That means some of them think it's even more stressful to be at work and missing friends.

"Worrying about them. Being expected to do a lot more with a lot less and coping with this lack of ability to concentrate." It may not be the best thing for companies to do in terms of increasing productivity.

"One of the manifestations of anxiety and depression is an inability to work effectively," says Wachtel.

But what can you do about it? Well, Dr. Wachtel says talk.

"One of the best things you can do is to talk about it with other people. Research very clearly shows that people who talk less tend to experience more depression."

He adds that talking causes a chemical change in the brain that causes us to feel better. But Wachtel does observe that not all talking is equal.

"If you're talking about your emotional reaction to what's going on, the stress you're feeling, the sadness the guilt, that can be very helpful. If you're just complaining about your boss, or the job, or the company or the economy, that's not going to help. It's actually going to make things worse.You definitely need to avoid complaining and you need to avoid people who are complaining."

And give yourself a break. Take a walk, get some exercise and remember if you're worrying about your colleagues, "That means you're a good person. That means you care about other people, it means you care about your co-workers, you're concerned about their family, you're concerned about the community, that's not a bad thing."

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