Now that the hard part of the pandemic seems to have ended, we need to take a careful look at the after effects it’s been having on our lives. At Cowork4YOUTH our priorities put youth and their work life at focus, but this time we try to come closer to young people in more personal terms, of course always in connection with the subject of job searching; so, we asked them about their mental health before, during and after the major wave of COVID-19 and if and what repercussions it had had in their efforts, hopes and -why not- dreams when they were thinking about their work future.
Lina, Haris and Konstantinos from Greece and Raffaele from Italy, all of them young people now aged between 20 and 25 years old, give their answers to our questions.
Before the pandemic, all four of them were students, either in high school or at university. So, at first glance, they shouldn’t be affected by the situation. But Haris, now a 20 year-old University student, says otherwise: “Before the pandemic hit I was a high school student, unemployed and focused on my performance in school, [but] the pandemic affected my intentions to find a job […]”. Having his hopes cut down was not a repercussion to be underestimated.
About job searching during COVID-19, Lina, a 25 year-old University student, says: “[as a University student] I wasn’t [actively] looking for a job, but even if I did, I knew it would be almost impossible to be successful under those circumstances”. Raffaele, a 25 year-old young man, was indeed looking for work but his efforts remained unfruitful: “I didn’t start looking for a job until after I graduated with a master’s degree in physical education. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, I could not find a job.” But there’s a surprise hiding in Konstantinos’ answer, a 24 year-old young man, who actually did find a job during those challenging times, but his concerns weren’t only about COVID-19: “I started looking for a job right when the pandemic started. I was really unsure whether I would actually find one but not due to the pandemic; my doubts were about the state of the country overall. Luckily I got a job in technical support pretty easily”. Let’s get poetic and say, a glimpse of sunshine in the gloom of the day.
So, what about their mental health during the pandemic? Interestingly, the answers to this question varied, from disheartening to positive. Lina says “My mental health, like most people’s, was negatively affected by the inactivity the pandemic forced upon us”, while Haris’ reply describes the practical side of his situation: “I was under a lot of stress due to the need of an income to pay off my tuition”. Raffaele considers that he was not financially or socially affected, since as unemployed he didn’t have a job to lose or his salary to be cut down. On the other hand, Konstantinos had a better experience: “Well yes my mental health did get affected but for the better, since I was able to interact with people unlike most”.
Moving on, what about the state and mental health/ support services? For Greece, Konstantinos and Haris believe that there were support services available during the pandemic, although they didn’t come into contact with them. For Italy, Raffaele talks about the practical side: “[..] the state made available a bonus for psychological support of €600 per person”, which he considered, along with other services, a great help.
And what about now? Have those young people overcome any problems the pandemic (may) have caused them? Lina says that from her side, she has recovered, but seems concerned about people’s bonds and relationships: “[…] I notice that people’s relationships have reached a dead end, they are broken, cold and distant”. Haris states that there’s still some work to do but there shouldn’t be any issues, whereas Raffaele says that he believes he hasn’t suffered any side effects, and even more surprisingly, Konstantinos seems to even have benefited from it: “I’m probably one of the rare specimens that feels like the pandemic helped me, so I would not say there were any problems for me to overcome”.
To conclude, although the statements of four people are not statistically enough to represent the majority of the youth population, on the other hand it was refreshing to see that the pandemic didn’t bring only negativity and dark thoughts, but on the contrary for some people it seemed to bring a positive light to their life.
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