Unemployment and Homelessness Essay

Introduction

Ruggiero (2008) defines thinking as a mental activity that we have some influence or control over. This is apparent when looking at the situation in which a driver is only driving while he keeps the steering wheel in his hands and monitors vehicle motions. Therefore the practice is only formulated if directed in the minds of individuals. This does not mean, though, that thought should always be done in a positive mood. Evidence demonstrates that subconscious and involuntary thought can produce great effects as well. He also said that the formal definition of thought is any cognitive practice to leads to formulating and addressing a problem, making a decision, or satisfying a desire to understand.

To address a problem or issue effectively, it is necessary to know the facts and grasp the associated values and concepts. Actual knowledge is something already known whereas in most cases, not only is the individual faced with the problem unaware of their solutions, but they are also brand new and designed to meet a specific issue. A person must have both practical know-how and good thinking skills to be an effective problem solver (Kantilal and Espira, 2017).

Problem resolution is a set of techniques that can be used in a variety of areas or areas to produce solutions, both cognitively and behaviourally (Kantilal & Espira, 2017). In general, solving problems involves a series of steps from identifying a problem that leads to a solution creation. The resolution of a problem can be viewed as an organized, directional system. When deciding the course of the solution, however, first the problem must be identified and the intended target and improvements that we want must be pursued (Kantilal & Espira, 2017).

Based on the case given, I got married last year and after had my first child, a problem struck as my spouse’s company is downsizing and will be closed down soon, it also means that my spouse will lose his job once the company is shut down. I as a full-time house maker have not earned any income for the family. In addition, my family and I have to move out of the house we are currently staying because it is paid for by my spouse’s company. There are two objectives to be achieved from the case given which is:

• Get a house to stay as soon as possible.
• Get a job for myself and my spouse.

Analysis of problem(s) / issue(s)

Based on the case study, there are few problems or issues have been identified as follows:

Unemployment

It has been stated that my spouse’s company is downsizing and will be closed down next month. This means that my spouse will be losing their current job due to the company’s shutdown and at the same time, I as a full-time housewife am not earning any income and do not have any jobs for now. Jobs are an important component of life as they give rise to wealth, prestige, identification, social relationships, the nature of time, and meaning (Kalil, 2005). Job losses tend to eliminate these incentives as part of a company's downsizing and restructuring (Kalil, 2005). On the other hand, insecure and inadequate employment restricts the economic resources of the households and especially the revenues needed to obtain the essential resources and products that are important for sustainable growth (e.g. education, accommodation, water, healthy, cognitively enhanced learning environments). Unstable jobs and unemployment leads to psychological suffering and stress.

Homeless

Based on the case given, my family and I will have to move out of the current house as the house is paid for by my spouse’s company which will be shut down soon. Hence, we can no longer stay in that house. There is no place we can go and we will be homeless if we can’t find a house as soon as possible. The issues that might arise due to this problem the food insecurity for my child, and the health of my child will be affected and endanger the children’s health. Homelessness is particularly detrimental to youth and can impact life opportunities. Starting life in temporary shelters can impact access to universal health care, such as immunization, and temporary shelters with higher disease or injury rates. The cost of moving, processing, and purchasing new items, increased cost of travel, and limited access to services and housing are present in local areas, particularly medical requirements are the additional costs associated with homelessness (Leng. 2017).

Financial Crisis

On the other hand, financial crisis is also one of the issues identified. This is due to the loss of my job of my spouse, where there is no income for the upcoming month, at the same time there are no extra earnings as I am unemployed. This situation will affect the household expenses. Due to the economic hardship estimates, we have had to delay the purchasing of household goods (e.g., health insurance, replacement of breakage mechanics or equipment), have had to cut living standards, borrow for monthly bills, and/or are unable to pay Increased levels of anxiety are strongly related (Davis & Mantler, 2004).

Application of the four stages in problem-solving

Problem solving as a whole requires several steps from identifying a problem to finding a solution. Problems can be perceived as an organized, directed system. We have to define the solution direction, however, first, and then the desired aim or the changes that we would like to see (Kantilal & Espira, 2017). The steps involved are as bellow:

• Recognising and Defining a Problem
• Finding Possible Solutions
• Selecting the Best Solution
• Implementing the Solution

As for the case given, determination of the solution to the problems and issues can be done using the stages in problem-saving as follows:

Recognizing and Defining a Problem

• Recognising Problem 1: It has been stated that my spouse’s company is downsizing and will be closed down next month. This means that my spouse will be losing their current job due to the company’s shutdown and at the same time, I as a full-time housewife am not earning any income and do not have any jobs for now.
  • Defining Problem: Unemployment
  • Finding Possible Solutions
  • Both of us apply for a short-term job.
  • Apply for work Online or offline.
  • Connect with our network.
  • Contact Recruiters.
• Selecting the Best Solution As this problem occurred, getting a job is important to cover the finances for the upcoming days. Hence I and my spouse have to apply for a short-term job including jobs that the wages per day meanwhile applying for a better income permanent job. At the same time, I am not able to apply for an outdoor job as I have to take care of my child at home, hence I will focus on applying for jobs that need to work online or offline (home-based) so that I can focus on taking caring of my child and my job at the same time. My spouse will be applying for jobs in all the ways as suggested in the possible solutions.
• Best solution chosen: Hence, for this problem of unemployment issue, I and my spouse will implement all the solutions suggested
• Implementing the Solution
  • Application for the short-term job: This can be done by seeking part-time vacancies available in shopping marts, retail, and medical stores, or vacancies available as freelance (promoter, cashier, delivery, etc.)(Doyle,n.d.). The probability for my spouse to get a short-term is higher as he has experience working before.
  • Apply for work online or offline: As for this job, I have to apply for jobs like tutoring online, sales, and retail online (promoting goods via social media). For example, Seattle-based Amazon is one of the companies most commonly associated with jobs from home. Jobs are (Rose, n.d.) available mostly on a full-time basis. Current positions available include sales, advertising, account management, human resources, business and merchant development, operations, IT and support engineering, facilities, maintenance and real estate, and customer service.
  • Connect with your network. This is a good time to connect with our network. Use my spouse and my college alumni network, and professional and personal networks to help our job search. Seek the connections to let us know if they come across jobs that would be a good fit (Doyle, 2018).
  • Contact Recruiters. This action can be done by contacting all the available recruiters immediately with an updated resume for a better job. There is a limitation to this solution as the results of getting hired are not instant, time will be taken but the probability of getting hired is high as the recruiters will help to convince the employers to hire the candidates (Willoby, 2018).

Recognizing and Defining a Problem

• Recognising Problem 2: Based on the case given, my family and I will have to move out from the current house as the house is paid for by my spouse’s company which will be shut down soon. Hence, we can no longer stay in that house. There is no place we can go and we will be homeless if we can’t find a house as soon as possible.
  • Defining Problem: Homeless
  • Finding Possible Solutions
  • Temporary move to parent’s home
  • Get a rental house.
  • Get a rental room.
• Selecting the Best Solution
  • Temporary move to parent’s home: As for this solution, moving to parent’s house temporarily is the best solution as it can save the budget used until both of us get a job and save up money for a down payment on a house. The problem that could arise due to this solution is to increase the household expenses of our parents, but the issue can be solved by contributing some portion of expenses to them.
  • Get a rental house Getting a rental house is not an easy task, because the deposit and the rental will be high and it is difficult to afford as we are now facing unemployment and financial crisis. Hence this solution is not applicable for now, it can be done after both of us have a stable job and stable income to pay the rental.
  • Get a rental room. Getting a rental room is much easier than getting a rental house because the cost is much lower for deposits and monthly payments. This solution also is not suitable for the situation now, because we have to save money for our other daily expenses like food and for our child’s medical costs and child care. Thus, it is better to save the money used to rent for expenses and emergency use.
• Best solution chosen: The best solution for this problem is moving to our parents’ house temporarily meanwhile both of us get a job, and find a low-cost rental room.
• Implementing the Solution
  • Temporary move to parent’s home: Inform our parents earlier for them to do preparation and we've had to agree to make it more organized for our family which will help us navigate home while retaining autonomy. The agreement will explain any expenses to which we are expected to contribute, for example, a lower lease price, a portion of the food bill or utilities, or domestic duties that they want you to provide during your stay (Caldwell, 2019). We should have an exit strategy in place before we both get in with our family. Have a particular date or objective that determines when we move out to explain that after we have saved enough to deposit a rental house, we are moving out (Caldwell, 2019).

Recognizing and Defining a Problem

• Recognising Problem: This is due to the job loss of my spouse, where there is no income for the upcoming month, at the same time there is no extra earnings as I myself am unemployed.
• Defining Problem: Financial Crisis
• Finding Possible Solutions
  • Get a personal loan.
  • Getting reparation from the company ( IF GIVEN)
  • Get a welfare assistance
• Selecting the Best Solution
  • Get a personal loan This can be done by applying personal loan like Aeon Credit, but this may only make the problem worse where it can also come with high interest rates and a new monthly payment. These extra payments will extend the timeline of the financial hardship. At the same time, it is difficult for the loan to get approved as one of the requirements to apply loan is to have a minimum RM 3000.00 income per month.
  • Getting reparation from the company (IF GIVEN) Reparation will be given to my spouse as he is losing his current job due to the shutdown of the company. The amount of reparation can be used to cover the expenses needed while both of us get a job or the amount can be used as the down payment to rent a house.
  • Get welfare assistance As for this solution, there is some program from the government which is giving financial aid to housewives.
  • Use of money in savings Use the money saved in the bank previously for household expenses and bill payment while getting at least a temporary job for living.
• Best solution chosen: The solutions to overcome the financial crisis are I will apply for welfare assistance for housewives and we will use the savings temporarily. If my spouse gets his reparation from his company, my spouse and I will be using the money received as a backup for emergency financial use. If there is no reparation given, the solution to use it as a backup is ignored.
• Implementing the Solution
  • Get welfare assistance I will apply for welfare assistance for financial aid sponsored by the government to housewives. Hence with the amount of financial aid received, we could able to use it for daily use.
  • Use of money in savings Withdrawal of the previous savings in the bank for the use of bill payments, and daily expenses.

Relation to the evidence-driven decision-making cycle

The steps of the Evidence-driven Decision-making Cycle can be grouped into three main stages. We will now explore these stages in brief by looking at the steps inherent in every stage based on the case given above.

Stage 1:

Trigger: The case indicates my spouse’s company is downsizing and will be closed next month, and at the same time we have to move out of the house as it is paid by the company.

Explore data: It can be known that process triggered leads to job loss for my spouse, no home for the family to stay and a financial crisis.

Question:

How to get employed after the job loss to survive?

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Where to move and stay?

How to overcome the financial crisis?

Stage 2:

Assembly:

Jobs available online/ offline, short-term job vacancies available, and networks that could help in job job-seeking process.

Parents' house for temporary stay, rental house/room

Availability on loan application and financial assistance, available amounts of savings.

Analysis:

These companies online are available for vacancies, there are people to reach for job seeking, and job vacancies platforms are available online

The rental house/room is expensive and a down payment is needed

There are loans, and financial assistance available

Interpret: It can be concluded that for the problem of unemployment, job seeking is needed to survive financial problems by applying for all the possible pathways via online, offline, and also short-term jobs. Besides it can be concluded that moving into your parents’ house saves more money and cuts costs rather than renting a house. At the same time, it can be seen that financial aid from agencies and the government do help with extra expenses and living.

Stage 3:

Intervene: To solve the problems of unemployment, homelessness, and also the financial crisis faced, applications for jobs online and offline have to be done including contacting recruiters and accepting short-term vacancies that give daily wages for living and daily expenses. Besides, moving into my parents’ house temporarily to avoid extra expenses on a rental house and also apply for welfare assistance through government agencies and used previous savings meanwhile, the finances were stable.

Evaluate: The decision made is good as it can solve the problems faced which is getting a job as soon as possible, accommodation is guaranteed and financial issues are covered.

Reflect: Based on the case, it can be reflected that saving is important for emergency use and always having a backup plan.

Conclusions

The importance of having the ability to think well can only be appreciated when an individual is faced with various situations in his life where the circumstances require skills like analyzing, solving problems, and making the correct decisions. Book At times, a problem can manifest itself in different ways. An example is a situation where we see ourselves in conflict with where we are at present and where we want to be. When we can identify the difference between the situation we are in at present and the situation we desire, we can define the problem, which we can thereafter attempt to resolve to achieve our goal. BOOK There are four stages involved in problem-solving in order to focus on the process of attaining the solution rather than the solution itself. Besides, the decision-making process can be always related to the Evidence-Driven Decision Making Cycle to make effective and correct decisions. Thus, one needs to have good thinking skills for problem-solving and decision-making.

References

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11. Willoby, S. (2018, December 4). You Just Lost Your Job... Here's What to Do Next. Retrieved November 1, 2019, from https://medium.com/swlh/you-just-lost-your- job-heres-what-to-do-next-f48bc2f1db49.