{"id":220483,"date":"2016-05-11T13:00:16","date_gmt":"2016-05-11T20:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=220483"},"modified":"2018-11-21T09:08:23","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T17:08:23","slug":"layoff-catastrophe-or-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/layoff-catastrophe-or-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Layoff: Catastrophe or Opportunity?"},"content":{"rendered":"
At the age of 50, I was laid off.<\/p>\n
It was a Thursday morning in August of 2013 and it came on a conference call along with hundreds of co-workers. I had been working in one way or another since the age of 13 \u2014 babysitting, apple picking, camp counselor, journalist. It was the first time I had ever been involuntarily out of work.<\/p>\n
Did I mention it happened while I was technically on vacation? Yep. I had to dial in to a conference call to lose my job while at the beach on Cape Cod. Oh, Corporate America.<\/p>\n
I knew it was coming. If my working life back then had been a horror movie, I was the character that gets killed first: I was upper-level management, was paid handsomely, got lots of bonuses and didn’t actually produce anything (although of course that part wasn’t true). I knew I was a goner.<\/p>\n
I was certainly not alone. According to a 2014 study by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, 1 out of 5 Americans lost their job during the Great Recession that began in 2008. Nearly 40% said it took more than seven months to find a new job and about one in five of laid-off workers said all they could find was a temporary position. Almost half \u2014 46% \u2014 of the estimated 30 million layoffs who found new jobs said they paid less than their previous position.<\/p>\n
Oh, goody! I had a lot to look forward to.<\/p>\n
The most important thing: I did not panic. My husband was employed, I received a decent severance, we had enough in the bank, the state of Connecticut would send me a regular check to help us stay afloat (I made sure to take care of all the bureaucracy right away), so we had a cushion. No one would starve, we wouldn’t lose the house, the dog would continue to get treats.<\/p>\n
The other important thing I did during my early days of unemployment was to set some rules:<\/p>\n
*You are allowed to drink rum punches at lunch if your best friend from New Jersey shows up on a Friday at noon.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I took a deep breath. While I was mindlessly trolling LinkedIn and randomly applying for jobs I wasn’t interested in that tens of thousands of others were also putting in for, I thought about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Based on my genetics, at the age of 50, I might well be working for another 40 years! I needed to figure this out.<\/p>\n Journalism, my life’s calling for 30 years, was not exactly in lifeboat-shape at the time (or still). And my husband is a reporter. There weren’t a lot of options locally, and moving was out of the question.<\/p>\n A friend who owned a coffee shop told me if I ran her Facebook page (which she said was killing her), she would give me free coffee and let me use her wi-fi. Deal. I figured if I could find a dry cleaner and a wine shop that wanted to trade social media for services, I’d be set.<\/p>\n And so an idea began to form. My favorite part about my last job had not so much been the journalism, but the conversation. And the conversation on social platforms, like Facebook and Twitter. Hmmm.<\/p>\n And then I got off my butt and I networked my brains out, face to face. I paid $25 to attend a local Chamber of Commerce seminar, and spent the entire time working the crowd \u2026 ending up with two part-time jobs, including one with the Chamber itself. I would be making a fraction of my previous salary, but it was a start. I joyously moved from unemployed to underemployed!<\/p>\n The mother of a child my daughter babysits for bumped into me in the grocery store and spent 20 minutes sharing her tale of marketing\/PR woe at the nonprofit she runs. Voila. Job number 3. I was now technically employed full-time, by 3 different low-paying entities. It was a slow build and I learned some hard lessons, but more than two years later I have a long client list and make more than I did at my last job. I am happy, fulfilled, and my quality of work-life balance is the best it’s ever been.<\/p>\n When we did our taxes this year, our accountant actually hugged me. “I’m proud of you,” he said. “I wasn’t sure you’d be able to do this, but you are kicking ass.”<\/p>\n<\/span>It’s all about connections<\/span><\/h2>\n