Death of a Spouse Less Painful Than Getting Fired Study

Death of a Spouse Less Painful Than Getting Fired Study Emotionally painful moments in a relationship like getting a divorce or the death of a spouse can be difficult to handle, but getting fired from a job can feel worse. People who are fired from their jobs never return to the same level of well-being based on measures of mental health, satisfaction with life and self-esteem, according to a review of 4,000 research papers conducted by University of East Anglia and the What Works Center for Wellbeing that was obtained by Bloomberg. Fired employees will keep feeling unhappy over the course of several years, while those who are widowed or divorced can eventually return to their previous state of well-being much sooner. “After someone loses a partner, [well-being will] take a big dip and then, on average, it’ll get back to previous levels,” Tricia Curmi of the What Works Center for Wellbeing told Bloomberg. “But with unemployment, we just don’t see that happening.” And men are more impacted by getting fired, the study found. Researchers found that the prosperity of British men will decline for more than four years after being fired from a job, according to the data, but they recover back to normal levels of happiness two years after a spouse passes away and four years after a divorce. But there are some ways to help remedy the damage of a pink slip. Having support from family and friends, living in an area with high unemployment and having an extroverted personality will benefit those who were just fired, according to the What Works Center for Wellbeing, an independent organization set up by the British government. [Bloomberg]