Two years ago, at the height of the financial downturn, the father of a good friend of mine lost his job after 18 years of dedicated service. While at first he was quite literally shell-shocked, my friend’s father eventually revised his professional vision—such that it reflected this divorce—and began job hunting aggressively. Unfortunately, because his employment sector had been dealt a perilous blow by the downturn, my friend’s father found it immensely difficult to not only find a job, but an executive-level position in a sector that was unequivocally shrinking. Of course he, like many out-of-work job seekers at the time, applied for jobs for which he was unarguably over-qualified and which would have entailed a significant pay cut. Despite offers for such positions, my friend’s father persisted; knowing his day-to-day happiness would be greatly affected by accepting a sub-par job. His gambit eventually paid off as his sector is, once again, growing. and he secured a fantastic position at a well-known firm. However, many job seekers during the downturn period ostensibly adopted the mantra, “Any job is better than no job,” and in doing so, made difficult sacrifices when faced with the rather unpalatable prospect of accepting a low-paying, uninspiring job.
While job seekers certainly should not be faulted for accepting such positions at a time of immense financial hardship, a recent study released by researchers at the prestigious Australian National University reported on by the Wall Street Journal article shows that of those several thousand adults evaluated, “’the mental health of those who were unemployed was comparable or superior to those in jobs of the poorest’ quality.” Specifically, writes Journal contributor Sue Shellenbarger, the study found that those previously unemployed workers “who took poor-quality jobs showed declines in mental well-being, compared to their own previous mind-states and to their jobless counterparts.” While this news may not change how job seekers look for jobs, it should make job seekers wonder whether it is worth it in the long run (i.e. when considering one’s long-term mental health and stability) whether taking a job that they may not really want is advisable—even if it is a pay check. As my friend’s father learned, although finding the right job may take considerably more time, it is certainly worth the wait.
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