The day you get laid off usually starts like any other. But it sure ends differently.
When I’m not waxing rhapsodic in this column each week, I work in the entertainment industry full time. Or at least I did. Until two weeks ago.
After overseeing the layoff of several colleagues, hearing things like “economic downturn,” “declining revenues” and “difficult cutbacks” repeated to each, I moved from one side of the table to the other. Terminator to terminatee.
Times have been hard, so it was somewhat expected, as were the placating closing words: “It has nothing to do with your performance. As soon as things turn around you’ll be the first one called back. Stay in touch, and let us know if you need a recommendation.”
Yeah, I’ve said those words too.
So home I went to begin the seven stages of job loss grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Beer, Tequila, Häagen Dazs, Acceptance. I’m much better now.
I was laid off once before, and to be honest, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Freelancing to make ends meet gave me a new appreciation for employers. Belt tightening is always a good lesson. And I lost 15 pounds.
Since then I’ve grown irritated with my employer, bought exercise equipment that collected more dust than I did muscle, and I gained 20 pounds.
As well as joining many friends and acquaintances in the ranks of the laid off, I am also now a member of the alarming 12% in the workforce who are unemployed. And while they say the economy is turning around, they also say California will be at the tail end of that turnaround.
I’m not unlike millions of people in any other field. You work hard, think you’re safe, commit yourself to a company for years hoping someday it succeeds and the profits at the top will trickle down to those working so hard in the trenches. Then you find that in business there is no such thing as true security. In the hands of men, there are no Golden Rules when money is involved.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not good when I find I’m not really in control of my life. I panic with the same shock I get when I’m sick and find my body doing nasty things I can’t stop by sheer willpower.
Maybe it’s just a lesson that I need to learn, which is why I repeat it so much. But I am not in control. And looking back at my life, I wonder if I’ve ever been.
