I was a high performer. I’m writing this to let those of you who make the decision to lay someone off at any company know how your actions impact lives because many of you are privileged and have never been laid off. I honestly don’t believe most of you have any idea.
Since I was laid off I spend all day every day worried about how I will find a job, what if I don’t and how will I make ends meet if not.
I look for jobs all day and have applied to 100 to date. I’ve had interviews. I’ve had as many as 15 interviews with a single company. I have to explain why I was a good employee who finds themselves in this situation. How can you explain that when you ask yourself this every day? Why did this happen to me?
I feel sick every day since the layoff. I can’t sleep and wake up every night at 3am. My entire life and the lives of my family have been altered. Holidays and birthdays are a little less joyous. Plans we have are on hold or have changed. For example, we can no longer sell or buy the home as we had planned to do for years. Now we just hope to be able to keep our home.
So, when you are sitting in some conference room or talking to colleagues tossing people’s names round for who can go in the next layoff please remember this post. Are you being thoughtful about it?
You are about to dramatically alter someone’s life. Sure there are those few that instantly get a job and think everyone else should be able to as well. That’s not the reality for the majority…especially not in this economy.
Remember this post because I’m quite sure based on conversations and posts I’ve read on sites like LinkedIn that this is how most laid off people’s lives have changed.
To do this to many good people who worked so hard and were so dedicated at any company is especially cruel…and …well…says something more about you than those you laid off. Now, we, the laid off just have to deal with the decisions you made while you and your families lives remain unaltered.