You don’t need to look much farther than headlines about federal employees to realize that job stability may be a thing of the past. Following the Trump administration’s massive layoffs of government workers, the rehiring of some and then their subsequent re-dismissal, millions of American workers are absorbing the reality that their job can change — or end — in the blink of an eye. Eroding stability in fields such as media, tech and education has only deepened feelings of insecurity and uncertainty for current workers or potential job seekers.

“Job security is an illusion these days,” vocational psychotherapist Jason Wang told Covering Workplace Mental Health fellows on May 22. “I just don’t think it exists in the way that people talk about it or used to talk about it. We as human beings don’t tolerate uncertainty well.”

The consequences are real, Wang said.

“The lower your trust in the organization and in management – these are strong relationships there – and the higher or the more insecure, uncertain you feel about your job, the worse your physical and mental health are.”

Job uncertainty isn’t job loss, but it still affects productivity

Journalists who want to communicate the potential toll of job uncertainty should keep the following factors in mind:

• Job uncertainty is distinct from job loss and can be more anxiety-provoking.
• Job uncertainty is associated with negative outcomes like decreased job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and mental/physical health.
• Meta-analyses have found strong correlations between job uncertainty and negative job attitudes, organizational attitudes, and health outcomes.
• Research on the “psychological contract breach” mechanism suggests job uncertainty violates employees’ expectations of job security.

Wang told journalists that the increasing prevalence of so-called “precarious work” underscores the need for more research on coping with unemployment.

“Oftentimes when we think of job uncertainty, we’re talking about a job that felt secure and all of a sudden there’s a threat to it. And so now we feel insecure, but there are jobs that are insecure from the very beginning, and a lot of that falls under the category of precarious work. Precarious work is work that is inherently unstable and insecure, and where workers don’t have a lot of power. So gig jobs, jobs where there’s no guarantee, and you’re told from the very beginning that you may not have employment after a period of time.”

Coping with job uncertainty involves addressing unhelpful thought patterns, cultivating adaptability, and building a sense of community and support, Wang said.

“It’s not about doing away uncertainty to a large degree.  It’s about being able to sit with uncertainty and being OK with uncertainty.”

Access the full transcript here.

The Covering Workplace Mental Health journalism fellowship was sponsored by the Luv U Project, with associate sponsor the American Psychological Association. NPF is solely responsible for its content.