Emotional Stages of a Job Loss

I think I am at stage 8.

This is excellent. It incorporates what so many of us feel or have felt over this long extended period of unemployment. We are not alone and many feel as we do.

If you take nothing from the article, know you are not alone. Get up and get out, take a walk around the block, do something physical. It's better than anything for your outlook.

The 5 stages of grief were established by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.
They are :
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

We are indeed going through Grief. Grief is a process that one goes through when something is taken from them. Whether it be a person, toy, car, or a job. When you have a relationship with something and it gets ripped from your grips without your doing so then you go through grief.

I think the article's stages are a bit complicated, keep things simple and original. Each one of us should reflect on the "5 Stages" and see where we are so we can see where we are going. Also don't be surprised if you go back to a stage for a day or two. I myself have been in bargaining and without "making a deal" with the universe and shot right back to the anger stage.

I know this because I am a laid off funeral director.

Having no family in the business I was the one to go when the recession hit. I bet you all thought death was recession proof. Well people still die but more and more families obt for an inexpensive direct cremation rather than a full service funeral, especially when one spouse is laid off. How can a family justify spending $10,000 to lay mom out in a glorified coffee table when $1500 will get her cremated.
Families are getting more creative. Rather than having a day of visiting they have everyone come over the house and display tons of pictures.

Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to answer the interview question..
"Are you a people person"
"Yes, a dead people person; and I can type 10 Obituaries an hour"