svbizink2 story

Published: Friday, January 02, 2004

Staying sane in the valley

Individuals finding different paths to stay focused, happy during deep downturn

Volatile times, underscored by a weak job market, fears of terrorism and a controversial war abroad, take their toll on the best of us.

Robert Bischoff, a psychologist with offices in Gilroy and Cupertino, says his practice took on new meaning after Sept. 11, 2001. More than two years after the terrorist attacks on the United States, Bischoff says, his patients remain gripped by the fear of uncertainty.

Bischoff spoke with Biz Ink reporter Steve Tanner about the mental health of Silicon Valley.

How has your practice changed since Sept. 11, 2001?

Since 9/11, there's been no let up and I actually had to close my practice temporarily to new patients because there was just too much work.

What affect has the valley's tough job market had on the outlook of your patients?

In terms of looking through the lens of my practice, one thing I've noticed is that people have looked at their career paths being dead-ended by what happened with the dot-com bubble bursting, and then 9/11, and now the money being drained out of the country [from offshoring].

They've just sort of said, well, it's time to retrain, to get out of this career path. I've got a number of people who have gone back to school to retool completely and get into different professions.

One fellow worked for an IBM spin-off and basically saw the writing on the wall. So he took a golden parachute, invested the money and went back to school to go into health care.

How did his outlook and level of happiness change when he made this decision?

It was basically very uplifting, and he felt like he got out of a dead-end situation. When he made the decision to take the out and move into a new career path, it gave him relief and hope.

Are there some common concerns, fears, among your patients?

Everyone is different, but the general concern is over how fast the economy is going to recover. I have several patients who are trying to start their own businesses, but you couldn't pick a worse time to do this.

Common concerns center around how quickly things are going to recover.

None of the people I've been talking to really see the future in a bleak kind of way, with the exception of the fellow who said the engineering profession in the valley is going nowhere. A lot of jobs are being shipped offshore, particularly to India, because of lower labor costs. And that's one of this fellow's reasons for getting out of technology and into health care.

What are some suggestions you give your patients looking for more happiness in their lives?

Part of it is helping people understand the difference between what they want and what they need. We lived in a boom time, when people were getting incredible salaries for relatively light work, spending money, job-hopping.

Not only did that stop, but people had to learn to say, "Wait a second. That was unrealistic, unnecessary, wasteful and an error in judgment."

We really need to look more practically at reality and take another look at how we manage our resources.

You can reach Robert Bischoff at wizard@shrinktank.com and Steve Tanner
at stanner@svbizink.com.