Identity Interruptions

When a person becomes injured at work, there are a number of factors that will come into play allowing a person to rehabilitate and successfully return to work.  Many of the insurance industries across Canada work feverously to develop work place safety and education programs to prevent injuries; however, even with this attitude of “an ounce of prevention” we still struggle with workplace injury as a nation.  We only need to look to statistics from the Association of Workers Compensations Boards of Canada to realize that workplace injury is still a concern in Canada.  http://awcbc.org/common/assets/nwisptables/table36-fat-ind-jur.pdf

There are various tools used to determine how long it will take before an injured worker can return to work.  As well, there are considerations such as the amount of time it will take for the injury to heal, a persons age and the physical nature of the persons occupation. The ultimate goal of a workplace insurance board is a person’s successfully and safe return to work. However, there are some pitfalls that can hinder a person’s return to work goal, and “identity” can play a role.

Klenk noted (as cited by Crossman, 1997) that athletes who have a “strong self identity or sense of worth through the single social role of sport may experience a particularly difficult time adjusting to being injured.”  The same can be said for individuals who have a strong identity attachment or sense of worth thorough their employment.   Brewls stated  “A stronger connection between athletes and self identity is created as the athlete invests more time in the sport, for this reason emotional disturbance may be greater..” In relating this statement to employment, if you are a workaholic and have no life outside of work, you will have a particularly hard time adjusting to an injury because this injury is a threat to your very identity. 

When an injury takes longer than expected to heal this may further threaten a person’s identity and increase emotional disturbance.  For example, if a person is told that an injury will take 4 weeks to heal, and there is little improvement after 4 weeks, that persons anxiety level may increase because the  worker fears that they will not be able to return to work.  Bracker’s statement that “individuals with more complex identity structures have fewer depressive symptoms and less stress than individuals with less complex structures” (Bracher, 2006) seems to support that a person who sees their identity in a single social role, such as that of “athlete” or “nurse”, will have more stress if they sustain an injury.  

If a person is deemed not capable of returning to work, due to the physical nature of their employment, they may have to seek other employment within their physical limitations.  This can be difficult for most individuals; however, if your identity is entrenched in your work this can be devastating.  “In a real sense, job loss marks an interruption in the natural process of reaffirming identity that is essential to maintaining mental health (Burke, 1991; Thoits, 1991).” When we work, we are constantly seeking to reaffirm our identities through recognition.  If a person is unable to return to this environment they  may feel a loss of identity.  “These identity interruptions are stressful, and the key to preventing their negative consequences is to allow a new identity to be affirmed. If people are able to negotiate new identities that are satisfactory, the negative effects of job loss may be minimized”  

Allowing someone time to negotiate a new identity may not always be possible. Factors such as family responsibility, employers, doctors and insurance companies control and direct timelines with regards to how much time you have to negotiate a new identity.  If a person’s identity is entrenched in their pre injury employment / community of practice, the process of negotiating a new identity can take years. If an individual is not provided with the time necessary to negotiate a new identity, they can adopt the one that is the easiest to relate to which is often that of injured worker or victim. This would be especially prevalent in those individuals who’s identity is that of a single social role. Once the new identity of “injured worker” has been established the person will fight hard to maintain that identity as this has become their newly defined self.        

References

Klenk, C.A., (2006). Psychological Response to Injury, Recovery, and Social Support: A Survey of Athletes at an NCAA Division 1 University. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=srhonorsprog

Price, R.H., Friedland, D.S., & Vinokur, A.D. (1998). Job loss: Hard times and eroded identity.

 In J.H. Harvey (Ed.) Perspectives on loss: A sourcebook (pp. 303-316). Philadelphia,  23

PA: Taylor & Francis. Retrieved from http://www.isr.umich.edu/src/seh/mprc/Job%20Loss%20Hard%20times%20and%20eroded%20identity.pdf

Bracher, M (2006). Radical Pedagogy: Identity, Generativity, and Social Transformation. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan