The loneliness of job loss

Feeling introspective this morning. Thinking about all the challenges I have failed and collectively WE have faced. Some of the challenges lose their impact as time goes on but others radically change our lives.

Job Loss makes you feel Alone

If you are facing layoffs, job loss, or job changes, you are not alone. It can be a hidden secret. You think no one has been there except yourself. However, the last 10 to 12 years have shown us through social media that we are far from alone.

How job loss affects everyone

My own job loss was in 1987 when I had two small sons - 13 months apart. As property managers, we had moved to Naperville, IL - 5 hours from home and 5 hours from our extended family without comprehending how hard that would be. It was a change in property from HUD housing management to a much larger 400-unit luxury brand property under construction on 31 acres. From start to finish, my husband and I were both hired, me as the community manager and him as the operations manager and owner liaison.

Our second son, Dan, was born in April in Naperville and we were asked to move on property in July from the competitor's property we had lived in since the move. That was strategic on their part, so they only needed to give us a 5-day notice when they fired us and gave us a gag order so we couldn't talk to contractors, residents, or virtually anyone. We lasted 9 months. 9 whopping months! A move that took over a year to execute.

We lost our home, two jobs, with two babies under the age of 2. The command was to get offsite in 5 days. I was so upset and mad that we left in 4 days. We had hardly unpacked from the onsite move.

Job loss is traumatic

Traumatic doesn't begin to describe it. I was glad to be home but sad to lose the job. Happy to have family supporting us but lonely because I didn't know what the future would bring.

But we came back home to Wausau, WI and recovered in time. You will too. It takes time. It made me a better and more compassionate career professional because I know how it feels.

Leverage new tools and strategies

When we came home, I had already been writing resumes during our HUD housing role as a side business. It was my mother-in-law who said, "Why don't you do something from home? Your sister-in-law makes jewelry at home. Why don't you do something from home? What about that resume writing business you did when you lived here before?"

Little did she know what her suggestion would yield

She died in 2008 and it was in 2010 that I revitalized and reinvented Design Resumes. She didn't live to see Design Resumes move from mostly local to nationwide using the same interactive process of writing and coaching that I created in 1983 with in-person clients.

My mom died in 2011 at the beginning of my reinvention. Even more than my mother-in-law, she was my biggest supprter, but she never saw the business grow to serve clients in technology, finance, luxury brands, and more in executive and non-executive roles. She never saw the later versions of my website or knew of how Limonade, Inc and Raul Colon would transform my online presence with the 2018 and now the 2022 website redesign.

No one could have predicted the impact social media and Zoom would have on Design Resumes (or any other business.)

You don't know what is ahead for you either!

Job loss is hard. All I know is that people who keep learning and pressing forward end up the winners! You can too!