Community prepares to cope with mass layoff

ALBANY — As nearly 1,500 Cooper Tire and Rubber Company employees now find themselves facing a protracted layoff process, a local psychologist says that the best way to overcome the situation is to tackle it head-on before moving on.

Dr. Nick Carden of the Renaissance Center — an outpatient counseling center — has seen the effects of a corporate layoff firsthand when he helped with the debriefing of employees when Albany’s Merck and Co., closed its doors two years ago.

Carden said he believes that a layoff can be easily equated with the death of a job and as such, requires a grieving process just as if an employee had lost a loved one.

“There are several stages that go into this grieving process, but they all need to occur before one can begin to get on with the next phase of their life,” he said.

Denial is often the first feeling employees experience as many begin to ask if this “is really happening,” Carden says.

Sadness, coupled with a hollow feeling, often follows, with anger and resentment coming next. Fear and anxiety tend to round out the grieving stages, he said.

But as the employees of the plant begin their journey down this ladder of miserable emotions, Carden points out that they’re often accompanied by their family members, especially children, who may not completely understand what is happening.

“You have to realize that when you tell your children, there is an age-appropriate method to take,” he said. “You wouldn’t tell a 17-year-old the same way you would tell a 7-year-old.”

Carden said that it’s best to be open and honest about the situation but to remain optimistic about possibilities for the future.

“There is a happy medium between walking around all doom and gloom and acting like nothing happened,” he said. “You don’t want to act like it didn’t happen in front of your kids because they need to learn about the reality of the situation, but at the same time if you walk around all depressed and scared, your family will pick that up as well.”

The fact that the announcement about the plant closing comes just eight days before Christmas can also add extra problems when trying to cope.

Carden says that, depending upon the person and the family, holiday get-togethers will either ease or aggravate the situation.

“On the scale we use to measure stressful life events, losing a job is one of the highest on the list,” he said. “So with it coming at a time when many experience additional stress, it doesn’t make for a good situation. But for some, being around family will give them the opportunity to reconnect with something positive in their lives and diminish the impact of losing a job.”

So for those now finding their lives in a tailspin, Carden offers some simple but blunt advice.

“Deal with the practical things first,” he said. “Find out how much money you have, where you can cut, etc. When people can get some sort of control in a situation when their control has been stripped, they can gain empowerment. And that is the first step in surviving a layoff like this.”