Rachel Levy: Social Media & Marketing

Note: This is a version of a post I made on the Wall Street Journal online blog on April 28, 2009.

One of the biggest changes for me since I lost my job is being at home a lot instead of at an office filled with people. I’ve gone from chit chatting in the hall and having lunch and laughs with coworkers, to being home alone, sometimes all day. In addition to the financial stresses that come with being unemployed, I think this is why a lot of unemployed people get depressed. But for me, I don’t think it has really impacted me in a negative way.

For one, I am a social person by nature so I typically have plans at night to go out somewhere. I have really tried not to cut back on how often I go out just because I am unemployed, because I feel like I need this social interaction. I have, however, changed the way I go out, as I’m much more conscious about spending money than I used to be.

I also try to get out to networking meetings or networking events, which not only helps in my job search, but helps with the social interaction aspect and realizing that I’m not the only one going through this. And, as silly as it may sound, I feel like my dog has made my days much less lonely. Obviously I have to take her out a few times a day, so that helps get me physically out of the house. But, having her around also makes my house feel less quiet (plus, I talk to her sometimes!).

The other challenge of being home is that it’s harder to stay focused on the task at hand. Not only is it easy to keep crazy hours (I tend to go to bed late, and get up late), but it’s also easy to get distracted, and work on a lot of non job-search related tasks during the day.

To help people with this issue, a Boston based company, BzzAgent, came up with an innovative idea, and approached me to be one of the people in their program. Basically, given that they found themselves with a lot of extra office space, they started loaning extra space in their office to laid off workers and entrepreneurs. The idea is that rather than being alone at home, these people can come in and feel the camaraderie of an office. It’s a great idea to not only keep the office lively, but to also help out the job seekers. (I didn’t take them up on their offer, as I am getting used to being at home and working in my pijamas sometimes!).

Overall, I think getting out of the house at least once a day and being social outside of my job search have been important factors to keeping me from letting unemployment get the best of me.

Photo credit: Late night

How do you cope when spending more time at home during your search?

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