Coping with layoff stress
By Melanie Chambers • Bankrate.com

A job loss is a death of sorts; it signals the end to a significant part of your life, at least for a time.

Not surprisingly, the newly unemployed often show some, or all, of the five symptoms of mourning: denial, anger, bargaining (for instance, thinking you could have done something different to result in a different outcome), depression and acceptance, says Adeena Wisenthal, an Ottawa-based occupational therapist.

Wisenthal says you shouldn't ignore those feelings but instead let them play out. But she also cautions that it's important to move on -- the stress and depression that come with a layoff don't have to be debilitating.

If you've been laid off, or are working in a company where there is talk of layoffs, there are ways to reduce your anxiety and stress. To help you cope, read on.

Strength in numbers
To start, it helps knowing that you're not alone.

Canadian employers cut 70,600 jobs in November -- the most in any month since June 1982 according to Statistics Canada. The majority of those jobs came from Ontario -- almost 66,000 jobs were lost in the automotive and manufacturing sectors.

With this in mind, laid-off workers shouldn't feel ashamed about something they have no control over. The economic downturn, on top of the collapse of some of major employers in Canada, means that good people with good skills are being let go for budgetary reasons. "You can simply be at the wrong place at the wrong time," says Claude Balthazard, director of HR excellence for the Human Resources Professionals Association, or HRPA.

Nothing more than feelings
Layoffs can send you over the moon with various emotions, whether you've lost or your job or even if there are rumours of layoffs floating around your workplace. But there's one that you might have to work on.