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You Only Get Laid Off Amidst a Pandemic Once (Hopefully). Now What?
It was a grueling, anxiety-filled two weeks preceding the news. Having been recently promoted onto my team, if the cuts reached the dermis, I’d be one of the most vulnerable.
With the announcement that the majority of our department would be eliminated, it came as little surprise when I received the dreaded Zoom invite from HR. More surprisingly, however, were the invites delivered to 90% of my team and 80% of my former team.
As we each received our respective meetings and sensed the impending doom, something beautiful happened: we began leaning on each other. We had a hourlong group FaceTime session that very afternoon. And we messaged nonstop in our group chat for days to come.
I don’t know if we realized it then, but we’d found profound comfort in the collective sh*ttiness of the situation.
Then, we began our own solitary paths to process it.
As individual as this situation is unique, no single panacea exists to weather the storm. It’s crappy, uncomfortable and uncertain. These are simply some tips I’ve found useful to take along the journey.
Draft out a LinkedIn status
Overlook the slightly cringe, self-promotional element to these — do it and do it well…
