Fired for Now: Getting fired, laid off, and hired again

My faith in people has just been given a significant boost. Even in advertising people, who I may have unfairly maligned at times.

A Toronto ad agency has started an initiative to help others in the industry who are out of work. It’s called the Just One Project. The idea is to give recently laid-off advertising pros some freelance work by asking advertisers to give “just one project” over to the cause. If large brands each gave one assignment – anything from a design project or digital campaign to a new brand strategy or research assignment – it could really … Continue Reading

Today I’m going out to buy a Starbucks. Yes, I know I was just questioning a buy-less approach to sustainability versus a buy-more approach to economic recovery. But today I’m siding with recovery.

Why? Because today I’m in love with Howard Schultz.

The Starbucks CEO has decided to take a whopping salary cut, reducing his wage to just under $10,000, the minimum needed for him to still qualify for company health insurance. And yes, I know that his salary just a year ago was 1.2 million dollars.

And I also know … Continue Reading

I’ve known for a while that an important plank of sustainability and social justice is consuming responsibly.

As long as we adhere to the more-is-more principle of buying, we contribute to the endless cycle of making cheap goods with little regard for who made them or how, of the strain it puts on natural resources, and the waste it produces in the end.

Yet here we are navigating our way out of the worst economic downturn in generations and the answer appears to be CONSUME. We’re going to dig ourselves out of … Continue Reading

Yesterday I learned of two former colleagues who lost their jobs. Not a week goes by that I don’t get this kind of news. And right now, I just feel really sad.

One of these two was memorable because he was one of those guys who’s just an all-round nice person, someone who remains above the office complaints and bitch-fests, someone who seems to be unwaveringly cheerful and optimistic while everyone else around him is gossiping about industry politics and office machinations. In other words, someone very unlike a lot in the business.

It didn’t matter if he just learned he’d have … Continue Reading

There it was. That piece of yellow plastic tucked under my windshield wiper, unmistakable from 50 feet away. I’d been all of 4.5 minutes. After circling, I couldn’t find a parking spot, and I took my chances to run into this tiny store to just grab some postage stamps and run back out again.

Just that morning, I’d been stressing out fiercely over finances. It was bill payment time.

I took a pay cut when I accepted my 3-month contract gig, and it’s clear I have to make some serious adjustments. So this … Continue Reading

If you work for one or the other, right now you’d rather be a Mac.

Today Microsoft made official its intention of laying off 5,000 employees, including 1,400 who lost their jobs today. The stock market responded instantly with Microsoft stock falling 8.5%. (Some may have thought that should have happened some time ago when Vista was introduced.)

At the same time, Apple stock rose 7% today, reflecting its strong earnings that remain steady. Of course this is due mostly to the ‘I’ factor – iPod, iPhone, iTunes – so being a Mac … Continue Reading

“There’s a group of white guys who run the world,” former Bainbridge Graduate Institute dean Jean Bamberg explained of the usual cost-cutting strategy. “And they go into a room and they make decisions.”

Based on the appalling stories I’ve read and heard about people getting laid off, it’s certainly clear that companies often do a lousy job of cost-cutting, especially when it comes to employees. From heartless communication to non-existent severance, the way people experience job loss can make the phase ‘human resources’ an oxymoron.

That’s why I was really heartened to learn … Continue Reading

Obama may be America’s next president, but he’s the world’s next hope.

I’ll be watching his swearing-in today, one of millions of Canadians who will witness the historic event along with millions elsewhere around the world.

The impact of America’s successes, but perhaps even more so failures, reverberates so strongly we can’t help but be intensely caught up in the significance of this next administration. If I could have donated to the Obama campaign, I would have.

But every welcome is another man’s departure. Let me share with you another blog today I subscribe … Continue Reading

I just submitted the most awkward, weird, nervous-making, guilt-ridden invoice I ever have. (If you can assign attributes to an invoice.) That’s because I’m invoicing for work not done.

Since losing my job in November, I managed to secure a 3-month contract gig at an advertising agency. I’m a writer and I’ve been brought on to, well, write. But here’s the thing: there’s not a whole lot for me to do right at this moment. I’ve just completed 2 weeks during which I’ve been paid to essentially warm a chair. And at a time when thousands are losing their jobs, this … Continue Reading

Yesterday, I was out shopping, not something I’ve done a whole lot of lately. But one of my nephews has just had a baby, the first of the next generation for our family, and I ventured into the world of commerce to buy a gift to welcome the arrival of this new life.

Just before stepping into the store in this stretch of prime retail, I saw a homeless man, sitting cross-legged on the cold concrete with … Continue Reading