Mindfulness as a coping mechanism for employment uncertainty.(Articles)

Mindfulness-based stress interventions are well suited to reduce the anxiety of clients living with employment uncertainty. With the advent of globalization, increased job flux, and at-will employment policies, feelings of insecurity are becoming more prevalent, contributing to work-related stress (D. L. Blustein, 2006), which in turn is associated with lowered job satisfaction, elevated turnover intentions, and increased cardiovascular risk (C. D. Spielberger, P. R. Vagg, & C. F. Wasala, 2003 ) Mindfulness, an intentional consciousness learned through meditation, can reduce psychological suffering by reducing the anticipation anxiety experienced by employed workers who face a high degree of employment uncertainty.

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A growing concern for clients seeking career counseling is that the world of work is changing dramatically and rapidly, resulting in elevated levels of anxiety and employment uncertainty. Indeed, one of the major themes in the September 2003 special issue of The Career Development Quarterly (Savickas, 2003b), in which several notable scholars and practitioners stated their goals for the counseling profession, included significant concerns about the changing nature of work, the need for thoughtful integration of mental health concerns with career counseling, and the growing demand for preventive interventions (Herr, 2003; Savickas, 2003a). To that end, this article integrates these aspirations with an increasingly visible topic of research and practice in the mental health field, mindfulness-based stress reduction (Kabat-Zinn, 1996).

We propose that mindfulness can provide an effective means for workers dealing with uncertain employment conditions to cope with the anticipation stress associated with employment in an increasingly ambiguous work environment. By supporting clients through mindfulness-based coping skills, career counselors can help clients remove a key contributor to their overall stress; therefore, clients are able to make calmer and perhaps more informed decisions for themselves, create a sense of agency about their situations, and operate in a more centered mode of functioning. Although other stress-reduction techniques have been used in various aspects of career counseling and work-based prevention programs {e.g., Murphy, 1996; Quillian-Wolever & Wolever, 2003), regular meditation practice and the accompanying mindfulness philosophy seems particularly well suited to help clients manage uncertainty beyond the boundaries of the actual intervention (Quillian-Wolever & Wolever, 2003).

Employment Uncertainly

Because of increasing globalization, industrial restructuring, rapid technological development, and the resulting flexible staffing arrangements, workers no longer have the security of guaranteed long-term employment (Blustein, 2006; Howard, 1995). Today's work environment contributes to feelings of insecurity, resulting in work-related stress (Blustein, 2006), which in turn is associated with lowered job satisfaction, elevated turnover intentions, and increased cardiovascular risk to the worker (Spielberger, Vagg, & Wasala, 2003). Although work stress has many antecedents (cf. Spielberger et al., 2003), the revolution in the labor market has the potential to enhance stress levels for individuals, who already face considerable psychological challenges in their work lives.

Work stress is an overarching term that encompasses many different themes, ranging from issues of interpersonal and role demands, to workplace policies, job conditions, and role and job ambiguity (Spielberger et al., 2003). In this article, we concentrate on employment uncertainty, a consequence of job insecurity, which can be especially stressful to workers across the full range of skills and occupations (Sverke & Hellgren, 2002). Job insecurity, defined as "employees' negative reactions to the changes concerning their jobs" (Sverke & Hellgren, 2002, p. 26), has been linked to problems affecting both the individual and the organization, such as physical and mental health problems, family problems, and reduced levels of job satisfaction. Job insecurity proves especially problematic to companies whose highest achieving workers feel insecure in their employment and decide to leave {Ashford, Lee, & Bobko, 1989). Employment insecurity can be defined as an individual's negative reactions, concerns, and "expectations about continuity in a job situation" (Davy, Kinicki, & Scheck, 1997, p. 323) and is the result of a discrepancy between the level of job security an employee would like versus the perceived amount of job security that worker actually has (Hartley & Klandermans, 1986).

In a comparison study examining distress in insecurely employed and unemployed plant workers, both groups reported similar amounts of stress (De Witte, 1999). In other words, working in an ambiguous employment situation may feel just as stressful as coping with being unemployed and significantly more stressful than being securely employed (Mantler, Matejicek, Matheson, & Anisman, 2005). In fact, the anticipation of job loss may have an adverse effect on individual workers that is similar to job loss itself (Dekker & Schaufeli, 1995; Latack & Dozier, 1986). However, those workers who took a problem-solving approach to their situations, rather than being overwhelmed by their emotions, experienced less perceived stress (Mantler et al., 2005).

The decision to take a problem-solving approach to cope with a stressful job situation may help to attenuate a bad situation. Having an internal locus of control, or confidence concerning the relationship between an individual's behavior and outcomes (Antonovsky, 1991), seems to help workers gain resilience within a culture of job insecurity (Parkes, 1994). One potentially useful direction for further advances in counseling and preventive tools for clients faced with growing employment uncertainty may be obtained through mind-body interventions such as mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques.

Career counselors have traditionally used external techniques to help employees leverage as many external organizational venues as possible, such as working with managers to modify employee situations and coaching workers to prepare themselves to find alternate work situations. An intervention such as mindfulness-based stress reduction, through the reduction of anticipation anxiety, can help workers change situations internally so that they are better able to use external resources. Career counselors can add mindfulness techniques to their skills arsenal to help clients cope with uncertainty and perhaps even open doors for clients by providing a means to achieve more clarity with which to make meaningful career decisions. This clarity can allow clients to more effectively mobilize their resources, enhance their skills, and maximize new opportunities.

Mindfulness as a Means of Coping With Stress

Mindfulness is a type of intentional consciousness, awareness, or a way of being attentive in the present moment that can be learned through meditation. The origins of this concept arose in Buddhism approximately 2,500 years ago (Germer, 2005a) as a way of understanding the nature of the mind and reducing psychological suffering. Because mindfulness is a universal quality of attention, it does not need to be tied with any philosophical or religious tradition to be effective (Kabat-Zinn, 2003). Mindfulness-based methods of stress reduction are very helpful in that they provide a structured process as a means to achieve clarity. Findings from empirical research support using mindfulness-based interventions (Murphy, 1996; Quillian-Wolever & Wolever, 2003); furthermore, individuals coping with generalized anxiety and panic disorders demonstrated significant treatment gains using mindfulness-based stress reduction (Kabat-Zinn et al., 1992).

Mindfulness practitioners become aware of the thoughts that appear, but accept them as finite, fleeting, and ephemeral, placing little attachment and no judgment to them. Baer (2003), in her synopsis of mindfulness and psychotherapy research literature, presented her psychological perspective in her definition of mindfulness as "the non-judgmental observation of the ongoing stream of internal and external stimuli as they arise" (p. 125). In contrast, mindlessness is rushing through an experience and not noting sensory information that arises, such as eating a meal without tasting it or worrying to the point of being unaware of what is going on in the present moment (Brown & Ryan, 2003). This may be the case for many workers experiencing employment uncertainty; employees may be so worried about the future that they may not notice what is occurring now, which could possibly be a more adaptive way of functioning and coping. Practicing mindfulness can help clients focus on the present and separate themselves from future-focused anticipation anxiety.

Germer's (2005b) three key elements of mindfulness incorporate the major aspects of many prominent mindfulness interventions. Mindfulness cannot be used as a prescription because it is an enduring lifelong process (Germer, 2005a). These elements can indicate appropriate means for career counselors to integrate aspects of this approach into their practice. The three key elements of mindfulness are awareness, being in the present moment, and acceptance.

Awareness is further broken down into three components: stopping, observing, and returning. Stopping refers to halting those automatic behaviors that arise from automatic thoughts. Clients can learn to interrupt automatic thoughts by noticing, or becoming aware of, these behaviors and consciously stopping them, perhaps through a deep breath or even a physical reminder. Stopping can also refer to slowing down, which refers to savoring and focusing on an experience rather than rushing through it. The observing component of awareness refers to concentrating on an aspect of awareness, such as the breath or sensory experiences. Practitioners, when concentrating on this chosen focus, take nonjudgmental notice and observe what other thoughts, sensations, or feelings occur while concentrating on this aspect of awareness. These thoughts, sensations, and feelings are just experienced, and no values are attached to them. The mind cannot focus on the future while focusing on the present. By turning attention toward what is happening now, the mind turns away from anticipating what may happen in the future. The observer may label the thoughts as they come and go, with titles such as "worry," "fear," or "thinking." In time, these experiences no longer need to be named, just observed and released. After stopping and observing, the final step of awareness is to return complete intentional consciousness to the activity in which the practitioner was originally engaged, whether walking, working, or relaxing. Returning to awareness is often likened to "waking up" (Germer, 2005b, p. 117) to the present moment, which leads to the second element of mindfulness.

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