Prepare For A Layoff Before It Happens

Prepare For A Layoff Before It Happens I remember when I was first married (and thus, quite impressionable :p), a friend of mine made a really interesting comment, something like: Getting laid off is way harder than getting fired. His logic was that if you get fired, its with cause, and you can know exactly what stupid thing you did to get you fired but if you are laid off it was because of a bigger (group?) failure, and perhaps, just perhaps, if you would have worked harder you could have avoided it.   In other words, maybe it was because you werent working hard enough. In 2006 I was laid-off (not fired).   At some point I was elated to be out of a hellhole that I was in for three years a hellhole that caused stress on my family, my health, my sanity but it was a hellhole with a salary and health insurance. As I was driving home I was thinking of the things I would do formulating a strategy to get through this short (HA!) period of unemployment, and land a job with a better culture, work environment, and pay than what I was leaving.   I had the world at my feet, I thought, and I was going to conquer. I had no idea what I was up against. So, let me share some thoughts with you, if you see the proverbial writing on the wall.   Things have changed in the last three years, of course, as have I.   These are the things Id tell you to do if you are looking at a layoff (or job transition) in the next 12 months: Get your resume in order. I wasted. WASTED an entire week just looking for and then trying to recreate my resume.   I had to call my university to get exact dates and names of degrees I got I didnt want anyone to do a reference check and find a mistake, thinking i was being fraudulent. As an employed worker this is a terrific time to engage with a professional resume writer sure, take a stab at doing it on your own but starting a discussion with a professional resume writer who is in the trenches right now, and understands current resume and job search issues, will pay off. Start getting your network in order. In humility (that means I didnt do this for a while until I was humble enough to drag myself to an employment center) I sat down with a volunteer career counselor.   He asked me to start naming people in my network.   I discounted former coworkers, customers, prospects, workers at competitive companies, and family.   This really was my network, but I discounted them all for various reasons.   My network list probably had three people on it.   Pretty darn lame. This excercise is a BRAINSTORM.   LIST EVERYONE.   Even your great grandma (who might know someone who knows someone) dont discount anyone. Put all of these people in a spreadsheet.   Just start with names so you dont get hung up on phone numbers and emails that you might have to hunt down list names and more names and more names . get this network down!   And then import this list into JibberJobber, which is where youll keep track of each of these contacts, rank how well you know them, put their phone numbers, email addys, etc. Start NETWORKING. The last point was to brainstorm and record.   This point is to meet with people virtually, on the phone, in person, via snail mail, whatever.   Start making contact with them. I was apprehensive about contacting someone who I hadnt contacted in many years.   I worried if they were going to wonder why the heck I was calling them (Ive heard Is this Amway? before :p).   I really didnt know what I was going to say to them how to phrase it, and how they could help me.   And I didnt want to sound like a wounded animal. But its better to go through that before you are laid off than to wait until you are laid off. Here are the three networking things you need to do SOON: Get on LinkedIn. This is easy, low-hanging fruit.   Get my LinkedIn For Job Seekers DVD to get up to speed quick. Start reaching out to individuals. People on that list (the one you imported into JibberJobber) contact them, let them know what you are up to (you dont have to say you are going to be in a job search), and ask how you can help them.   Hard?   Read Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi. Start attending local networking meetings for EMPLOYED people. This would be local chamber of commerce meetings, PMI chapter meetings, ASTD chapter meetings figure out where you SHOULD HAVE been going all these years and start attending.   You want to grow your local network with people in your industry or profession and you want to get on their radar.   Better to do it NOW than wait until you are in the job search. Understand your finances. We sat down with our congregation leader, who asked us to lay out our monthly budget for him.   He wanted to understand where we were at financially, and how long it would be until we needed financial help.   He also wanted to see what we could easily cut out of the budget (cable, eating out, etc.).   This is simple, but we arent budget people, so it was enlightening to understand what our financial needs were month-to-month, and when wed run out of reserve cash. Thats all Im going to recommend I dont want to overwhelm you with a list of 20 things to do but if you want more, I got some great advice from my Twitter network: I like this advice from Sandyjk, because you will have time to stop and smell the roses and do some stuff you might have always wanted to do its a great time to chill and help and serve.   Maybe youll get a completely different perspective on life by doing so? I agree, kind of you might not be ready to announce it, or they might not be ready to handle it (you wouldnt believe the number of people who tell me they wont tell their dad they are in a job search I hear this from the 40 50 year old, executive crowd. I especially like her advice to establish an advisory team very smart! Yeppers That was from a direct message (DM) so I dont have a link to it, but the link to the book is Get Back To Work Faster. Jill is terrific! And the replies I got from Facebook: Great advice Does this help?   What else would YOU add? Prepare For A Layoff Before It Happens I remember when I was first married (and thus, quite impressionable :p), a friend of mine made a really interesting comment, something like: Getting laid off is way harder than getting fired. His logic was that if you get fired, its with cause, and you can know exactly what stupid thing you did to get you fired but if you are laid off it was because of a bigger (group?) failure, and perhaps, just perhaps, if you would have worked harder you could have avoided it.   In other words, maybe it was because you werent working hard enough. In 2006 I was laid-off (not fired).   At some point I was elated to be out of a hellhole that I was in for three years a hellhole that caused stress on my family, my health, my sanity but it was a hellhole with a salary and health insurance. As I was driving home I was thinking of the things I would do formulating a strategy to get through this short (HA!) period of unemployment, and land a job with a better culture, work environment, and pay than what I was leaving.   I had the world at my feet, I thought, and I was going to conquer. I had no idea what I was up against. So, let me share some thoughts with you, if you see the proverbial writing on the wall.   Things have changed in the last three years, of course, as have I.   These are the things Id tell you to do if you are looking at a layoff (or job transition) in the next 12 months: Get your resume in order. I wasted. WASTED an entire week just looking for and then trying to recreate my resume.   I had to call my university to get exact dates and names of degrees I got I didnt want anyone to do a reference check and find a mistake, thinking i was being fraudulent. As an employed worker this is a terrific time to engage with a professional resume writer sure, take a stab at doing it on your own but starting a discussion with a professional resume writer who is in the trenches right now, and understands current resume and job search issues, will pay off. Start getting your network in order. In humility (that means I didnt do this for a while until I was humble enough to drag myself to an employment center) I sat down with a volunteer career counselor.   He asked me to start naming people in my network.   I discounted former coworkers, customers, prospects, workers at competitive companies, and family.   This really was my network, but I discounted them all for various reasons.   My network list probably had three people on it.   Pretty darn lame. This excercise is a BRAINSTORM.   LIST EVERYONE.   Even your great grandma (who might know someone who knows someone) dont discount anyone. Put all of these people in a spreadsheet.   Just start with names so you dont get hung up on phone numbers and emails that you might have to hunt down list names and more names and more names . get this network down!   And then import this list into JibberJobber, which is where youll keep track of each of these contacts, rank how well you know them, put their phone numbers, email addys, etc. Start NETWORKING. The last point was to brainstorm and record.   This point is to meet with people virtually, on the phone, in person, via snail mail, whatever.   Start making contact with them. I was apprehensive about contacting someone who I hadnt contacted in many years.   I worried if they were going to wonder why the heck I was calling them (Ive heard Is this Amway? before :p).   I really didnt know what I was going to say to them how to phrase it, and how they could help me.   And I didnt want to sound like a wounded animal. But its better to go through that before you are laid off than to wait until you are laid off. Here are the three networking things you need to do SOON: Get on LinkedIn. This is easy, low-hanging fruit.   Get my LinkedIn For Job Seekers DVD to get up to speed quick. Start reaching out to individuals. People on that list (the one you imported into JibberJobber) contact them, let them know what you are up to (you dont have to say you are going to be in a job search), and ask how you can help them.   Hard?   Read Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi. Start attending local networking meetings for EMPLOYED people. This would be local chamber of commerce meetings, PMI chapter meetings, ASTD chapter meetings figure out where you SHOULD HAVE been going all these years and start attending.   You want to grow your local network with people in your industry or profession and you want to get on their radar.   Better to do it NOW than wait until you are in the job search. Understand your finances. We sat down with our congregation leader, who asked us to lay out our monthly budget for him.   He wanted to understand where we were at financially, and how long it would be until we needed financial help.   He also wanted to see what we could easily cut out of the budget (cable, eating out, etc.).   This is simple, but we arent budget people, so it was enlightening to understand what our financial needs were month-to-month, and when wed run out of reserve cash. Thats all Im going to recommend I dont want to overwhelm you with a list of 20 things to do but if you want more, I got some great advice from my Twitter network: I like this advice from Sandyjk, because you will have time to stop and smell the roses and do some stuff you might have always wanted to do its a great time to chill and help and serve.   Maybe youll get a completely different perspective on life by doing so? I agree, kind of you might not be ready to announce it, or they might not be ready to handle it (you wouldnt believe the number of people who tell me they wont tell their dad they are in a job search I hear this from the 40 50 year old, executive crowd. I especially like her advice to establish an advisory team very smart! Yeppers That was from a direct message (DM) so I dont have a link to it, but the link to the book is Get Back To Work Faster. Jill is terrific! And the replies I got from Facebook: Great advice Does this help?   What else would YOU add?