More Tech Fallout

One thing that I see very often in my office, that our nation and our government is struggling to deal with, is how the fantastic new advances in technology is changing everyone's lives and minds.  We act differently, we think differently, we relate different, and certainly every business in America works differently because of the digital changes that have happened just in the last five years.  I date the latest major transformation to 2007, when the iPhone first went on sale.

For many people the new technology has made jobs easier, or even just made them possible.  People can, and do work from everywhere.  But so many people are being put out of work, and so many are just not necessary.

The latest to come into my office is an angry 37 year old man who has been wit the company for 11 years.  Which company; the phone company. He knows, but he won't really admit, that they just don't need him any more.  He is an installer and repairman for land lines.  The landline business is fading as quickly as the video store rental business.  The phone company could probably get by with about 1/3 of the workers they have.  It is only the union that keeps hanging on.

But, the phone company, being a big corporation, is using technology to get rid of the people.  They have GPS systems tracking their every move, they send the workers out with hand-held devices that report back as each task is done, each job is started, each is completed, and how quickly the worker moves from one to the next.  Then they raise the expectations of what is expected in a day.  Then they raise them again.  Then they get on the worker for not meeting expectations.

Stress, conflict and misery.

My patient knows his time is limited and he should learn new skills and find his way in the new world. Instead his fear and uncertainty is turned into anger at the company.  The company would probably do better to take him and many of his colleagues and retrain them.  Teach them to deal with wireless technology.  Teach them how to operate the cloud. At least give them the opportunity.

But that would involve using skills that most big corporations don't have. So, things will end badly, and more people end up in my office.

And so do their families.

Bad Endings

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has has been thrown out of Tunisia.  He ruled the country for twenty-five years, took a lot of money for himself, but stayed too long on the job.

Now it seems that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is having a tough time after thirty years.  As is President Ali Abdullah Saleh. who may have held on too long in Yemen.  The Middle East is trying to make  changes.

But it isn't just rulers who seem to reach ignoble ends.  I see several people in my practice who, given the difficult economic times here, are being forced out of jobs after successful careers: A long-time, well decorated member of a police force, an owner of a car dealership, an older lawyer who had been in practice for years.  I am even seeing a very successful salesman for a national corporation, and it is clear that he has out-priced his usefulness.   They are making it clear that after almost thirty years they want someone younger and cheaper.  It has shades of Willie Loman.

it probably isn't fun being Brett Favre at this stage in his career.

Here I am trying to makes changes myself.  My own profession is, again, going through turbulent times. Again they are looking for new ways to (not) pay us.  We are being blamed for the high cost of health care, when we have not only not received an increase in fees for over a decade, but now most insurance companies are cutting back.  It's easy to feel unappreciated.

So while I deal with my own feelings I have to deal with many people who feel that twenty to thirty years of their lives amount to almost nothing.  It is difficult to convince them that they have done a good job, supported themselves and their families, and accomplished something worthwhile, when they are made to feel that they are no longer good enough, and no longer necessary.

There are few good endings, not too many gold watches any more.  But at least most of my patients are doing better than the Ceausescus did on their way out.

In my pocket

There is a patient of mine who I still see once or twice a year who often would say to me, "Can't you just put me into your pocket and take me home?" He assured me that he wouldn't be any trouble, and that he just needed a safe place to be. He wanted some protection from the life he was leading, which was really, as bad as you can imagine.

Sometimes, as a therapist, I feel like doing that. At least I do while I am sitting and talking to some of my patients. Actually, when I get out of here I am very skilled at not thinking about anyone. But I do see some really interesting and fascinating people who are insightful and articulate, but who never got a break, and who have just retreated from blows of the world.

This guy today, Frankie. He began life as a minority immigrant. His parents sent him to his uncle, who was in this country. His uncle sent him to the grandparents, who already had custody of a few of his cousins. All kinds of chaos and craziness when on in that house, which left permanent psychic scars on Frankie.

But Frankie persisted. He went out in the world full of hesitation and doubts, but he got jobs and he started relationships. Not surprisingly, they ended, sometimes softly, sometimes in disaster.

Today he told me that he just lost the job he had for the last three years. Frankie has been in human services for the last ten years. He does very well taking care of the people no one will take care of. He is caring, empathetic and he treats everyone with dignity. Because of that he got into disagreements with the people who ran the program because he took too much time, he bent some regulations, he responded to the people he was taking care of more than to the rule book. When this was pointed out to him he wold explain how what he was doing took more effort, but it really was within the rules.

So, they fired him.

Now Frankie is not naive, and he is not really trying to be a martyr, but he has standards and sensitivity, and he won't go against that. But because of this, and because of his life experience, he is depressed, and he withdraws when he gets slapped down like this. It will take a while to help him re-group, stand-up, and get out in the world again. (Of course, he will only have insurance coverage for another two weeks, but we will have to deal with that too).

It is difficult to do the "empirically supported" cognitive/behavioral therapy when the patient's belief that the world is mean, unfair, and generally sucks has been well documented by his life's experience. Sometimes you know it would be much more beneficial to take him home, wrap him in a blanket and give him some chicken soup. Which is something he never had anyone do for him, ever.