Wednesday focus: The workplace

Marital discord, domestic violence and substance abuse are frequent family fallout from job loss, say Hollis Even, a psychotherapist, and Randy Martin, a psychologist, for Milwaukee-based FEI Behavioral Health. They offer tips to unemployed couples on enduring job loss:

•Communicate openly, regularly and respectfully, avoiding blame.

•Agree to take turns being the more supportive and optimistic partner.

•Seek a wide network of support from friends, extended family and former colleagues, so you don’t rely solely on one another.

•Count your blessings. “It’s about keeping things in perspective and knowing what you do have at this point,” says Martin, an FEI account executive.

•Take control. “Whatever you can do on your end to be active, as opposed to passive, and to take steps to improve your situation is going to make you feel better,” Martin says.

•Keep children informed in age-appropriate ways. “It’s better to tell the truth than to have kids guess at what the truth is,” says Even, FEI’s director of corporate accounts. Don’t sugarcoat things, but minimize negativity.

•Involve children in activities such as cutting household spending. “Engaging the kids makes it kind of a family project, and it doesn’t feel so dire,” Even says.

•Show children by example how to positively handle setbacks. “Kids don’t learn as much from what you say as from observing what you do,” Martin says.

LIVE TO WORK: Nearly twice as many working adults said they “live to work” than “work to live,” a survey earlier this year for CIGNA found.

•31 percent said they like their jobs and get a sense of satisfaction at work each day.

•21 percent said they love their jobs and would continue working even if they won the lottery.

•13 percent said their jobs give their lives structure and purpose.

That’s a total of 65 percent who put themselves in the “live to work” camp.

The remaining “work to live” people – 35 percent – said they work to get a paycheck or insurance benefits, or that they’re stuck because of the economy, or that they want to retire but can’t.

SUMMER JOBS: A recent survey by SnagAJob.com, a Web site for hourly jobs based in Richmond, Va., found that 73 percent of hiring managers expect more applications this summer and that 29 percent of them say youth’s greatest competition will be workers who recently entered the work force because of economic pressures.

From wire reports