I keep hearing these stories every now and then, more so in the past few months. My wife works as a Cyber Security Analyst in a Fin-tech firm in Sydney, Australia. Her company recently underwent a restructuring and laid off much of its workforce.
I remember vividly the fear on her face when a sudden town hall meeting was called, and only certain people were invited. She told me it was pretty unusual and never happened before. She was not affected, but she did not get a chance to bid farewell or wish them luck to her colleagues.
We were all having fun a few weeks ago during our End of Year celebrations at the Opera House, and we weren’t expecting this or weren’t prepared for such a terrible thing to happen.
- My wife’s words on that day
The experience was challenging for both of us, but it solidified my stoic perspective: we are all cogs in a machine that can be replaced; you’re just made to feel important. You can be a high performer with a strong track record of reviews and performance appraisals, but you can still lose your job at any moment.
In this situation, the critical thing to do is to focus your time, effort, and energy only on the things you can control. Don’t worry about the things you can’t control (like the layoff). You can always bounce back quickly if you are clear about this and are really good at what you do. You can even turn around this unfortunate event into something positive and better for you.
Quote of the Week
Be more intentional about who you want to become. Have vision beyond your current circumstances. Imagine your best future self, and start acting like that person today.
From High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard.
What will you gain from this article?
- Step-by-step guide on staying sane and getting back on your feet
I’ve given this a lot of thought, and here is my step-by-step guide that I would follow to maintain my sanity amidst a layoff and land on my feet again:
Stay calm and breathe!
Yes, the first and most important step is to stay calm. Take deep breaths. Always remember that getting laid off is not the end of the world but a momentary pause.
You are a strong and beautiful soul destined for remarkable achievements. This moment is not a setback but a pivotal redirection, a stepping stone guiding you towards a life brimming with success and fulfilment.
Shift your perspective and see this as a golden opportunity for growth and exploration. Embrace this phase with optimism and open arms, for it is in these moments that life’s most beautiful chapters begin to unfold. You are not just surviving; you are on the verge of thriving, transforming obstacles into opportunities that lead to a brighter, more prosperous future.
Evaluate Your Rainy Day & Emergency Savings
As a next step, I would evaluate and assess my emergency and rainy-day funds. How much runway do I have left? How long can I survive on my own before having to crash on my parents’ couch? The goal of this step is to arrive at a number of days for which I can support myself without going to work and preparing for my next chapter.
Remember this number can vary based on household. If you are living alone, you can stretch out your runway by living a minimal life. But if you’ve got dependants or a partner, the runway can shrink or expand depending on your household’s financial situation.
If you’re living alone, and if you’ve not calculated your monthly living expenses before, you can checkout this link below to get a rough estimate.
Assess your health and well-being
The next important step, which a lot of people fail to do, is assess your health and well-being. Just like getting a grasp of your finances is important in times like these, getting an understanding of your health is also important.
If you were a workaholic before layoff, chances are you have neglected your physical and mental health for a while. While you may not seem to have any health issues now, I would personally use this time to go see my GP and do a full health checkup. A couple of blood tests and screening tests can reveal a good picture of your physical health, and you can take necessary steps to improve or remedy your health based on expert advice from your GP.
Mental health is also equally important to your physical health. I would setup an appointment with my therapist, do some meditation and pranayama (or breathing exercises), have a spa day, or anything that will calm my mind.
Create a Daily Schedule
After a day or two of being laid off, your mind and body will start to crave for routines that you were used to, for a long time. This is a good thing, and see it as a cue for your body and mind trying to stay active. It is super important to listen to these cues, and build a routine, so that you’ll still feel like a contributing member of the society. In my head I think of failing to listen to these cues, and living a life without routines, is like getting priority boarded to a lethargic society for housebound couch potatoes.
Here is a simple routine that I would follow, feel free to use the same or tweak it as you wish:
Having a schedule will give you a general direction for your day and will help you remain productive throughout the day and manage your time efficiently. You can read more about the best time management tips in my article here:
Prepare for Interviews, Upskill yourself and Stay Relevant
Now that I have got my daily routine sorted, I need to stick to my daily routine and focus on preparations and upskilling on the time blocks that I have set aside for it. This is something you’ll know better than me, and I don’t think this blog is the right place to discuss that.
Personal Connections over Reckless Applications
Hiring is always a guessing game, and hiring managers always prefer to hire people they know. According to NPR, 80% of the jobs are not published and they get fulfilled with friends and acquaintances of existing employees.
I personally know people who have submitted 100 applications and yet are in search for a job. Clearly their technique is not working. That is the reason why I have included coffee dates in my daily schedule. Personal connections with recruiters and people of influence in an organisation is necessary to make an impact. I would highly recommend this to my readers. Go through your friend and acquaintance list. Start with your contacts list, make a list of influential people (people with the power to recruit, recommend or refer), head over to LinkedIn and ask for coffee catchups with your connections, trust me the odds for those $4 coffee catchups to convert into a job is significantly higher.
Go where the numbers are and avoid the “spray and pray” technique at all costs.
Don’t miss any opportunity for building your network.
There’s plenty of meetups, conferences (in-person and virtual), seminars, book publications, ted talks, etc happening in most big cities all around the globe. You don’t have to present or talk about anything, although that would give you a fair bit of advantage. Physically attending these meetups and conferences, introducing yourself and meeting your counterparts in various organisations is a great way to build your network. You can talk about the things you do at work, some challenges that you faced and how you overcome them, some quick wins, some accomplishments you’ve earned, some certifications you’ve done, your experience working with multicultural teams, anything and everything that comes to your mind that’s work related. You can even talk about your passion projects and side gigs if that is relevant.
In these meetups and conferences, don’t pull back from honestly explaining to them what happened to your role and letting them know you’re open to work and that you would appreciate a referral.
Remember, you’re an intelligent farmer planting seeds in fertile soil. You plant as many seeds as possible. It’s impossible to know which seeds will sprout, but the more seeds you plant, the higher your chances are on landing on your next gig.
“Trust fall” on your network
Now coffee catchups, meetups, conferences are all localised. Meaning they usually bring you potential employers from your locality. But your online network is much bigger. It spans different cities, countries and even more. The best way to make use of your online network is by posting on LinkedIn.
Posting on LinkedIn that you’ve been laid off, and you are open to work, simply is the best thing to let the world know you’re now on the market for a new role. Honestly explain what happened, and let the readers know what you’re looking for and what skills and expertise can you offer to your next employer.
Here are some posts for reference:
If you look at these posts, you can see a lot of engagements in terms of comments and likes. Who knows maybe one of these comments can turn into your next job.
Take advantage of the extra time
Now losing a job is not an easy thing to deal with, but let’s also not forget the silver linings of your newfound unemployment.
You are instantly a time millionaire. Trust me when I say you’ve just got one thing that most working people tend to not have… Time! Take advantage of this extra time in your life.
Here are some fun things you can do:
- Have more family time, spend more time with your partner or kids, take your kids to the park when everyone is working.
- Stay up late watching a movie; you don’t have to work tomorrow, so you can stay up late now.
- Take your partner out on a spa day on a weekday or go on lunch dates to a fancy restaurant in the city which is usually packed on weekends.
- Go to the gym midday and post your workout reels on Instagram and TikTok, make your time lacking work enemies envy your newfound time.
- Do your grocery shopping while everyone is busy working their a** off. Literally you get your local Coles or Woolies all by yourself during office hours, its never crowded.
These small things matter in life and when you start embracing it, it will give you more clarity and a different perspective to life.
Start a side hustle or a personal project
I have also come across people who have turned around their unfortunate layoff into a whopping success story. During COVID-19, there were many layoffs happening around the world due to downsizing, remote working etc. And a common trend during that time was an influx of social media influencers. More people were on the internet and that resulted in a rise of the number of social media influencers as well. I don’t have clear data to back this claim, but I will update this article with the data when I get it.
Also, if you are looking to start a side hustle, checkout my article on these must try productivity hacks for side hustlers
In the end, things will work out in the end, so don’t worry. Don’t be afraid to ask for a referral or ask for help. There is still a lot of good left in humanity, and if you reach out to people and ask for help, they will help.
Thank you so much for reading!
Sanjay.
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