Am I Too Old To Find A Job?

For Mario and Juan, Sundays give way to endless, indolent Mondays. Today they are waiting in the waiting room of a Mental Health Center (CSM). They are sitting next to each other and talking. There is something in his resigned gestures, in his tone of voice, that reminds me of the movie Full Monty.

Mario, 52, has worked since he was 17 in a car factory. A normal life: marriage, children, thirty-year mortgage. First came the cuts, then the ERE, then the dismissal.

Juan, 59, was the owner of a construction company and led a high lifestyle. With the crisis, he began to go into debt until his company went bankrupt. For half a year he has left his house every day dressed in a suit and jacket so that no one knows that he has lost his job.

They are both unemployed.

Unemployment anxiety: causes, symptoms and solutions

In Spain there are more than a million unemployed over 50 years, according to the latest Labor Force Survey.

This profile of people has triggered psychiatric consultations for depression, adjustment disorders or anxiety.

Job loss carries huge psychological consequences for middle-aged people.

• A rapid deterioration in health is observed due to the sudden loss of psychosocial contributions, such as economic availability, job skills, the inability to predict and plan for the future, and the loss of social status.
• They are people who are in permanent tension, with feelings that fluctuate between anger and helplessness, bad night’s rest, many worries and anxiety.

Of course, Mario and Juan have looked for work, but it seems that all their years of activity do not count, that their experience is useless. They are too old for the vast majority of companies (who only seek profitability and benefits at the lowest cost) and too young to retire.

This misnamed “sandwich generation” is in limbo between retirement and work

All group benefits

Both have decided to attend CSM group psychotherapy sessions for the middle-aged unemployed in their neighborhood. The psychologist who conducts the sessions explains to me that the therapists can help to make a realistic assessment of the situation and to weigh the possibilities of action, but that what really counts is the strength of the group.

• Among all you can detect feelings and emotions that are difficult to verbalize, such as guilt and low self-esteem.
• It also helps to prevent victimizing responses from being consolidated and attitudes tending to passivity do not arise.
• Between equals the positions are made more flexible.
• Reality criteria are established; for example, one learns to renounce the idea of ​​stable work and the fiction of permanent work.
• Forces are added, the network of contacts and social relationships is expanded.
• Time is occupied.

Therapy and support to regain self-confidence

After three months of group psychotherapy, I see Juan and Mario again. They have become friends and, while talking, they smile often. His body posture has changed and something in his gaze, too. They tell me that as a result of the group they decided to join an Association of Active Elderly Unemployed and that, thanks to this, they have managed to start a service company.

They are open to specific jobs and to do it from home. They are entering the world of new technologies and will advertise their company through a blog, a website and accounts on Facebook and Twitter. They maintain contact with other senior associations and begin to have meetings with the authorities in the area to give visibility to their project.

In a short time and with imagination, they have created alternatives where no one offered or facilitated them, but, above all, they have made great strides in terms of restoring hope and experiencing unemployment.