HARD TIMES: FIONA TYRRELLon ways to make the most of the recession and beat the prevailing doom and gloom
1 Give back to make a better society:Inquiries about volunteering opportunities have increased dramatically in the past month with some volunteer centres reporting a 100 per cent increase in January compared with the same month last year, according to Elaine Bradley, chief executive of Volunteering Ireland.
Volunteerism comes into its own during a recession, says Bradley. Community and voluntary organisations experiencing big cutbacks still have to provide services and there are more people with time on their hands to help fill this gap, she explains.
It is important to remember that although jobs and money are under threat, people don’t change nor have their skills disappeared.
“During a recession we don’t want our workforce unemployed and watching daytime television. Volunteering and getting involved in community organisation gives an enormous boost to self-esteem, it provides an opportunity to network and meet new people as well as the chance to develop new skills.
“We lost a lot of things in the boom years,” says Bradley. “Now we have an opportunity to rediscover values, look after one another and when the upswing comes we will have an empowered, flexible and enabled group of people ready for the next challenge.”
2 More time for living:Having more time to yourself is surely the golden lining of the recession cloud for many people. Unless you are in the unfortunate position of working harder to make up for colleagues who have left your company, many people are finding they have more time on their hands.
Whether it’s finally getting round to tackling the back garden, walking the full 132km of the Wicklow Way or dusting off the oil paints, people have the time and space to spend doing the things they want to do.
For many, the downturn gives space for family time.
3 Use the downtime to upskill:For those lucky enough to have a redundancy package in their back pocket or people who find themselves working part-time, upskilling, retraining or a return to education is a traditional option during a downturn. Bairbre Fleming, director of adult education in University College Dublin (UCD), says the centre has seen an increase in the number of inquiries for courses in the autumn.
Education in a broad sense has a benefit for both the economy and the individual and it’s no surprise that people turn to it in a downturn, she says. Apart from interest in attaining accreditation for skills they may already possess, people are exhibiting renewed interest in less economically driven areas such as literature and philosophy. These broader disciplines help people to interpret or reflect on what’s going on, she says.
4 Cashless consumption:Necessity is the mother of invention and cash flow problems have a great way of encouraging alternative trading systems.
Local exchange trading systems, growing your own food, swop parties, allotments and co-ops are some of the ways of becoming less cash dependent. In a downturn people tend to look at co-operative options, according to Jan Van De Ven chairman of the Dublin Food Co-op.
Whether it’s renting out a room – a form of co-operative housing – to joining your local food co-op where members get the benefits of bulk buying, co-ops are a way of reducing costs.
Growing your own food is also an option more and more people are investigating.
One farmer who runs an allotment in Co Meath described how in previous years the motivation for acquiring an allotment was “fun, exercise, getting back to nature and dinner-party conversations”. Now people are more concerned about yields and whether the allotment will “feed a family for a year”.
5 Tough choices make for self-knowledge:While no one likes to admit to keeping-up-with-the-Joneses behaviour, few will deny that the last few years of the Celtic Tiger was marked by a drift towards living beyond our means.
Everyone felt entitled to two holidays abroad ever year and felt obliged to spend outlandish sums of money on kiddies birthday parties.
Now it’s easier to say “no”. You have a valid excuse for staying in on a Friday night, don’t feel obliged to re-mortgage the house to get a new car every two years and have no need to apologise for bringing a packed lunch into work.
Some people have quietly expressed relief that it’s all over. As one businessperson put it: “The urgency and frantic desperation to get ahead has passed.”
Another person describes how, despite concerns about mortgage and the 25 per cent pay cut she has had to take, her “overriding feeling about this recession is still relief rather than worry”.
On a more serious level, instead of the want-it-all-have-it-all attitude, less money going around forces people to make tough choices.
Having to choose is a great way of sorting the wheat from the chaff, figuring out what really is important to you and defining your life goals.
6 Reflect and react:Despondency and denial are big hazards during a recession. If you are suffering serious financial or job setbacks, a tried and tested strategy is to write a daily page to document what is happening to you, says career consultant Brian McIvor, whose book, Career Consultant, is hitting the book shelves this month. "Remember the mantra 'the job is redundant, not me'. Although you will have low points and some sleepless night you will come out of it."
Writing a diary entry every day or a personal blog helps people face up to the realities, helps track the shifting sands in your work environment and will help you bounce back. “Instead of being controlled by the situation it ensures you are aware and effective in it. You move from passive to an active role.”
If you are faced with finding a new job, McIvor’s advice is to make an inventory of what you do best and your key skills – what skills got you your first and last job? Make these skills the core of what you do next and try to match those skills with what the market is looking for and be prepared to be flexible and innovative.
7 Always look on the bright side:While there's no denying we are in a recession there is an argument that we can make things worse by focusing on the negative news.
Research has shown that while pessimists are more likely to be right, optimists live longer and achieve more. Time to look at the lighter, happier side of a downturn then? Here are some suggestions:
With much better value in Irish restaurants and hotels, Irish people will be able to afford to go on holidays in Ireland again. Thanks to the downturn this is the first year Ireland can hope to meet its Kyoto obligations.
Surely the recession means the end of products such as “kiddie water” – little bottles of water for children’s lunchboxes, which work out at about €18 per litre for water that is not even mineral water!