In my first “real” job, where I had a professional position (excluding Taco Bell and such jobs), I got to witness something quite interesting. I was an intern, still finishing school, when the company announced it wsa going to close the office and consolodate back to the corporate headquarters.
I didn’t care much because I didn’t see myself working there after school (awesome company, but I wasn’t planning on staying in that town). I didn’t understand the depth of this decision, though, until I started listening to coworkers issues.
Most everyone was offered relocation assistance, but hardly anyone took it. Why? Because people were so entrenched in their life in that town they had no intention of uprooting their families and moving to a completely different town.
Some people had kids from a previous marriage, and were absolutely not going to move, as they knew they would not be able to see their kids as much as they should…
I’m guessing this was a “hard” decision for corporate to make (although it didn’t really affect any of them personally), but it was a significant decision for each family in that office to make.
My boss came to me, since I worked on the intranet, and asked me to load some documents and links talking about change, and how to cope with change. Again, I didn’t understand the scope of this decision since it didn’t really affect me.
Fast-forward a number of years, to when I got laid off. My layoff (as yours, probably) was a business decision – not a personal decision. It didn’t affect the people who made the decision, but it certainly affected my life, and my family’s future.
After the excitement died down, and the job search dragged on, despair sunk in, and all I wanted was a job. Even a job that paid significantly less. Just let me move on from “unemployed!”
But that didn’t happen. Things took a dramatic turn for me, a turn I never could have guessed… I’m sure that many others, perhaps thousands of others, who also had a different outcome than they would have imagined.
I wonder how many job seekers are looking for “normal” who are not ever going to find it, and instead, find something dramatically different than what they ever imagined?
Perhaps you?
