Layoff Blues?

22nd October, 2008 - Posted by Robin Ogden -

Yes - it’s dreary out there in the world of layoffs. I know - I’ve been there too in the past. One of the toughest things that I experienced was the feeling that “if my skills are no longer needed/wanted here - where will they be wanted, where will I fit again? How can I sell myself after a layoff?” Layoffs are confidence killers that’s for sure. They don’t just hit you in the pocket book - they position your ‘inner- gremlin‘, that inner-critic, right on your shoulder pointing at you and saying…______________ (you fill in the blank)- some say “loser”, some say “you’ll never get hired anywhere else”, some say “that’s it for you - you’re so out of date you’ll never catch up”…you name it our inner-gremlins can take us on the roller coaster rides of our lives during a major transition like this.

According to William Bridges (the guru on transitions) in his book Transitions, he says that there is no way around experiencing the ‘neutral zone’ that occurs with each transition, as he calls it “that apparently empty in-between time” of the ending of something in your life and the beginning of something new.

I really like the way he describes it…”Whether the source of the transition is an external change or your own inner development, the transition always starts with an ending. To become something else, you have to stop being what you are now; to start doing things a new way, you have to end the way you are doing them now; and to develop a new attitude or outlook, you have to let go of the old one you have now. Even though it sounds backwards, endings always come first. The first task is to let go.”

Actually, when you think about it there is something really freeing about the ending coming first, at least when it comes to being laid off. You’re there - you’ve been laid off and the ending has occurred. Ok - now for the in-between time, the neutral zone…yet, at least you know you’re on your way to a new beginning, because that is where the neutral zone is taking you. Albeit, it may be a confusing, chaotic, uncomfortable time floating around in that neutral zone - but, at least Bridges makes sense of it for us. There is an ending…then a neutral zone…then a new beginning. It makes sense.

I have to say this is a wonderfully validating book that opens up a new window into the insight of change and transition that I haven’t really looked at in this way before personally. Yes, I know that there is a flow to it, you’re in one phase, out of one phase, back into another phase…it’s a process and one that we go through all of the time in our lives, it’s just that we pay more attention to it when the shift or transition is huge - like a layoff.

I highly recommend this book for those of you (us) who are in transition and change, even those who may be one of the lucky ones and did not get laid off…yet. As Bridges states “first we need to note that the extremely high level of change in today’s organizations is likely to keep your career in a semipermanent state of transition. Re-organizations, mergers, technological changes, strategic shifts, and a steady stream of new products insure that most organizations are in a constant state of turmoil”.

Be prepared…

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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Tags: being laid off, being layed off, career change, career transistion, how to deal with a layoff, job search in a tough market, laid off, layoff survival, layoffs, surviving a layoff, where to find a job