I saw a LinkedIn post this morning hypothesizing about Google’s process to select who would be laid off. This post repeatedly refers to those impacted as being fired. For the mental well-being of those affected, DO NOT USE THAT WORD. If you or someone you know was laid off, DO NOT USE THAT WORD. Not even as a joke.
Fired means you did something wrong; that you were ineffective in your role, had a bad attitude, a pattern of bad performance, or more extreme, you broke corp policy; harassment, embezzling, all the other nefarious things one can think of.
Sure, there are instances where a layoff is used to solve people problems but more than likely, it was nothing personal. It’s due to a change in business direction; a change in the economy. It's a direction from the top to cut x people at x level(s). It’s not you, it’s them.
I’ve been on all sides of the coin: Laid off, surviving a layoff, the painful task of deciding who would be laid off or being told who from my team to lay off (I haven’t decided if either case is easier) followed by fighting to not have a high performer laid off or fighting to keep an underperformer who does a job no one else knows.
What Now
If you’ve been impacted, it’s an emotional roller coaster for a while. You face all the stages of grief. Shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger, bargaining, depression. At some point, you will hopefully hit that upward turn and begin moving forward with acceptance and a new beginning.
If you’re one of the survivors, the left behind, it’s picking up more work. It’s looking around to see who is still there. It’s figuring out who is responsible for what now. It’s also waiting for the other shoe to drop. Are there more layoffs coming? Will I be next?
One thing I do know is you will likely never really know why you were selected, why you weren’t or why you weren’t, for now. Dwelling on it won’t give you answers.
Regardless of how you process forced life changes, the words in your head matter; the stories you tell yourself matter. Words are seeds. Seeds that will grow and permeate our souls. Telling yourself laid off means the same thing as being fired is self-sabotage. It lowers your value and contribution. It negates your hard work. It tells you that you will never work again.
Being laid off is out of your control. Does it suck? Hell yes, it both sucks and blows. But being laid off is not a reflection on you or your work.
Even if you were on the verge of actually being fired. Hey, lucky day for you. You can now tell people you were part of those horrible post-pandemic, economy-going-to-hell layoffs along with hundreds of thousands of others. Take this a second chance.
We are in a new time now. More change in the world than your 2019 self would ever believe. A lot of good people’s careers have been forced to deviate. Maybe they were ready for a change, maybe they were perfectly happy where they were. Doesn’t matter now.
Either way, we’re in a time when so many extremely talented people find themselves forced to take their next career step. We need to support those people in the most positive ways possible. Let’s change the narrative of what this means.
A constant narrative I have in my head that things happen for a reason. This forces me to look at the upside and trust the road I’m on. Looking toward what amazing door might open next, rather than looking bad at doors slammed shut, makes the journey more interesting. It’s a bit like a choose-your-own-adventure. Part of this is just how I’m wired; part is how I’ve learned to survive.
Towards the end of the dot.com bust, I was laid off for the third time in 5 years. My list of unemployed friends was longer than the employed list. I was done; ready for a change. I wanted to get out of the telecom industry, I was ready for a move to a bigger city; I wanted a fresh start.
I was open to most anything but focused on locations I thought I might like and industries I found interesting. Within a couple of months, I ended up with three offers: One at Nike in Oregon; another with a large automotive retailer in Arizona, and the third with Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta.
Looking at these offers was like an episode of House Hunters. Nike was a dream job but there was something weird between the recruiting agency and Nike over who found me first and the offer just kept getting worse. I also didn’t know a soul in Oregon. The Arizona offer was good, eCommerce was interesting but automotive and/or Arizona was not. Thr thought of working at Turner was exciting, I had been to Atlanta several times and had one friend there (whose connections helped me get the job). Turner and Atlanta were the winners and a choice that has given me amazing friends and a career I never could have imaged back in 2002.
I often think back to that time as a sliding door moment. What would my life be like if I had chosen a different door? I look back with pride at how I moved through that time. The anger, fear, or sadness is just a long ego moment. I had a tough run for a few years, as many of us did. But I pushed through, held on to my vision, and I came out of it for the better.
This is about you
For those of you on week or month 1 of being unemployed this walk down my lane of memories may be too much for you right now. Honestly, my path isn’t what matters. It’s just an example of someone who was laid off, not once but three times, early in their career and lived to talk about it.
What now? Hopefully, you got a decent severance package. Give yourself some time to decompress, think about what you want to do next, and take the ride.
The point of all this is to be kind to yourself; be kind to others during this time. Force yourself to tune out the negative words that float through your head. Kick the devil off your shoulder and give the cheerleader full reign.
If you’ve picked up anything from this, remember; DO NOT USE THE WORD FIRED when talking about a layoff. A layoff is simply a push down the path of new opportunities with a severance package to help you get there.