Perspective in a Tough Market

Losing your job, no matter the reason, can mess with your head. For many of us, our livelihood is wrapped up intimately with our sense of self, in a self-image as a provider for ourselves and our families, in a basic sense of worth.

Studs Terkel wrote a voluminous tome about it, aptly named "Working" in which he states:

"Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying."

These feelings, in part, are learned...we got them from our parents and our parents parents...for better and for worse. My great-grandfather was a plasterer and my grandfather took over the family business and ran it for 65 years with his only "lost time incident" being a little event called WWII. Great grandpa suffered a heart attack while plastering a ceiling, fell off his scaffolding and died. Grandpa died in hospice as his lungs calcified and gave out from the plaster dust, but he couldn't wait to get out of there so he could finish a custom cornice for a long time customer. My dad got to work one morning, decided he felt under the weather and drove himself the 45 minutes from Lansing to Flint while having a heart attack just in time to pass away inside the front door. Clearly the Noyles have an unhealthy relationship with their work LOL.

My forebears working dysfunction and Terkel's search for meaning and life through labor is why I am so passionate about who I work for, who I hire, and how I develop and mentor individuals and teams. And it also means that by default, I have only one speed...full tilt. I have to periodically stop and ask "Have you met yourself lately?" I actually make very conscious efforts to keep the machine running under the red line. I have to balance wellness-related activities against the constant need for achievement in myself and I need to be careful how I seek high performance from others.

As recruitment and hiring practices reach new lows of professionalism and common courtesy, as the job market and economy do whatever the actual hell it is they are doing right now, as we all sit with financial anxiety here are some things that I find helpful to keep my head straight while searching for what's next:

Maintain perspective - Yes you should look diligently and prepare for your next big professional thing, but seeking employment is not a 60 hour/week gig and, in point of fact, treating it that way will drive you nuts. Take time for self care. The mountains, the beach, the gym, the bustle of the big city, your church, friends and family, that 12 step meeting you've been skipping lately; you are a lot of things and while gainful employment provides financial means and can answer a higher calling, you are NOT your job.

Know your worth - After 7 rounds of interviews including a lengthy presentation and investor conversations I was ghosted for 3 weeks before getting a 2 line email with zero feedback...and that was on a personal referral for an executive role. Think about that for a minute and bring Conway's Law to bear on that thought exercise. That says very little about me, and an awful lot about certain other individuals. Remember your personal worth and the value of your time...spend your resources accordingly.

Farm your patch - You have a personal and professional network. Use it. The days of blindly applying to a raft-load of opportunities by looking for that EasyApply icon on LinkedIn are largely gone for the time being and maybe for good. Strike up conversations with former colleagues. Ask for a coffee chat or professional feedback. Take...the...phone...call! Seek referrals whenever you can but cultivate lines of communication with your network in the absence of near term benefit and show you give a damn. I've found that executive leaders with jam-packed calendars are perfectly happy to meet. I do my best to show up prepared with questions, a story, a status update, or a quick and relevant anecdote from recent news or reading. And don't forget to follow up periodically and keep lines of communication going. I love hearing from former team mates with updates on how they are doing and how I can help.

Be of service - Since I found out I'd be exiting my company, I've tried to focus the bulk of my time on helping other affected individuals land softly. Selfishly, it makes me feel good. At the same time in reinforces to everyone I work with that this isn't just business. If you have the time and headspace, volunteer at your child's school, call on your neighbors, shovel someone's driveway or mow their lawn. At the end of the day we aren't just here to collect paycheck and be self-serving. The ability to be of service to others in some constructive way outside the workplace is critical to my sense of self and ultimately reminds me that "there but for the Grace of God go I".

Keep the blade sharp - The best way to keep your skills sharp is to use them. Don't stop learning in the absence of financial gain. Get a mentor, read books, attend local professional meetups, do a podcast, test your ideas in the marketplace relevant to your profession. I've got a stack of books here, I recorded a podcast with a professional colleague earlier this week, and I have some personal tech research and hackery in the works as well. Do things that keep your mind and your skills current.

Do whatever it takes - I would be pretty clueless and lacking in self-awareness if I didn't acknowledge that a lot of what I've written here is pretty white collar and reflects a lot of the privilege I have been afforded as a boring old white dude in an industry dominated by people who look and talk like me. If and when I get to the point where the mortgage or the car payment isn't getting made, I might craft a post with a completely different tone. At the end of the day when the financial stresses come at you, if you need to borrow from your family, work at Subway, sell cars, go back to school, busque with that fiddle you haven't touched since high school...you should do that and be the best at it.

If you are currently looking for your new, new thing whether by your choice or someone else's, it's tough out there right now. Employers are looking for the absolutely perfect person and changing their minds 3 times on the journey. What does work mean to you? What are you doing to maintain self-care and keep your head on straight? What can I do to help? Feel free to share in the comments and reach out to make a connection if there's an intro I can make for you, or a conversation we need to have.