Losing A Job and Gaining Gratitude — Vance Caruso
Hello, my name is Vance Caruso (He/Him/His). I am a current 4th year Psych and Brain Sciences Major also working on a Minor in Applied Psychology. My academic interests stem from clinical psychology and counseling, in topics such as: disordered eating, LGBTQIA+ mental health, and talk therapy strategies. Outside of school, I love to read a good book, get a good gym exercise, cook, and explore the community with my friends and boyfriend.
Stability, compensation, and a promise of financial security in the future was in my heart when I accepted a well-paid job offer at a startup doing sales support in the first quarter of 2022. Unfortunately however, like many Americans working in tech/sales in the latter part of 2022 and early 2023 (Yosifova, 2023), I was given a very short notice one day over the phone that I would not be coming back to work my scheduled hours, and eventually not coming back period. Why would this happen to me? Why now when I’m going to graduate in half a year!? My anger towards the universe and mostly my employer left me wondering what exactly I was going to do if I could not get a job that was well paying and flexible in time.
Well, as it turned out, the universe had a very nice way of answering my questions. That quarter, I enrolled in CNCSP 112: Positive Psychology Across the Lifespan with Dr. Heidi Zetzer at UCSB. At first, my cynicism had me wondering if this class was even “real” psychology at all. However, this changed when we were presented with material from a TED Talk by Shawn Achor during our first week (Tedx Talks, 2011). In the TED talk, Achor argued that today’s job market for prospective employees was “75% predicted by optimism levels, and the ability to see challenges as opportunities rather than threats.” At the time, this video completely changed my outlook on my quest for new and fulfilling employment. Instead of dreading the daily job search and being discouraged at the lack of jobs that seemed appealing at this point in my life, I decided to start applying for more jobs, including those closer to behavioral health (my end-goal career path) with the idea of taking on interviews as a challenge that could lead to a success if I tried hard enough.
Despite most of the quarter being “close calls” of almost getting jobs, not hearing back from employers, and even being flat out rejected the same day I applied, the negative feelings from this event were ultimately mitigated by the practice of a positive psychology gratitude intervention. Something I deeply admire about the concept of gratitude is the way it can remove us from our toxic dependency on worldly objects/possessions that a materialistic culture has taught us to value (Froh et al., 2011). An example of such an intervention is this: each day I would remind myself of the lovely people in my life, and the amazing area I’m able to still live in, to keep me going. Being unemployed stripped away the financial freedom to engage in “retail therapy” to feel better and exercising my gratitude allowed me to gain a warmer sense of the many good things in my life that have kept me going all along. Ultimately, losing my job inadvertently allowed me to gain a new sense of gratitude in life.
References
Froh, J. J., Emmons, R. A., Card, N. A., Bono, G., & Wilson, J. A. (2011). Gratitude and the reduced costs of materialism in adolescents. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12, 289-302. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s10902-010-9195-9
Tedx Talks. 2011, June 30. TedxBloomington - Shawn Achor - “The Happiness Advantage: Linking Positive Brains to Performance [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXy__kBVq1M
Yosifova, A. (2023, January 30). Who Was Affected by the 2022–2023 Tech Layoffs? 365 Data Science. https://365datascience.com/trending/who-was-affected-by-the-2022-2023-tech-layoffs/
