Time to Reinvent Myself

[Katherine]

It’s been a few pretty depressing days. My now former employer, did a round of layoffs and I was one of them. This is the same company who paid to relocate us out to Phoenix at the end of 2019. Also, two months ago, the promoted me up into a new roll, that has now been eliminated. I need to find a way to get away from this corporate crap and be my own boss.

[WI-Tom]

Sorry to hear this--nice to see that they invested in you for the long-term when they move you to Phoenix 3 years ago, eh?

But, perhaps it will turn out to be a good thing. Maybe you've just been handed your golden ticket to escape your corporate overlords.

I hope so, anyway.

Tom

[Spin_Drift]

Sorry you were laid off, Katherine. You have much knowledge and you’re good at what you do so I think you can either become your own boss or join another company.

Wishing you all of the very best in which ever you choose.

[BrianW]

Darn... I recently saw your update on LinkIn, and was very happy for you and your promotion. Such bad timing, I can only imagine it made the lay-off even harder. Although the bright side is acknowledgement of your skills in your field.

What sort of plans do you have for being self-employed? Perhaps a group of you and fellow laid off coworkers could form a consulting group for EV and autonomous vehicles?

[David G]

Are they offering $$ for any sort of help finding a new slot? LinkedIn Premium? BeamJobs membership? In your case... maybe some Career Counseling to help you explore entrepreneurial opportunities?

Locally, we also have several non-profits set up to help people jump out on their own. Mercy Corps Int'l. is one. Local U has a 'business accelerator' program. The Portland Incubator Experiment. Then there's SCORE, SBA, and the community colleges. Often they can not only help you sort out a plan for turning your skills into a business, but can put you in touch with funding, including angel investors. Perhaps you can find similar resources where you want to settle. Good luck!

[StevenBauer]

Sorry, Katherine. Hopefully some good will come with a change. Hard to imagine when it’s so fresh but sometimes change is a good thing.

[Tom from Rubicon]

Welcome to the club Katherine, post partem any employment venture is tough and a time of reckoning.
My fifty year career in Tool & Die with several management assignments. Last count was 17.
Several times hired to bring a corporate business out of a mismanagement hole, and when the sun started to shine. Shown the door without a parachute.
Don't do like me. Seek what makes you happy, desirable, and profitable.

[Katherine]

Are they offering $$ for any sort of help finding a new slot? LinkedIn Premium? BeamJobs membership? In your case... maybe some Career Counseling to help you explore entrepreneurial opportunities?

Locally, we also have several non-profits set up to help people jump out on their own. Mercy Corps Int'l. is one. Local U has a 'business accelerator' program. The Portland Incubator Experiment. Then there's SCORE, SBA, and the community colleges. Often they can not only help you sort out a plan for turning your skills into a business, but can put you in touch with funding, including angel investors. Perhaps you can find similar resources where you want to settle. Good luck!

they are giving us a severance package, but no career counseling. The problem with branching out on my own is that I don’t know what I actually want do.

[Joe (SoCal)]

Consult $$$$

[David G]

they are giving us a severance package, but no career counseling. The problem with branching out on my own is that I don’t know what I actually want do.

That's where a Career Counselor can help. Esp. if you can find one with expertise in your general field. An outside perspective, coupled with some industry knowledge, and some personality testing... can yield some insights. And possibly some possibilities you wouldn't have considered on your own. Best of luck!!

[JayInOz]

Can you afford to just take some time for you and enjoy not being at work?

[Vernon]

Sorry to hear this. I've been with a Tier 2 automotive supplier for the last 15 years and have been through at multiple layoff cycles. It's the nature of the business, we're either pouring money into a new product variation or slashing budgets, with precious few years of stability in between.

I managed to survive the whole time but worried a lot, watching in dismay as talented friends and co-workers were shown the door. Those are the tough times, of course much tougher for the ones who had their lives shaken up.

All of the folks I've worked with seem to land on their feet. Many find greener pastures, finding more money or more pleasure in new ventures.

I've been considering my own next move. I don't think I can fully retire at this time as I need to stay busy with something. There are a lot of things I like to do that also have the potential to get me paid, so at some point that's the direction I'll head. I hope you do too, find something you really like.

The very best of luck to you and yours,
Vern

[skuthorp]

It's always a shock even when you know it's coming. But take heart, I was 'let go' a few times in my employment career and I always ended up better off for it. In fact it did for me what i ws reluctant to do for myself. And that included my final job before I 'retired' to self employment.

[C. Ross]

I’m sorry Katherine. I wish you the best of luck in finding what you want to do, and then being happy in whatever you do!

[dutchpp]

Sorry to hear this. It's hard to give advice when you're still looking for your future.
But I have no doubt that you will take the necessary steps towards a new career, for a boss of self employed.

[Norman Bernstein]

Paul told me about the layoff via text yesterday.

In my reply, I suggested that this could be your opportunity to escape hell (phx) and return to Hell (Michigan)

[Garret]

Damn Katherine - that sucks - especially after uprooting yourselves for the company.

Please take some time (hopefully you can) to do some thinking on the next step. Talk to peers, talk to counselors, read, etc. There will be no perfect next step - unless you're lucky - but the next step may well lead to a good one.

As far as consultants getting rich - ha! Been one for 40 years & have done OK - but rich? That's what everyone who sees a consultant's hourly rate thinks without being even vaguely aware of the expenses - which are substantial. Sure, many do well, but it takes a very different mindset than being an employee. #1 is that all work is temporary - by definition, consulting does not go on forever. #2 is that you have zero control over what the client will do. You can suggest, advise, cajole, whatever - but that's all you can do. #3 - ready yourself for being an outsider - both as "not being one of the group" & also that the client may not tell you everything.

Don't get me wrong - I don't regret working as a consultant. It's enabled me to learn a lot of different businesses & that's been fun. Getting a good gig & being able to dive into the work & make a difference is also great - but then there are the times when a gig ends & all of a sudden you're looking at an inbox that has nothing but LinkedIn ads & junk mail.

Oh - contracts. Some of the stuff clients (or, more likely, their attorneys) will put in can blow your mind. Whether non-disclosure or non-compete or something else, go over every contract with a fine tooth comb - plus have an attorney look at it.

[J P]

Sorry to hear this, it seems to be going around. Good luck on your new path Katherine.

My sister got the ax a couple days ago after 26 years of loyal employment with a large global investment management firm. The company cut a significant % of its employees in one fell swoop – informed them by phone call, locked out of their offices and work computer access, and told personal items would be boxed and sent home. Ironically, the company is recognized as a leader in retirement services and was recently named to Forbes World’s Best Employers 2022 list.

[Fitz]

Best wishes, Katherine. If it is any consolation, both my wife and I have been through several forced job changes in the past 10 years and it has always turned out to be a good, if not a great, thing. It has been mostly thinly veiled age discrimination, but the resulting changes have been both financially and mentally a blessing in disguise.

After a long, long stint at a engineering firm, they took a big "slice" through my stodgy old company. I ended up having weekly brunches together with other affected co-workers to compare job seeking notes and commiserate. Those were wonderful get togethers, warmed with bloody marys, and provided a great opportunity to get to know others affected by the "slice". Everyone in that group landed on their feet and ended up better off. Some brave souls even went off on their own.

Breathe.

Good luck!

[bamamick]

I am sorry, Katherine. I can only imagine the uncertainty and worry. It happens to a lot of people as they get older, and it was my greatest fear the more time went by in my job. Luckily I made it to the finish line, but a few friends didn't. But....they all got by, and some even thrived. You never know what's behind the next door. One of my former bosses, actually the guy who hired me so long ago, set up his own engineering company and worked contract for a long, long time. He was good enough at it that he could pick and choose his jobs and work from home almost completely. Good things can come out of something like this.

And of course, I wish you the very best out of this.

Mickey Lake

[bluedog225]

Also sorry to hear this.

Maybe time for your encore career.

I read a study once about a group of laid off engineers.

Some kept a hand written (important) journal every day and some did not.

The journalers were happier and found work more quickly.

Something phycological involved in hand written versus typed.

All the best to you.

[birlinn]

Sorry about the news, Katherine- that really is the bad joke of the day.

Best of luck for the future- you deserve better bosses.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

Off-Da.

[SKIP KILPATRICK]

Ugh!

But, You can do it! Make the World your Oyster!

[CWSmith]

Up and out? It does not sound like a well-managed company.

I am truly sorry to hear this, but I hope it turns out to be their loss and your gain.

[Figment]

It sucks. I know it sucks.

I'll join the other Voices of Experience here in saying that this is very likely a huge blessing in disguise.
The "financial crisis" of 2008 triggered a huge professional change for me, all for the betterment of my life.

[LeeG]

damn Katherine, wishing you the best.

[Canoez]

Kat, I'm sorry to hear that. I know that the job you had meant a lot to you - particularly with regard to family connections to the trucking business.

As many others have said, we've all been through this and the change and stress of the situation sucks - hard. I was laid off from the first job that I ever had and while I worked with some great folks and learned a great deal, the push it gave me to change jobs was a good one.

Take a deep breath. Take stock of your skills and what you want to do professionally. Talk to people who help you assess where your skill lie from another's perspective. Going out on your own is feasible, but harder - you have to wear all the hats from sales, to customer service, engineering and management - but it can be very rewarding financially. If you're going to do that, the best advice I was ever given was that if you have a passion and a vision for something, do it. But that you need both.

Demand for engineers, technical people, and engineering management is still strong.

You can do this.

[Breakaway]

Oh, Man! Sorry.
Well, take the time required to find out what you want to do. Follow your bliss.

Kevin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[SKIP KILPATRICK]

The "financial crisis" of 2008 triggered a huge professional change for me, all for the betterment of my life.

+1

You and me both brother!

[hawkeye54]

Katherine, I have no idea of ( nor desire to dig into ) your financial situation - but, knowing your love of horses - is there a possibility of your getting involved with 'therapeutic riding' venues someplace ? Just a wild thought. Good luck with all your endeavors !



Rick

[Ted Hoppe]

It's their loss not yours. Give yourself till the end of today to wrap up grieving over this lost opportunity. It is far better to leave when they had you rather when they will scramble not having you. Remember it was not always that inclusive to your better wellbeing and you can do much better.

It is time for your own vision board - a road map to your happiness. Without a plan that would include very important emotional and physical components, you will not be ready for the next wonderful, personally satisfying chapter in your life. Include them as you want to be in your work, home and surrounded by love and respect. If you place yourself in your mind focus where you could be challenged, balanced and thriving; it will happen. What happens to you going forward is based on what you planned and dwelled on good or ill.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Like Tom, I've been lucky(?) enough to be in manufacturing in the Chicago area since 1973, which means I've been laid off, downsized, and otherwise shown the door several times.
I hate when people say it might be a good thing. It never was. I finally said, "Screw it (or similar)", and went into consulting on my own, then hooked up with an agency that specializes in placing engineers. It's worked rather well - I've had three postings with them over the past nine years, going from one to another with no more than a couple weeks off. I just passed my three year anniversary on the latest three month contract.
Reaching 65 a few years ago made things much easier, since I'm not stressed about health insurance any more.

I wish you the best, and Tom's right. Find something you really love doing. Maybe pet photography?

What Fred Said.

It's always a heavy blow - but it's always survivable - go talk to the horse.

[Boatbum]

Katherine, I have no idea of ( nor desire to dig into ) your financial situation - but, knowing your love of horses - is there a possibility of your getting involved with 'therapeutic riding' venues someplace ? Just a wild thought. Good luck with all your endeavors !



Rick

Why stop there. Maybe a small stable - tons of rich people want someone to take care of their horses and provide a place to ride when in the mood.

[bluedog225]

If you stay in arid zona, solar installation design. The big stationary installations. Or boutique systems for the rich.