Just answered a question on Quora: how do people react when a high living standard changes to a much lower one?
I know. I’ve been there. So have many other former midlife professionals who got laid off from high-paid jobs. This is not a recent problem – it’s been going on for decades. So how do people react?
Angry. Bewildered. Betrayed. Confused. Dismayed. Depressed. Helpless. Hijacked. Hit the bottle. Resentful of old friends. Reclusive. Suicidal.Try to find their way in an unfamiliar world – the world of the poor, of the underdog, of the low-wage earner, of the infirm – no health insurance.
Or they go into survival mode.
Learn how to live with few possessions, simply, back to basics. Find or create opportunities for new career starts, or start again at the bottom. Determination, perseverance, family and friends’ support, setting a goal and not swerving from it will take them back up. Maybe not to a mansion, but to a new appreciation of what they have.
It’s not what they lost that matters. It’s how they handle loss and get on with their lives.
