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Advice

7 Things to Do When You Lose Your Job

Posted December 4, 2008

Did you lose your job yesterday? Last week? Last month?

Rest assured: The Whiner knows how you feel. Whiner-in-Chief once got the ax after a colleague taped some inappropriate bitching-and-moaning and then played the tape for The Boss Man. The Boss Man, who was somewhat notorious for his absolutely insane, over-the-top, apparently uncontrollable temper-of-all-tempers, fired Whiner-in-Chief on the spot. (Fellow Whiners, it’s worth pointing out that we’ve had so many death-in-life experiences in the workplace that Bad Boss With Mood Swings and Tape Recording didn’t even get mentioned in our “Bosses from Hell” contest.)

But enough about us. If you’ve recently lost your job, we suggest, beg, and urge you in the strongest possible terms to give a try to at least some of these 7 strategies:

1. Accept confusion. It’s alright to not know what you’re going to do next, whether we’re talking about your worklife or the way you’ll be spending the day after tomorrow. (We’d be more concerned, quite honestly, about someone who seemed calm and confident since this might be synonymous with “crazy,” given our current EconoMess.) If you don’t try to repress it, something good might come out of all this confusion.

2. Don’t try to hide the bad news. You don’t need to broadcast it (although, Whiner-in-Chief constantly told the story of Bad Boss With Tape Recording to every person who made the mistake of making eye contact with us). But it’s not exactly something worth hiding, either. After all, layoffs are now getting announced so frequently (AT&T and DuPont are the latest giants to report impending mega-cuts) that we’ve begun to speculate that people who have jobs will be the ones hiding the news out of embarrassment. And it’s simply undeniable, the more people you tell, the greater the likelihood that someone somehow will be able to help you steer your way out of the confusion.

3. Ah yes, this brings us to networking. Every career advisor on the planet will tell you that this is what you need to do, in a basically shameless and relentless way, as soon as you lose your job. The Whiner would never, ever disagree with all those smart people. But we do want to raise one little caveat: In this environment, everyone is firing and very, very, very few companies are hiring. (We don’t really believe that anyone is hiring, but we realize that there’s always a theoretical possibility, so we are hedging our bets.) Our basic message: Networking can pay off for you in all kinds of ways, but helping you get a job just like your last one may not be one of them. Be prepared.

4. This is the time to broaden your community — in life, on-line, and any other way you can think about. You’ll have plenty of time to work on this project and it’s one that will help you in ways that we can’t even begin to speculate about. The more people, and the more different kinds of people, you can connect with during this period, the better. Remember: Surviving and thriving in the “new” new economy is going to take imagination, energy, and courage. Having the right community helps.

5. Switch to austerity. No, The Whiner isn’t trying to scare you. But if you’ve somehow managed to keep up your spending despite the collapse all around you of Life As We’ve Known It, here’s a news flash: this is the time to cut back. And we’re talking about really cutting back, since there’s no way of telling how long it will take you to land on your feet. Remember laughing at “Dump Your Friends, Save Your Finances“? This is the time to take out the dumpster.

6. Put all your options on the table. Keep adding more of them. The global economy is changing and you’re going to have to change with it. The sooner you recognize this reality, the sooner you’re going to get to a better place, whatever the hell that place turns out to be. Let your imagination run wild. Explore any possibility you can visualize. (We know that sounds somewhat nauseatingly self-help-y. But ask yourself this: Do you think that Whiner-in-Chief knew, back in the day, that EconoWhining would be the secret to fame and fortune?)

7. Limit the blame game. Yes, we believe in EconoWhining and think it’s perfectly fair — in fact, absolutely advisable — to point the finger at your old boss, your old company, our old President, and anyone else you can think of along those lines. But your family and friends aren’t responsible. They’re the good guys. Treat them that way.

Reader Comments

  1. Ben

    Whiner, great post. Good ideas. I lost my job about a month ago and I still feel like I’m in daze. It’s comforting to feel as though the problem isn’t just me. But I sure as hell hate this confusion.

  2. poorMe

    Ben, I agree. I’,m not out of work, but I know a lot of people who are in that boat. and I really hate it when they try to pretend like it isn’t happening – when they don’t have anything to be ashamed of. Whiner, I’m going to print out this list and give it to my friends. Thank you.

  3. Nano

    Even when you don’t get laid off or fired, you can be out of work. My husband’s company went through a merger and moved their headquarters to a city we didn’t want to live in. He has been looking for about six months, and still does not have an offer. We are lucky that we owned a small second home we could move to, putting everything else in storage. I believe these times are going to be very difficult, but will also offer a wealth of opportunity. We are all going to have to be creative and honest in our evaluation of how we have been living in this country, and in our world. We need to start looking at our lifestyles in a new way. This will not be a bad thing. Luckily we are all in this together! I, for one, think I’m ready to start writing that book. It may be a flop, but now is the time to try.

  4. Britty

    Wish I’d had this back in August, when I lost my job of 18 years… The two months that followed was time spent in hell. Filing for unemployment was just the beginning. When I discovered how meager the payments would be, I must have calculated at least twice a day, every day, how long I had before rent and COBRA would wipe out the benefits, the piddling severance payment, and my savings. The numbers never changed, but I was compelled to do the math, repeatedly. Then the work of finding work began, and I have never in my life felt so lonely and isolated. I did not have “the right community” (number 4 in your list), and in my grief over my lost job, I could barely imagine connecting with anyone. Worst of all was the absence of structure in my life: there was nowhere I had to be, no one expecting me to show up anywhere.

    And then I got lucky. Really lucky. I managed to get a job, in the same industry I’d worked in for years, and with a modest increase in pay. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did. It feels like, and it is, a reprieve. Every layoff that makes the news leaves me with a faint unease, kind of a survivor’s guilt, maybe. And if I lose this job, have I learned anything solid that I can use to survive next time?

    One thing I turned to again and again was the internet, seeking that community I lacked. This post would have meant the world to me: helpful ideas, a little humor, some optimism, some common sense. Thanks for posting this. While I may not need it now, I can add it to my stockpile of strategies, and I know it will be timely for a lot of other folks facing job loss.

  5. amy

    OK, so WIC (how appropriate), you threw a tantrum at work, someone taped you and played it for the boss. Instead of saying, “Lesson learned, next time I’ll remember I’m in public and that the boss’s job is not to love me unconditionally,” you want to blame your getting fired on the boss’s temper. Do you see a problem here?

    Here’s strategy no. 8:

    _Behave professionally._ Work is not the Undergraduate Experience; your boss does not love you, you are replaceable, and your coworkers know an opportunity when they see one. When you’re not the boss — and you hardly ever will be, because presumably you want money flowing in your direction, which means someone’s paying you — work is a place for temperance, politic behavior, discretion.

  6. Petunia

    I was just thinking how odd it is that I am the only person I know who is unemployed. YOu know the saying “don’t wander around alone in your head–it’s a dangerous neighborhood”? It’s getting dark in here!
    Thanks for the light!

  7. Jesse

    Being a geezer living off your SS payroll taxes, I have no worries about being unemployed or losing a job. However, I would suggest that #5 should be #1 on the list, since that’s a habit we all need to get into real soon anyway. Too many people + dwindling supplies of everything = less for everybody. BTW, you’ll find this radical change in your life easier to adopt if you call it voluntary simplicity. Austerity is something the IMF demands of poor countries in order to get loans they will never be able to repay, sort of like credit cards. It’s not much fun. Voluntary simplicity, however, can be fun as well as satisfying, especially when you find there are all sorts of things you can do that cost little or nothing. My wife and I now live very comfortably on your nickel, thank you very much, thanks to knowing how to live instead of only how to spend.