So let me conclude with the final principle.

Do Job Search as a full time job.

Prepare your resumes. Throw them everywhere. Realize your advantage and opportunity. The connections you have made all these time. Get out those business cards and your Microsoft Outlook files and start scouting around. Be productive with your time. Widen your perspective. To those who have been laid off specially in the service sector, picture yourself as an expert in the people business. The amount of training you have had in dealing with people and meeting their needs would qualify you for jobs that require an equally sensitive position.

Next is to Understand Activity vs. Passivity.

You should ask a lot of people a lot of questions about how to prepare and proceed with your job search. Don’t expect others to do it for you. And neither should you presume that you are capable of handling all the complexities all at once.

Ponder the difference between activity and passivity.

You are being passive if you simply float your resume and let “them” know you are available. You are being active if you get out there, face to face, with potential employers and stimulate demand for what you have to offer.

However, you need to prepare yourself first so that you reach a stage of preparation. And you can say with confidence, “This is what I’m good at; this is what I really enjoy.”

And finally, you would have to be able to say, at least to yourself, “And this is the pay I’d be comfortable with.” Although you may have good reason to accept lower pay in a new position than you had in your last, “You don’t want to be embarrassed, even though you are keeping that information to yourself.”

There are other possibilities.

A pooling of resources. A contribution of efforts of some sort. One successful retail chain I know was a joint network of a college professor together with his students. They formed the shop and became very successful.

Another bookstore coffee shop I know was formed by classmates and friends.

Do not worry about the pay. This is not the time to consider pay issues. The moment you are employed the more you are connected to future possibilities. Meanwhile you start out something and learn. Again this involves a healthy sense of perspective.

When you were in college and you wanted to learn things you had to pay tuition fees. Now you’re learning once more and you’re getting paid. So it’s not too bad a deal after all.

Finally on a personal note, remember the following:

Your worth as a human being does not diminish because you are out of your job. You and your job are not the same. You are created by God as a human being not as a human doing.

Stick in there. Don’t do foolish things. Don’t expect overnight solutions but wait for the right things to happen.

Have a change of lifestyle. Be frugal. There is nothing wrong with being wise and humble at this point. Don’t focus on what you don’t have but focus on what you have.

If you cannot have the best of everything, make the best of everything you have.

Forget the past frills, thrills, and perks. If it is God’s will He would give it back to you but meanwhile – Make do with what you have.

Be productive with your time. Cultivate a humble spirit. Maybe your job in the past kept you from dealing with the more important things in life. Things like spending lots of time and investing lots of love to the members of your family. Maybe your job in the past made it impossible to be committed to Christ. Maybe NOW’s the time He has your full attention.

No man is exempted from the storms in life. The only difference is that the person who has an intimate personal relationship with the Savior has an anchor in the midst of the storm. Maybe this is the time for you to put your entire trust and submission in Him who holds our life in the now and in the future.

I hope this series has been a source of help for you.  You and I are in this together. But God loves us so and that’s all that matters.

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1. You need a time of solitude. A quiet time experience if you will. Intervals of solitude.

By the way, it is important to remind yourself that solitude is not loneliness. Solitude is a chosen form of isolation; it is good for you. It provides you with the necessary dimensions of space and time to figure things out, to work things through. It is good to be alone but it is never good to be lonely.

2. You will need friends. You have to get visible, tangible, audible human support–to help you fend off loneliness as you try to get to know yourself, plan a strategy to market yourself, and then stick to your plan, without losing heart, as you work through the implementation stage of a well-planned strategy.

3. You need focus. A financial services manager in California put it briefly and simply: “Getting a new position is my responsibility, and working to that end calls for dedication, innovative thought, and persistence. Personal networking is extremely important. I’m preparing a larger nest egg in case it happens again. Finally, I’d advise others: don’t be bitter or vengeful.” This will surely affect your next job and sometimes the damage becomes an irreparable part of your character.

One piece of advice. Do not bad mouth your employer or your company even if they deserve it. There is no such thing as a perfect business organization and similarly there is no perfect employer too. The problem with bad mouthing is that it indelibly forms a permanent shape in your character and you bring it with you wherever you go.

Job interviewers always sense this and they begin to rationalize. At the back of their heads they will say, well, if you were not satisfied with your previous employment then what made you stay with them anyway? Second is this. If you have the destructive capacity to spread poison all over the place, then what would stop you from doing the same to your new employment the moment you’re not happy with the way things are being run.

4. You need to have a healthy sense of perspective. How you react to the current situation, NOT THE SITUATION will determine your rate of future success – or failure. Understand the following:

You were not responsible for the job loss. There’s absolutely no one to blame for what happened. The economic crisis is upon us. Change is upon us. Things will be more difficult from here on so if you have the habit of blaming yourself, then stop this foolishness immediately.

Next, understand that failure is not fatal. It is not a permanent stumbling block, it is a stepping stone. Remember that failure is an event – not a person. You’re simply out of a job that’s all, you’re not a failure. Just because you don’t have a job now does not mean your worth and value as a person has been diminished.

Let me end with a special thought courtesy of Louisa May Alcott, author of “Little Women,” who was encouraged by her family to try to find work as a servant or seamstress. “You put your trust in God. Submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Because you and God can set a winning course. Hang on to those goals and dreams – even if no one else does!”

Remember:
Walt Disney was once fired from a newspaper for lack of ideas.

Thomas Edison’s teacher said he was too stupid to learn anything.

Albert Einstein’s teacher once remarked that Albert was “mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams.”

Leo Tolstoy, author of “War and Peace,” flunked out of college and was described as “unable and unwilling to learn.”

The father of world-famous sculptor Francois Rodin said, “I have an idiot for a son.” Henry Ford went broke five times before he succeeded.

Beethoven’s teacher called him hopeless as a composer.

There’s only one thing I ask of you before we finish this series with our concluding part tomorrow. That a few years from now, your name will be added to this list so that you will be used by God to encourage someone else too.

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Principle Number 1 is: to face the Emotional Costs – and get it over with!

Principle Number 2 is: to understand where you are in the 5 emotional stages in the process of mourning.

Principle Number 3 is: to get support from friends. To support each other too but to talk and focus only on positive things. To share experiences for the purpose of helping each other.

Today we’ll focus on the 4th and 5th principles which involve a great amount of attitude work.

Principle number 4 is to turn the experience into a growth opportunity.

When you’re ready emotionally and spiritually, you can now turn your experience into a growth opportunity. Assess the situation and be honest with yourself.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Did I inadvertently contribute to the situation?
• Was there anything I might have done differently?
• Did I learn anything that I can apply in my next job?

Deal with these. Forget the blame game. It won’t bring you anywhere.

This is the process of turning your experience into your growth opportunity. Bring out those business cards. Think of the people you know. Networking is always important.

But understand that every life experience is a learning lesson.

If you’re out of your job that does not make you a failure. What makes you fail is when you did not learn anything from your experience.

Understand this. There is neither disgrace nor shame to be laid off or to be out of job at a time like this. Only stupid people would look down at a jobless person during these difficult times.

As I face the group of people who are now jobless I said, “Hey guys, listen. You may see this whole experience as the loss of something precious or you may choose to look at it as a brand new start to do something else. Maybe you’ve always wanted to go into business, Maybe you’ve always put off that project you know you can do with your talent. You may want to look at this situation as a big vacation break – without pay of course – but a great time to reconsider priorities. Maybe it’s something as simple as spending a lot more time with the family. Giving time to the kids. Turn the experience into a growth experience. Downtime into Uptime.

The 5th principle and the last one in our series is this:

To do strategic thinking.

Strategic planning begins with strategic thinking, ask the following questions:

• What sets me apart?
• What (or where) is my comparative advantage?

Get a piece of paper. Divide it into 2 columns and list down your areas of strength and weaknesses.
This is the best time to look at yourself in the mirror and be honest with yourself.

When you were working, you probably did not bother, nor had taken the time to list down your true person. Sorting out the strengths from the weaknesses. You probably buried yourself to a lot of activities thinking you never needed any moment to do so.
But now you need to do it. This is part of strategic thinking and planning.

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First is to face the Emotional Costs – and get it over with! Understanding that the loss of a job is still an experience dealing with a loss of something valuable in life. Face the emotional costs of it. Mourn and grieve over it and do not pretend as if it doesn’t hurt.

Second principle is to understand where you are in the 5 emotional stages in the process of mourning. After which you can move on to do something else. Your amount of recovery depends on the stage of emotional condition you find yourself in.

Denial. Bargaining. Anger. Depression. Acceptance.

Dealing with these can be difficult, and may require more time than you would think. But you got to get over it! And this is why the topic we will be discussing today fills in the time gap while you are getting through the different stages. And so the third principle is to find and get Support.

This is the reason why if you belong to a small group of people you can trust then it makes all the difference. I still recall the day when this huge company laid off many of their people. I decided to form a support group, got a few friends who used to work for that company before involved in it. Tried contacting some of the laid off people so we could render help and assistance… in the mean time.

We were expecting a handful of them. But when more than twenty showed up I knew there was a great need. There I found myself facing a bunch of very talented, very good looking and very well traveled men and women who suddenly found themselves jobless, and they’re depressed, angry, disappointed and though none of them would admit it, they were in great fear.

We met on a Saturday afternoon. I knew they were skeptical. Quickly I assured them that the meeting was not a recruiting process to get them involved in any marketing scheme, then I assured them that the meeting was held for their benefit, not mine and then we began talking.

I explained to them why retrenchments happen. But I reminded them that there is life apart from the company they worked for and that the important thing is to support each other in the interim. There was one rule I imposed however. That the meetings will go on as long as each participant bring his or her own food plus one portion more for somebody who does not. Now here is the punch line. The moment somebody who has been helped by this group lands a job, it would be their moral obligation to exhaust everything within their means to help another one within the group. That’s the only payment I am asking for to which they readily agreed.

Man I’m telling you. I never felt a feeling of joy and fulfillment that very afternoon knowing that there are things that we all can do to help others who are in need. Why? Because the time will come too when we would be in need ourselves and we’ll have a treasury of friends who would be willing to help us.

Finding support is crucial to your success in landing another job.

The meetings went on for a few more months. I invited experts who would speak on how to make resumes, helped some of them with basic computer skills and the results were very positive. One participant discovered her artistic skills and her love for cooking. Opened a restaurant and became very successful. I dared another one to go into partnership with his friend and open up a construction business and it became successful.

You have to get support by supporting others too. Get yourself in the company of positive people so that you don’t spend the rest of your lives reliving the whole melancholicy experience. A bitter spirit is transferable and contagious. Misery loves company and that’s the company you don’t need at the moment. Talk about it. Share experiences so that all of you can get the right perspectives on things that are happening.

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Hi! We’re continuing with our on going series entitled “Dealing With Layoffs.” Today we’ll deal with the 5th emotional stage every person has to go through as he or she experiences loss of something valuable – including his job.

1st stage is Denial. 2nd stage is Bargaining or negotiations. 3rd stage is Anger. 4th stage is Depression and then finally the 5th stage is Acceptance.

You’re not alone in this.

Listen to this guy’s story:

When he was 7 years old, his family was forced out of their home on a legal technicality, and he had to work to help support them.

When he was 9 years old his mother died.

When he was 22 years old he lost his job as a store clerk. He wanted to go to law school but he lacked the education.

When he was 23 years old he went into debt to become a partner in a small store.

At the age of 26 his business partner died, leaving him a huge amount of debt that took years to repay.

When he was 28 years old and after courting a girl for 4 years, he asked her to marry him and you can guess what she said, she said “no!”

When he was 37 years old and on his third try, he was elected to congress. But 2 years later, he failed to be reelected.

When he was 41 years old his 4 year old son died.

At the age of 45 he ran for the senate and lost.

When he was 47 years old he failed as the vice-presidential candidate.

At 49, he ran for the senate again and lost.

Frankly I don’t know how many times this person has to pass through the 5 stages of emotional conditions. Pick himself up and then face the world with a brand new resolve and a brand new strength and then seek to conquer it. Because at the age of 51 years old, he was elected president of the United States of America. A firm believer and follower of the Bible and his name was Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln came to accept that trials, ordeals and losses are part and parcel of life but he chose to accept this with a healthy disposition and made trials worked for him.

The Acceptance stage is the most dangerous stage. This is where you have to decide to give up and be a failure all your life or this is the time when you decide to make your experience work for you so that you end up becoming a stronger person – raring and daring to conquer the world ahead. Again it’s your choice.

My friend who is a scuba dive master would remind me that many tragedies under water happen because people simply quit. His story still reminds me.

A diver had become trapped while exploring the wreckage of a sunken ship. He tried everything he could think of to get out, but with no success. As his supply of air ran lower and lower, he discovered that his biggest battle was against the urge to give up and die. But he kept trying. Finally, his air tanks nearly empty, he succeeded in attracting another diver’s attention, and he was rescued! If he had given up, the result would have been tragic. Once he accepted the fact that everything would be useless, then the end would come.

Job loss is a temporary situation. Your attitude and the choices you make are permanent. They become a part of your character. You’ve got to have the quality called: “stick-to-itiveness.” This term may not be in everyone’s vocabulary, but its meaning is clear. It refers to a person’s ability to stay with a project or face a negative situation, work on something else with all of his heart and might until the desired results are achieved.

Just imagine what would have happened had this quality been absent in other people. The farmer who sows his field but abandons the farm because of dry weather. Later the weather changes and the crop flourishes, but the owner is gone. Because he didn’t “stick to it,” he misses out on the harvest.

The businessman who fails in his first attempt. Decides never to go back into business and remains a bum all of his life. The couple who face difficulties in their relationship. Decides to give up and break apart leaving their children to inherit a broken family.

Acceptance Stage means you’re willing to accept that something inconvenient has happened. Good. Thank God for the learning experience. Now it’s time to move on and look for better things ahead. May take a little time but if the heart is right and the spirit is willing and the dependence on God is there, then the journey has begun.

Learn from Abraham Lincoln, the main character of today’s message. He says: I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back.

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The angel, thinking this is a modest request, agreed. “Good!” the devil exclaimed, as he laughed to himself. “In that one gift, I have secured all.”

In his book Depression, What It Is and What to Do About It, Roger Barrett describes this condition as: “a miserable, wretched experience that leaves you exhausted, uninvolved, and in deep, hopeless despair. There seems to be absolutely nowhere to turn and not one single thing you can do to escape these horrible feelings. You feel doomed, trapped, and at the end of your rope… It’s awful!”

Depression. This is the next stage of the emotional condition one enters through when he experiences a loss.

Hi! We’ve been dealing with the subject matter of “Dealing with Layoffs” and a few days ago, we talked about the different emotional stages one enters through. We first started with the stage of mourning. A grieving for a loss. But after that the situation drifts into that of bargaining. An attempt to negotiate. And then it leads to anger. Explosive, dangerous and destructive.

After anger comes depression. Now this is a dangerous stage. Suddenly the world turns silent. The birds lose its music and the stars lose its sparkle. Food becomes tasteless and nights become sleepless. The world becomes dry and life becomes a drag.

Memories come back. The days you used to enjoy. Now they’re gone. It seems like Barbara’s Streisand’s song Memories of the way it used to be keeps ringing in your ear.

Well this is what happens when you fail to get out of the rut.

There is a loss. For others the life of a loved one, for me my briefcase with all my valuables in it, for you perhaps your job. You’ve experienced denial, you bargained and negotiated. You got angry and now you’re feeling depressed. Not very safe a condition I would say.

Depression is a condition of prolonged sadness, marked by feelings of hopelessness and an inability to think clearly. Depressed persons are apt to think, “I’m worthless. I’m a failure. I can’t handle stress. There’s no hope. I’ll never feel better again.”

But do you know that even godly people in the bible were not exempted from this condition? Elijah is a case in point. After being on the mountaintop, he experienced a great letdown. He had won a stunning victory over the prophets of Baal and had run 17 miles in the strength of the Lord. Then he learned that Jezebel had vowed to kill him. Fear gripped his heart, and he fled for his life. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, he gave in to feelings of worthlessness and despair.

The Lord was gentle, however. He left Elijah rest, fed him, and strengthened him for the next leg of the journey. But Elijah’s sadness continued. So the Lord assured him of His presence. He then gave him a companion, Elisha, and a new task to perform. God knows all about depression. The record of Elijah shows us that feelings of utter aloneness do not mean that God has abandoned us. They only block our awareness of His presence. Those who wait helplessly on Him may feel hopeless. But they never are.

Do not be alone. Look for friends but may I remind you to look for those who have a positive outlook in life. Those whose faith in Christ is strong are over-comers because of the Hope they have in their hearts.

In my own times of depression – I look to the left and I look to the right and I see nothing but gloom and darkness. But when I look up I get a sense of reassurance that there’s no need for me to be down.

After depression comes Acceptance – which is the last stage of the emotional conditions one goes through whenever a loss is experienced.

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As I stood inside that airport recovering from the shock of the realization that my briefcase has been stolen, I realize that there I went through 5 emotional stages very quickly in my mind. Today I have learned that whether you lose a job, or you lose a loved one or you lose your briefcase; the same stages of emotions hit you right in the face and the key here is to identify which emotional stage you are in so that you can move on and do the next right thing.

So you’re out of a job. You’ve been laid off. The first stage you have to pass through as we talked about it yesterday is the stage of mourning your loss. Now you go to the next step which is to identify which emotional stage you are in so you can pass it through time:

Understand this. The aftereffects of job loss are similar to the stages of grieving that follow divorce or the death of a loved one. Or may I add, the loss of a leather briefcase.

Here are the stages:

1. Denial

You say to yourself, “No this is a joke. This is not happening. It’s just a dream. In a little while I’m gonna wake up and all these would go away. Maybe my briefcase was misplaced. Maybe somebody simply took it by mistake and will have the golden heart to return it to me. “Maybe all of these will be resolved. The company will reinstate us back pretty soon and my job continues. There is a denial at this point.
Watch this. “Maybe the rumor about my husband’s unfaithfulness is just what it is – a rumor.” “Maybe he’s not really stealing our money, he’s just borrowing some of it.”

Denial. It all starts here. I looked around, I realized that the only place where I put my briefcase was on top of the airport luggage cart. And it’s not there. No use denying that one. I quickly graduated to the second emotional stage.

2. Bargaining

You begin to plead. You’ve negotiated your way out of a difficult situation before. And now you’re doing it again. “If I can just report this to the airport police, then maybe they can block the whole place off – you know – like what you see in the movies – they will send in their SWAT team or maybe the DELTA Force led by none other than Chuck Norris himself and then the culprit will be caught red-handed and my briefcase will be returned.

Maybe if we can just talk it out with management or do something to force their hands into reinstating us back, then we’ll have our jobs back.

Look at this scenario… maybe I can just talk with her peacefully. To tell her to leave my husband alone. Then our marriage will return to normal. This is the negotiating and the bargaining stage. And when I realized that the airport police was not going to declare a state of emergency on my account, when I realized that tourists are being ripped off everyday in many of the world’s major airports and train stations and that I happen to make someone richer that day, then I realize I cannot negotiate my way out of the situation so I graduate into the next stage of emotions and this is:

3. Anger

Those lazy security people. Stupid airport and I even went to the extent of thinking what a country that was – not being able to secure the safety and security of their visitors. My mind began blaming their government, their parliament. Angry at my own stupidity and carelessness. Angry for the policemen’s total lack of concern. Angry at the world.

You feel cheated. You feel it’s unfair. You’ve worked hard and you’ve been efficient and now they’re taking your job away from you. You begin to think of those who remained with the company and you look at them with contempt. This is what anger does.

You hate that other woman. You hate your husband. You hate his betrayal, his total lack of concern for the kids. You begin to see mental scenes of how you’re going to pour acid on his face and rip the hair off her head. Explosive. Destructive. This is what anger is capable of. Suddenly unprintable vocabulary you never knew was there came flying out of your mouth. And like a well-timed bomb – anger explodes and when the dust is settled you graduate to the next emotional stage which is: depression.

But let me end with a note of caution. Anger is dangerous and anger destroys. While it is true that part of our design is to have the ability to feel anger but we are not to harbor it for it seeks to destroy.

This is why the Word of God says that we are not to let the sun go down on our anger and in our anger we should not sin. Don’t forget. Anger is simply one letter short of danger.

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I’ve always believed that man is created in the image and likeness of God and that God Himself is a Worker. Remove work from a person and it leaves him with an emptiness he can’t explain. It’s not just the salary, it’s the worth and value of being useful and productive.

Now counter this with the many who are dissatisfied with their jobs, who long for the things they do not have but failed to enjoy the benefits of the things they do have. Who feel that work is a curse and an interruption of weekends. And then you’ll see the irony of life.

Man is always a discontented creature. And he never learns to appreciate something unless that very thing is taken away from him. This is why the happy man is the contented man. He knows that if he cannot have the best of everything, then he makes the best of everything he has.

But the economic challenges are upon us. There are conditions beyond our control. Some of the most efficient and hard working people I know are out of jobs. And if you’re caught in a situation like this, what do you do?

Here are the practical principles:

1. FACE THE EMOTIONAL COSTS

Get over with!

Take time to mourn the loss of your job, as you would any other loss. Don’t fight it. Admit that this hurts. This is where I strongly refute the “positive thinking people” who think that they can positively think their way out of a difficult situation.

At this stage, all those foolish talks about “visualization, positive thinking, hyper-faith and principles on attracting wealth and good things would sound satirical and tyrannical.” The Scriptures say that there is a time for joy and a time for mourning. This is a time for mourning. So go through the process. The degree to which you effectively work through the shock will determine how quickly you can get back on your feet and mount a successful job search.

However, be careful that in your moments of grief, you let your imagination run wild. Do not let this event in your life cloud you to what you still can achieve. Worry clouds the mind. You won’t be able to think straight. Worrying doesn’t add another day to your life and it leads to further complications.

Larry Roberts was right. He said that worry is the misuse of imagination. Do not succumb to this. You’ve worked hard for the company, a situation has arisen and you have no control over it. You lose your job – you’ll miss it, you’ll miss your friends, certain perks and privileges will be taken from you so what else?

Grieve. But not for too long.

Bitterness and Resentment are the 2 most dangerous things that can happen to you at this point. Bitterness is inflicting harm on others while resentment is inflicting harm on the self. Bitterness is poison and resentment is cancer and they are both perilous.

If a rattlesnake is cornered, it can become so frenzied that it will accidentally bite itself with its deadly fangs. In the same way, when a person harbors hatred and resentment in his heart, he is often hurt by the poison of his own malice. He thinks he is injuring his enemies by displaying his wrath, but the real harm is inflicted deep within his own soul.

Here’s what the authorities have to say:

Dr. William Gaylin, in his book Feelings: Our Vital Signs, pointed out that “resentment often arises when we believe we aren’t getting what is due us from another person. We feel unfairly cheated or betrayed. And brooding leads to all kinds of trouble.”

In her book Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion, Carol Tavris defined resentment as “readiness to feel anger, a rehearsal for anger that doesn’t flower. And the saddest part of it is that we all tend to want to blame another person for the resentment we feel, instead of larger, pervasive issues like stress related to unemployment.”

Grief is part of life. You lost your job therefore mourn for your loss. But get it over with so that you can move on to the next step which is what we will be discussing tomorrow. A self-analysis as to which emotional stage you are in so you can pass it through time.

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We’ve seen in the past few days how massive changes have affected the lives of people in the work place. Many industries have been affected. All because technological developments have suddenly rendered them obsolete. Remember how long it took us to have our landlines installed? Remember when we used to fight with “party lines?” And now I cannot even remember my home land line numbers and for the life of me I cannot understand why credit card companies would ask me to enumerate them to verify my identity.

Take the travel agency industry for instance. With one click on the mouse a traveler can scout for the latest promotional deal certain airlines are offering. You can book for your flight, choose your seat preference pay with your credit card on a secured site and enjoy the savings you would not have had because agencies in the past kept it to themselves. This eliminates the middleman’s profits and the travelers get to enjoy it. The fact is that there are many travel agencies that are going out of business.

Suddenly the big 3 car companies are asking for a government bailout.

Finance companies with hundred of years of history and reliability behind them declared bankruptcy. These are all interruptions that come into play. Both because technology have made it possible and also because of the human greed factor that comes into play. But that is not what we are going to talk about.

Elbert Hubbard was right. He says that the world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

But Alfred North Whitehead says it better. “The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.” Maybe this is the reason why many companies can no longer compete. They are still stuck with the old model of doing business.

But then again there are those who are affected by conditions beyond their control.

The recent economic meltdown is one such situation.

Today we’ll talk about the realities behind job layoffs. There are 2 basic things you have to know about job layoffs:

1. SOME LAYOFFS ARE COMPLETELY UNAVOIDABLE.

Perhaps the company is no longer involved in the part of the business in which you have worked. Some companies scrapped their entire sales force because of their new retail concession/consignment arrangements. Suppliers deal directly with retail stores or distributors and then suddenly the middle man called “the salesman” finds himself or herself in a career that no longer exists. Just think about this. How many bank tellers would have been added to the industry had there been no invention of Automated teller Machines?

Perhaps in a merger, your work becomes a redundancy. In an age where the flattening of the organization becomes a requirement for survival, certain people would have to be let go.

2. IT CANNOT SUPPORT MORE THAN THE MOST ELEMENTARY OPERATIONS.

The recent economic crunch that has affected so many companies will now have to do everything within its power not to grow their business but to simply survive the hard times. Bankruptcy, companies becoming insolvent. Maybe because of over-expansion and then the expected sales were canceled. Many because of the current economic crisis. And you find yourself in a company that can no longer support its elementary operations and thus, certain people will have to be laid off and you are one of them. These are conditions beyond your control.

The purpose of this series is not to engage anyone in a debate whether job layoffs are justified or not. That is not my point and nobody benefits from such argument. The purpose of this study is to study principles on how we respond correctly if we are caught in a situation such as this.

Just remember this. If you are asked to leave, it’s in your best interest to keep your cool. Resist the temptation to blow up at your employer. Sure, it’s unlikely you’ll ever be asked back to your job, but there is that saying about burning bridges, remember?

Keep your cool. You’re going to need it in order to let this study penetrate your mind.

The French have a saying: they say that anger is a bad counselor. And they’re right!

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I remember dramatically looking at each person in the room. Fact is I remembered my speech. “Ladies and gentlemen, 5 months.” Yes. That’s how I started my speech. Always a sucker for the dramatic. “5 more months is all I am asking for. I don’t want you to do anything different, just continue doing what you’ve been doing this year and I can assure you that 1997 will be our banner year. We may even go home this Christmas with some big fat checks in terms of bonuses.” I can still see those smiles on their faces. Some tried to hide it, others were more expressive, but every single face in the room was filled with joy. There were cheers and there was a little celebration as I showed them the figures. And then I left for Vegas. Attended a convention. On the 11th of July the dollar rose sharply against the Peso. And from that time on the Peso never regained.

On September I convened a meeting. There was no food, no snacks this time. Every face was somber. Every eye wide with apprehension and worry. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to tell you that I have absolutely no idea whether this company will have to close or whether it can manage to stay open next year. Cash flow is now our problem. We have a crisis and I need your cooperation and understanding.”

Funny how things can change from good to worse in so short a time. And all these took place within a few weeks. Isn’t this the same situation we are going through these days?

Change happens and it can happen fast – very fast.

No one can ever be prepared for what is taking place today. Suddenly the top Billionaires in the world have lost billions and in fact one of them have gone from billions to zero net worth! Economic meltdown. Credit Crunch. Crisis here and crisis there… so what is a crisis anyway?

I define a crisis as something unexpected that comes in between me and my goals. That something was never there in our strategic planning equation. That something will force me to get out of my regular routine and do things differently. In other words, a crisis is a disruption and life disruptions happen all the time.

Crisis therefore is a way of life. It’s an inevitable part of our daily agenda. And once we understand the word from this angle then we put ourselves in the right frame of mind in dealing with disruptions that come along the way.

Here are some examples of crisis situations. Disruptions in life.

Tony, Johnny and Ramon were at a convention together & were sharing a large suite on the top of a 75-story skyscraper. After a long day of meetings, they were shocked to hear that the elevators in their hotel were broken & they would have to climb 75 flights of stairs to get to their room. Tony said to Johnny and Ramon, “Let’s break the monotony of this unpleasant task by concentrating on something interesting. I’ll tell jokes for 25 flights, Johnny can sing songs for the next 25 flights and Ramon can tell sad stories for the rest of the way.”

At the 26th floor, Tony stopped telling jokes & Johnny began to sing. At the 51st floor Johnny stopped singing & Ramon began to tell sad stories.
“I will tell my saddest story first,” he said. “I left the room key in the car!” Now that’s a crisis.

I don’t mean to be insensitive. With such a serious subject matter as dealing with layoffs, some times funny stories become untimely. But my intention is to make things light for things are as heavy as it is already. There’s absolutely no sense in making your day heavier.

On the nex post, we’ll deal with the 4 agents of change as we continue this series. But for whatever its worth, don’t take life too hard, no one gets out of it alive anyway. Life is still a gift from the Author of Life and once we connect ourselves to Him, then He’ll show us the way to live it to the full.

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy