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

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The latest unemployment stats revealed two things to me:

1) No one can say where or when the bottom will be.

2) I need to learn how to make peace with uncertainty if I’m going to avoid hitting my own bottom.

Some might call number two letting go. Letting go of the frantic need to control. Letting go of a need to have things other than they are in this very moment. Accepting things as they are, even though I may not like them. The alternative – being controlled by a pervasive … 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

“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

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

Image sourced from Google Images (sorry Microsoft)

Is it just me, or is Microsoft determined to topple Google every chance it gets (to no avail), even when it comes to layoffs?

No sooner did Google announce their first-ever layoffs of 100 recruiters on Wednesday, but the next day sources at the Wall Street Journal learned that Microsoft is considering “significant workforce reductions across multiple divisions”, although it stopped short of … Continue Reading

Newly empty offices at Google?

No, you’re not likely to see that headline anytime soon. Still, the announcement today of Google slashing 100 of its recruiters across its offices is sobering news. That the economic downturn is now impacting full-time employees of the most iconic brand of the new millennium shows that vulnerabilities are everywhere. And not just any employees, but employees who are responsible for bringing on … Continue Reading

Remember when the phrase “the war on talent” meant you might actually have some clout out there? When you could negotiate terms of a job offer and a compensation agreement?

Now that unemployment numbers have brought about a major cease-fire, the best and brightest are no longer hard to find behind enemy lines. They’re gathered in Starbucks armchairs across the continent, laptops in hand, browsing the net and revising resumes while they seek the intangible comfort of like-minded companionship.

The shift in power is a humbling feeling. I used to feel I had something to offer. I still do, it’s just that … Continue Reading

December’s just-announced unemployment stats were so predictable that another month of whopping job loss across North America hardly raises an eyebrow.

However, buried in the Associated Press story today I came across a stat that really did surprise me.

In reporting the various industries that slashed jobs in December, leisure and hospitality were at the bottom of the list. Seriously?

Here are the U.S. stats for December’s job cuts by those industries that did major damage:

Construction companies: 101,000 jobs cut
Factories: 149,000 jobs cut
Professional & business services: 113,000 jobs cut
Retailers: 67,000 jobs cut
Leisure & hospitality: … Continue Reading