When your brass ring turns green: Tips and thoughts on being downsized.

Part 1 – Introduction

This is part 1 in a series of blogs on dealing with displacement. While I can’t lay claim to having the answers or even any degrees or formal training in life coaching, career counseling, or the like, what I do have is experience in the trenches. With the economic situation what it is, we all need to share our tricks and tips for getting through the rough times.

In my hometown there was one employer that everyone aspired to work for. Rumor had it a job with this company was a job for life even into the 1990’s when corporate downsizing was starting to become a normal tool for reducing operation expenses. I landed a job with this company as a fluke in the late 90s and I truly thought I had died and gone to corporate heaven. In my opinion, I had snagged the brass ring and was going to stick with the company until it was time to retire thirty-something years down the road.

Like most things that seem too good to be true, it was.

At the start of last summer, the department I worked in was eliminated and I found myself one of the displaced. Or as I preferred to think of it – I got voted off the island in a game of Survivor: Corporate Edition. There was a difficult six month transition where I still worked for the company (I called it being on Exile Island looking for that hidden immunity idol) but in reality I felt a bit like a plague carrier. People avoided talking to you for fear that displacement was a disease that could be caught from being in the same breathing space. Where before I was always busy, now I was begging for work to do and searching for a new position both internally and externally. Watching this last bastion of the old way of corporate life erode has been painful; in particular because the company truly was unique in its culture and in part because I truly believed in the ability of the company to overcome the challenges it faced.

I have been gone from the company for approximately five months now and sadly, still unemployed. Or, as my husband likes to say, gainfully un-employed since there was a nice severance package that included benefits.

Like many companies that have gone down this road, my former employer is continuing to cut its head-count and re-organize so I hear from friends still at, or recently displaced from, the company on a regular basis. Some are hoping that the economic situation isn’t as grim as the news media is painting it and that I will tell them of the largesse of job offers I am fielding. Some are looking for reassurance that there is a life after leaving the company. Some want a shoulder to cry on or an ally to commiserate with as they bemoan the unfairness of the situation.

Truth?
* The economic situation stinks and the job market is not good. I have gotten more rejection letters or e-mails than I care to dwell on.
* Yes, there is life outside of the company and frankly, it is pretty darn nice to take a break from clutching onto that corporate ladder to really consider what is or is not important in life.
* I am more than willing to listen and offer encouragement to those who are going through this.

What I will not do is engage in negative criticism of the company’s treatment of me. It does nothing and frankly – compared with some of the other stories of downsizing out on the street – I and every other employee displaced have received more consideration than the majority of companies offer these days. So this blog article is not about the evils of corporate downsizing or a swipe at my former employer. What it is intended to do is share some things I have learned and some coping techniques.

If you are interested – stay tuned. Next time I'll write about what to do when rumors are flying.