Sad to say, which is why most people don’t mention it, but people who closely identify themselves with their work can be emotionally distraught if they lose their job. This may not be a surprise, but the numbers are. In Japan, where work identity is very strong, tens of thousands of men die every year from feeling ostracized, dis-empowered, and shamed. Many of them simply retreat and become urban recluses, easily ignored because it is easy to assume nothing is going wrong behind closed apartment doors. As the nature of work changes, whether robots take jobs or not, there is a largely ignored mental health crisis affecting lives. Community matters. Self-identity matters.
(Click on the photo for the link.)
“The Lonely End” – Slate
