Countdown to ZeroPay - Navigating A Layoff

"He'll get no satisfaction out of me. He isn't going to see me beg."

"Ah you chivalric fool, as if the way one fell down mattered."

"When the fall is all there is, it matters."

• From "The Lion In Winter" - 1968 - James Goldman

Introduction

Before I go any farther, an acknowledgment to the title as an homage to the wonderful Kim Zetter and Countdown to ZeroDay. If you haven't yet, go read it. Now. Go ahead, I'll wait. Honestly, I have time to wait. Not a lot, but a little. Very little actually. Sub 30 days, which in today's economy is less than a blink of an eye.

That's really what spawned my decision to write about my current search. I've got some time on my hands and the horrifying reality is it's up to me to decide what to do with that time. After the obvious "look for a job, dummy", the rest of the answer gets a lot trickier. More difficult still if I'd never had to go through this before. Thankfully/regretfully, I have. Six other times to be exact.

Some were immediate layoffs/RIF's, others were ticking clocks, one was an outright blindside but those are all stories I'm happy to tell over a drink at any given conference at any given time. For now, that's not the point of what I think will be a series of posts. The point is to spread information and by doing so, maybe inspire a little bit of hope.

By now, I think I've figured out how to keep a fairly good routine going. I'm seasoned and as prepared as anyone could be for a ride like this. The reason I feel prepared is because I've done this dance all the wrong ways already. Like any good sponsor is an addict themselves, like any good financial planner is someone who once lived paycheck to paycheck, I've tripped over my feet learning the steps to the RIF Waltz more times than I can count, with turned ankles and a bruised ego ten times over to prove it.

But within and because of those injuries, I've found a rhythm that works for me and the ultimate good I can do with all the free time is relay that information to anyone else who finds themselves in this situation for the first, second, or 20th time. I'm going to be taking notes about my current day to day and relaying them back here. I refuse to let these things just happen and not do anything good with them. Hope this helps someone out there. I hope it helps you.

What To Expect When You Didn't Expect The Shaft But Got It Nonetheless

I'll go into more detail on some of these stories in other articles. But when you're in an emergency, you need to triage. Here are some basic steps after the hammer falls.

• Breathe. Simple right? Hell at this point you're probably up to your eyeballs in breaths hyperventilating. That's not the kind of breathing I'm talking about. Slow, deep, and steady. And I'm not just talking about whatever call you just got saying you're now going to have a better budget for the foreseeable future. You're going to have to remind yourself to breathe at multiple points during the day. Deep sighing also counts as breathing and you'll be doing a lot of those.
• Feel your feelings. This has to not only come before everything I'm about to say but it's also something you have to do throughout your entire journey. Cry when you need to, scream into the void when it moves you. Do not, do NOT, DO NOT avoid the people who want to help you. Take any shoulder you're offered. You won't do anyone any good letting things boil over.
• Find your routine. Do it immediately. Make it non-negotiable. I'm not saying do these things at the expense of feeling your feelings but now it's time to multitask. You have a lot to do and you don't have the luxury of single threading. My routine is as follows: Drop Mini AyyyyPT off at school, go to the gym for however long I need to focus for the day, eat something, get to work finding my new gig. You will not want to do this and I understand. Believe me, I understand. You will feel heavy, like you're walking through thigh high snow drifts (or wet sand depending on your climate, pick your metaphor). But if you don't move, you die. Take it step by step, remember to breathe during each step, but you have to keep moving.
• Plan for the long game. Even more frustrating than complete radio silence at the beginning of your search, will be an initial rush of interest and leads. These are great, can be fantastic for morale, and it's so easy to get swept up in "oh maybe this won't be that bad". However, too many times I've hit that Early Rush only to see it all slowly fizzle and ghost. That can be so much worse than if there was never any signal at all. Capitalize on them, nurture them, but never take them for granted or assume you'll be fine. Keep your eyes on the horizon.
• Track everything. Every job lead, every referral, every conversation. Make a spreadsheet in Google Drive or whatever cloud is your poison because you'll want this accessible from where you are. My best opportunities came when I was nowhere near a computer but I always had my phone near me. Put your resume in that same folder AND put a local copy on your phone. You want to be able to fire that thing off or edit it at a moment's notice. Remember, time is always against you. You can either let that bury you or you can make it motivation.
• Accept that this is going to hurt. Make no mistake, you are in for a fight. A fight against the economy, against sloth-like hiring processes, against outright ghosting, against your own emotions. Take the lashes you're given and call them practice. Every interview you get is a chance to hone your messaging. Every rejection is an opportunity to thicken your skin. Every rep counts. You can count it against your psyche or consider it a score in favor of your resolve. Everything stacks, only you can decide what column it goes in.

I've got so much more to say on this and I will say it but I think this is a lot for you to digest for now. Fortunately, I'm writing this in my hotel room at Shmoocon. After I hit send, the people I love so very much are all just a few floors down and ready with all the hugs and support I'll ever need. I know how lucky I am, I know I win the lottery every day, every second I get to be with these people. The best way I can honor their belief in me is to keep fighting and pass the lessons on to anyone else who needs them.

"Testing the limits of adversity, the only way back is through the thorns. We're cut and bleeding, we'll stop the grieving, but first we'll need to stand and take a beating." - August Burns Red "Vengeance".