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Eliminated! Now What? |
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I’ve thought for a long time about the best ways to help people suddenly hit with job loss. In my work as a career counselor I see many reactions: disbelief, shock, horror, grief, anger, denial, and so on. Some people start out strong and then hit a difficult patch that brings them to their knees. Others take a while to get going, but then are unstoppable. As I thought about this and looked at the books currently available, I realized that there’s a problem with most of them: they give advice that’s impossible to follow if you’re upset. And many don’t offer specifics, so the reader is left with cheerful suggestions and not much else. So what I have to offer are stories--true stories from the thousands of clients I've worked with. My goal is to make this engaging and useful. I'd love your comments so email me with any suggestions. |
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Chapter One: The Shock |
| There are almost always signs, but many times you don’t see them until after the fact. So you’re called into a meeting with your boss and someone from HR is sitting there as well, and they both look as if they’d like to sink through the floor. You are politely told to have a seat and as they both avoid eye contact with you, you’re told that due to: |
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| you’re no longer needed. And then sometimes you’re reassured that this has nothing to do with your performance, in fact…(this is the point where you can’t hear anymore as you’re sure this is a bad dream or hallucination) and so their mouths keep moving but nothing is sinking in. And if the company has thought this through carefully, then someone like me, a career counselor from an outplacement firm is waiting in the next room to talk to you. You are ushered in and told that here is a resource that your company is providing for you. And then you sit down with a complete stranger and want to cry. And this sympathetic man or woman is talking but it’s impossible to pay attention, so you nod, are given a packet of information and then are escorted to the HR office where you endure another lecture—this time about your benefits. Depending on your company’s style and industry, you might be allowed to go back to your desk to get your things. Or you might be escorted out of the building by an armed guard after handing over your badge and any other company property. You may have to arrange to go back another day, after hours, to get your personal effects. So here you are on the sidewalk or in the parking lot, and in the course of less than an hour your world has been turned upside down. It’s strange to be out of the building at this time of day. You look around and people are busily going places or the parking lot is empty. Somehow you get yourself home. You call your spouse or best friend. You tell them you were let go. Anger and fear compete for the top emotion. Disbelief is close behind. Someone somewhere made a mistake. They can’t do this. The department needs you. You’re the only one who knows how to….and now you’re thinking about the hard word you did on your most recent project and part of you hopes that it will grind to a halt without you. But the phone doesn’t ring and you have a packet of papers with you that proves this is not a reversible decision. And then you think about the signs: the meeting you weren’t invited to, the way your boss dodged the bonus chat, the closed doors, the gossip, and you kick yourself for not being prepared. Why didn’t you see this coming? What should you do? |
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