When everything gets out of joint

Marianne Klauser Stalder

Crises are part of human life. Often a crisis must even occur in a life story, so that a dividing line is shown and a long overdue turning point is reached. Viewed in this light, crises can sometimes be useful and necessary.

In psychology a crisis is spoken of when the current demands so overload a person that the existing processing and action patterns are interrupted or at least greatly restricted and changed. This definition shows clearly that a crisis pushes a person to his personal coping limit or even causes this to collapse. Those affected experience an extremely unpleasant and devastating state of loss of personal control, often accompanied by great anxiety and a feeling of helplessness.

The definition also makes clear that crises represent exceptional states of life.

Not all stress is thus at the same time a crisis! Many conflicts and problems, while urging an onward resolution, are nevertheless no real crises at the beginning!

In human life crises signify danger and opportunity at the same time. The one person will perceive a crisis as an opportunity and emerge fortified with new spiritual insights from the deluge, another will become mired. Many mental illnesses are rooted in former and unresolved crisis experiences.

Occupational crises “don’t fall from the sky“

Work-related life crises, so-called occupational crises, have in general been on a steady rise in recent years. So too, in parallel, the more severe forms of anxiety disorders have increased drastically, as evidenced by recent studies. The occupational environment and the social conditions appear clearly to be changing into a direction that is making more and more people experience the great lifelong theme of job and occupation as threatening, daunting and a crisis.

The sphere of occupation shows very well how differently people experience crisis events. A threat of dismissal, for example, can cause one person to become knotted in great fear and trepidation, but be seen by another as “merely” a helping hand of fate to get a move on and set about tackling the necessary changes.

Everyone is vulnerable in a different way: the one person may deal with a serious illness with great courage, and yet the threat of dismissal drives him to the edge of his tether and leaves him paralysed with worries about his survival. Another person, in turn, may ”treat lightly” occupational intrigues and changes, and nevertheless be unable to cope if someone in his close circle were suddenly to die.

Everyone is subject to this relationality with respect to different crisis situations. Whoever therefore has to deal with people in a crisis would do well to remind himself or herself on the one hand of his or her own Achilles heel, his or her own vulnerability, and on the other hand to realise that a person who is currently in a given crisis may have coped well with other demands of life!

Occupational crises seldom emerge as sudden events, but mostly involve incidents that unfold slowly or quickly and deteriorate, as the chart on page 12 shows.

The beginning of an occupational crisis lies mostly in an experienced difficulty, be it a change of boss or other restructuring in the workplace, a discordant team dynamics, persistent stress situations, rumours about impending job cuts and streamlining measures, financial losses, unethical staffing decisions and so on.

Perhaps one also enjoys good outer working circumstances and therefore does not dare to leave this “golden cage” and venture the long overdue move to something new. Or one experiences the decision between two job offers as a crisis!

There are many trouble spots on the job: the inner ones lying inside the person themselves, and the outer ones that have arisen in the job space. They can leave a person restless and under tension and demand from him or her new answers: perhaps really trying something new, perhaps in a new way to stand up for oneself or others. Maybe it is also a matter of learning something from an unpleasant situation … about oneself or about others with whom one had got overly familiar. An unethical working principle may need to be recognised, and one is reminded of the uncomfortable feeling at the very beginning. Perhaps as an employee of longer standing one should protect younger staff; but perhaps one feels uneasy because of age; the more uncertain the prospects for a career change, the more do worry and anxiety surface.

At this point a deeper consideration is called for.

Ways out of the stifled job situation

The deeper debate about a crisis job situation should bear on two main questions: Why and what for?

The question of Why looks for reasons. It prompts an honest self-questioning as to how one has got into this difficult situation, and to recognise one’s own contribution. It must therefore be an opportunity to look back; the development process so far will need to be understood.

If, however, we ask ourselves to what end it happened, we intuitively perceive the need to learn and develop something in ourselves.

Both questions draw attention to the inner voice. Listening carefully, new answers can now emerge to the current job situation. These answers are always personal and individual: For one person they may mean the step to giving notice, for another persevering with a new insight.

If these internal responses to an external situation really are personal and individual, they result in a meaning that has a biographical consistency. How right they are can then be recognised by the arrival of inner calm and certainty, even when the external recourse is difficult or does not appear clear-cut.

Now the inner adjustment is found and strengthened; a so-called “flat crisis curve” may thereby be achieved, meaning that an initial crisis situation triggered a change early enough – before an escalation.

Let us look at the course of the crisis shown in the graph with the aid of a concrete example: An employee in the counseling service of a large health organisation perceives a growing dissatisfaction at work. (1) The zest and joy of her task have gone from her, as she clearly feels. As a former nurse she had for many years been happy with the advisory work, but since the management of this place passed into young hands, many of the new policies appear to her to make no sense and difficult to reconcile with the core task. (2) How should things now continue for her as a 56-year-old unmarried woman, since she must provide a living for herself? Should she just persevere with lessened commitment as best she can until retirement, as friends advise her? The opportunities in the job market appear very small for someone her age. Or should she get a move on and seek a new job?

In the course of her self-examination (3a) she recognises that she was formerly always dedicated and enthusiastic about her various professional duties and responsibilities, and that it is even very much part of her nature to enjoy caring. She decides, despite her age, to give fresh scope to her inclination to care for people. It cost her quite an effort to draw up a resume. She must summon all her courage to apply to different employers for jobs. But lo and behold, despite her age she is invited to interviews. Her motivation and experience are recognised and after a few months of effort she finds a new job in domestic care for elderly people. She re-enters the workforce and with joy she faces the new challenge, in which she can bring in all her former experiences.

However, if the conflict cannot be resolved in this sense because one clings to demands or cannot find the courage to try something new, or answers are far from clear or the external situation seems so muddled and hopeless that there is no wiggle room left, then an initially conflict-laden situation can become exacerbated into a crisis in the true sense. (3b)

Then it is sometimes only a minor cause, the so-called “butterfly effect” (4), which initiates an acute crisis (5), like for example an impatient remark by a colleague, a stressful staff meeting or an unsatisfactory evaluation interview with a superior. Often, in addition, there are events that have been obvious for some time and which should have been recognised before they got out of hand. Now it can happen that a person breaks down in tears or shuts herself off and turns apathetic. She sees no way out of gripping despair and fear.

Another example: A few weeks after his 60th birthday a senior employee at a car dealership is called to the superior. Shortly before there had been a celebration with flowing honours of his 30 years with the firm. Now he receives the unexpected news that the company is forced sadly for financial reasons to retrench his further services. He is given two weeks to hand over the most important dossiers to a co-worker, then he is free.

The shock regarding this course of events gnaws away as bewilderment and bitter incredulity in his soul, a severe depression with despondency spreads in this previously cheerfully disposed man. It takes him days to realise that this is the new reality. (6)

In dealing with what happened (7) he must then, however, admit that he should have recognised the signs that were threatening for years. It is only now he realises that he should have gained further qualification in his younger years. This had appeared uncomfortable to him at the time and he rather trusted the good cooperation with his superiors to secure his employment. Now he stands with the knowledge of the missed opportunity and the hopeless prospect of a new job. Without his accustomed employment he feels useless and forced to a halt prematurely. But the man is in a good situation: He is not alone, his wife and his grown-up children stand by him, encouraging and comforting him. After difficult months of digesting and self-recognition (8), fate brings him a new, unusual task: a grandchild is born and needs part-time care, which he does now. Soon he realises that new experiences and perceptions are entering his life, such as for instance ... wonder! As a grandfather he experiences again sides in himself long forgotten. (10)

New opportunities through new knowledge

A crisis calls for individual handling and new insights. Crises can thereby turn to life opportunities, but only gradually. Thus working soundly through a crisis depends crucially on the willingness for self-knowledge.

But the people around too have much to contribute to the success in the management of a crisis  – through appreciative stance, empathic understanding and especially through the conviction that a crisis can harbour a deeper meaning, which will be found.

Also any effort by doctors and other professionals should aim in this direction, not through appeasement or dispensing of drugs, but through constructive discussions which release helpful processes of understanding, so that a person is newly strengthened and can change course. Ever more seldom will he then look back in fear and resentment, he may even come to accept what has happened, and finally also grant any due forgiveness.

If a job crisis is handled well in this sense, those affected very soon perceive its deeper meaning. And looking back it can even be considered useful, because it actually intervened with a corrective action in the scheme of life.