Most of my career I was really blessed, I envisioned what I wanted and got it. Studied, work hard, put in the extra time and hours, but above all I always just really enjoyed what I did and the people I worked with. When a project was successful we would celebrate after work with dinner and drinks. I was basically lucky to have cool jobs and made some stellar friendships as result of my career. Above all I had the freedom to walk away when I wanted to because (a) I never wanted to be one of these people who always complained about their job (b) I was offered an average of two jobs of month by other colleagues or headhunters looking to place me elsewhere. I took it ALL for granted.
Only twice in my career did I work in an environment where I truly despised my supervisor, yet the pay was great or the title or the company...so I sucked it up. Sometimes, just sometimes I would walk would walk into my supervisor's office thinking, "just fire me will you, I will be so much happier if I were unemployed." I stuck it out three years, once I stuck it out for five. I learned what I needed to learn, I "did the time" and put the experience of the bosses from hell under belt and moved on.
However, the first time I was ever laid off in my life was literally one month after 9/11. The dot com I was working for went from original content to reprints. All freelancers were handed pink slips. I think the devastation of 9/11, losing colleagues I had worked with or gone to school with, as well losing someone who had been very dear to me at one point in my life really derailed me from the fact that I had just been laid off.
Still somewhat cocky, I thought OK, at least I am collecting unemployment insurance, I can get past this. Within a year of being unemployed, the reality was settling in that maybe, just maybe it would not be so easy. Then my unemployment insurance ran out. The circumstances, the loss and sadness of the tragic events combined with being unemployed for the first time was a dangerous mix of emotions and fragility. I landed odd jobs here and there, nothing permanent, all freelance or temporary, but I just kept hoping it would "go back to normal." It never did. Life became a series of hires and layoffs. Under advisment of my unemployment office I launched my own business, that dug deeper into my savings, took out my 401k, just overall bad advice that I chose to follow, again, believing "it will all get better," little did I know.
Reading a recent article in Forbes, however brought me back to the 2009-20010 job I had landed, which I imagined and hoped would have turned into a solid five or eight year permanent job. I was so desperate by the time I interviewed that I would have taken any job, and the first time in my life, the reality is I did just that. I took the job not paying attention to the red flags during the interview. I just so desperately wanted a full-time steady income, I threw all else out the window.
Within three months, I was praying to be fired, my supervisor was a truly despicable man, taking advantage of a staff that were all new hires and had experienced lay offs one to many times, and one grossly long standing underpaid 30 something year old that was just sorely being abused. I had visions of what I would do with my time off, promising myself that I would better utilize my time off and that I would even champion on behalf of those who stayed behind being sorely abused. Needless to say, not just I, but four others were laid off a year later due to budget cuts and one division was entirely shut down.
Sure, as Greg Daugherty's The 2 Upsides Of Being Unemployed article writes, there are some benefits to being unemployed, allowing one to regroup, reassess and even "rehearse for retirement" but the truth of the matter unless you approach unemployment as you would a day job - you will flounder and get lost.
Looking for a job IS a full-time job, you are always on. The unemployment insurance you get is nothing if you have bills, mortgages or health care coverage that needs to be paid monthly. Secondly, we Americans tend to be workaholics, we identify who/what we are with a job and title and what unemployment does to your self image and your self-esteem is not something any of us are prepared to handle.
So my advice, yeah, after being laid off take a month or two to regroup.
- Take time to do the simple things like cleaning out that closet or garage and get around to reading that book you have wanted to read, or donating that bag of clothes that has been in the back corner of the closet or redo your resume.
- Reconnect with old and new friends and catch up - but above all let them know you are looking, aggressively looking to find employment. Network, network, network.
- Have a schedule, as crazy as it sounds. I used to send out resumes Mondays and Tuesdays, and set up interviews on Wednesdays and Thursdays, do follow up calls or set up more interviews and pay all bills on Fridays. For a while it was going well.
- Stick to a routine so you do not get lost in the shuffle or sometimes the despair wondering, "damn when will I get a a job again?"
- Always remember looking for a job IS a full-time job!
- Stick to your regular routines as best you can, while keeping the expenditures down. You can not shop as you were accustomed, do not go crazy shipping thinking, oh next month I should be working again.
- Emergencies come up, unemployment insurance runs out...life happens.
- Again, always remember looking for a job IS a full-time job!
I am working part-time now, only 8 hours a week, 16 if lucky. Reality though: mostly 4 hours a week. However, I try to keep my schedule now, Mondays and Tuesdays are for the p/t job. Keeping Wednesdays open to focus on sending out resumes. I still interview Thursdays, if/when I am actually called on an interview. I am trying to keep some semblance of a life, otherwise it can easily turn into staying in my pajamas all day and watch life pass me by.
