Jason Buffington .com

transcript

This is Part 2 of 2 for folks who’ve been laid off … reductions in force … reorganizations … role eliminations … whatever … most recently including 1000’s of Microsofties. It’s been 14 years since I left Microsoft and some of those that were cut this month were there when I was; that sucks.

Last week, we talked about the five stages of grief and I shared a few of my experiences over the last 30+ years.

If we are going to talk ‘bouncing forward’, we gotta talk about self-care. Self-care is actually a misnomer because you’re probably going to want your people … to vent to … to tell you it’s going to be OK … to give you ideas of where to go next … and eventually open your next doors.  You’re gonna need your people.

The challenge – if you’ve been with an organization a long time or your teams were tightly knit –you just lost some of your favorite people.

We say “stay in touch” and mean it, but:

• They’re still there and you’re not … so that can feel weird. During a layoff, they’re struggling with survivors’ guilt … and probably picking up some of your pieces,  which you’re likely less inclined to want to help with (nor should you).

• Most orgs don’t do broad lists of which folks were laid off, which means some of your favorite peeps may not know that you’re no longer there.

Don’t be surprised if you hear from less of them than you might hope, at least initially. And that really is OK. Your friends are still your friends … and after the dust settles, the real bridges will rebuild. Which means self-care — rallying those that can help you — will need to come from other parts of your personal and professional networks.

My advice is to invest time getting out of your own head, getting out of your house, and letting yourself get distracted from those five stages of grief we talked about last week.

It’s harder to be depressed or angry at your ex-boss, when you’re laughing or going on adventures. It’s easier to reduce denial or embrace acceptance when you’re already starting to hear suggestions and ideas of what could come next.

If you’re watching this, then we’re professional or personal friends.  So ring me up.  If you just got your bad news,

• I’m here now if you wanna vent
• I’ll be here later when you’re ready.

If you’ve been off grid for a while, let’s catch up, exchange ideas, share some war stories, poke fun at old colleagues, whatever.

Either way I’ll see you next Monday.