Redundancies are a new constant reality for some workers.
Losing your job is one thing; fearing you might lose it is another.
The prolonged uncertainty, the constant unknowing, the craving for predictability. And yet if those were all that characterised insecure work environments, perhaps they'd be tolerable. The reality, however, is that more often than not, a number of emotional and physical consequences ensue.
In recent decades, dozens of studies have demonstrated the consequences can include anxiety, stress, insomnia, stomach problems, skin irritations and mental illness. All of which can be attributed to the threat of financial hardship, diminished social networks and a bruised self-esteem.
"If insecurity is inevitable, then the best we can do is to adapt to it." Photo: Gabriele Charotte
Complicating the situation further is that job insecurity can be subjective. There are times when employees fear their jobs might be lost for legitimate reasons (such as the imminent bankruptcy of their organisation) while at other times their fears are unfounded (such as a recruitment freeze during which their employers have no intention of retrenching staff).
Irrespective of the fear's legitimacy, the psychological consequences are usually the same as are the physical manifestations.
According to research published earlier this year in the Journal of Safety Research, a villain and a hero have emerged. The villain is the employee's supervisor. In the study of employees working at an American copper mine, those who felt their jobs were insecure were more likely to feel dissatisfied with their boss even if that individual wasn't the culprit.
And who might the hero be? Well, contradictorily, again it's the employee's supervisor. The researchers found the stronger the relationship between employees and the boss, the less frequently those employees complained about the health-related consequences of their potential job loss.
Those findings are important because "most jobs in today's global economy are not in fact secure". We live in a world where layoffs appear to be more frequent, which means for many workers their long-term employment is anything but certain. It's not practical to try to reverse that insecurity and it may indeed be something we must learn to tolerate. Which is easier said than done.
So even though supervisors can't make the insecure secure, what they can do is mitigate some of the harsh effects of working in such a climate. And nowhere is that more evident than in the relationships they build with their employees. The researchers suggest they can cultivate these relationships by being respectful, ethical, communicative and informative.
Which sounds like it's stating the obvious but you'd be amazed how quickly those responsibilities are neglected. Especially when a supervisor's employment is as unsecure as employees'.
Making the experience somewhat more difficult is the presence of another job insecurity villain: the team.
When an employee's colleagues are venting about their uncertain employment prospects, at the same time as rumours become increasingly common, it's almost impossible for emotional contagion to be avoided. Before they realise it, positive-minded team members get sucked into the despair and pessimism.
That was certainly the case in a study published in March by Swedish and Kiwi researchers. Employees were more likely to report poorer health and higher burnout if they worked in an environment where they perceived their co-workers to be plagued by feelings of insecurity.
And the contagion spreads further. In her book released last year, The Tumbleweed Society, sociology professor Allison Pugh drew upon 80 extensive interviews to demonstrate that employees who feel insecure at work often end up feeling insecure at home.
"If insecurity is inevitable, then the best we can do is to adapt to it. Yet why would those adaptations end at the workplace door? For people who bear witness to the end of employer commitment … their adaptations at work [seep] into their intimate lives like muddy floodwater across a threshold."
Do you agree? Is job insecurity the new normal? How does it affect you?
James Adonis is the author of 'Employee Enragement'.
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