Unemployment

My biggest fear is financial instability. To conquer this, I spent most of my life living fugally, constantly learning new skills, and over the past year, even learning how to invest!

It seemed like I finally had a moment to breathe when, I got the news...

"Due to financial hardship, you will be laid off."

My immediate reaction surprised even me...

Instead of being upset, I was genuinely concerned about my CEO. In my time working for him, he would always joke about me not being allowed to leave and his warm sentiment radiated throughout my time with him:

• Every Christmas, I would get a box of cookies
• I was half forced to develop a proper work-life balance
• I received a lot of gifts to express their deep gratitude towards me
• When I wanted to learn more about Islam (as our sister company is based in Pakistan), I was gifted a copy of the Quran
• When I had health issues, I was able to take time off immediately
• When my grandmother passed away this year, I was forced to take the week off to be with my family and grieve

It was the first time in my life where I was treated exceptionally well by a company and it broke my heart when I heard the news.

However, what surprised me most was my attitude...

I was... Happy?! ??

I felt incredibly guilty for admitting it out loud. Was it wrong to be happy?

Afterall, it is considered a very stressful, life-altering event, plus it is also my biggest fear in life so why is it that I am happy?!

?? ...was I losing my mind? ??

No matter how much you think you've prepared for life, there will always be curveballs. The only way to survive is building your mental strength and resilience. Mindset is everything.

I've spent well over the past decade learning about self-improvement and psychology.

A lot of my mental growth, I owe to my ability to consistently challenge ALL of my thoughts, beliefs, and behavioral patterns.

Over the years, I've learned to dissect each and every thought carefully; did this voice/ belief come from my parents/ environment/ old experiences OR was this truly my belief? Eventually, I got to a space where I was able to completely shift my mindset to see opportunity in adversity and to see strength & growth amidst the pain.

If we are not cognizant of our thoughts, beliefs, and behavourial patterns, we will repeat them with different people over and over again, with increasing levels of frustration until we finally get the lesson life is trying to teach us.

So... why was I happy?!

I was happy that my boss valued me enough to sit me down in person before delivering the hard news, despite being fully remote. He could have very easily got onto a video call with me and given me notice. However, this simple action was very considerate and kind.

It is so easy for corporations to strip others of their humanity and to treat them like a cog in the machine, distilling things like grief down to statements like, "you can't take time off."

How insane is it that we literally live in a world where we need the government to make and enforce laws so we know how to treat another human being with kindness, compassion, and consideration!?

Though the conversation of a layoff is a challenging one, navigating hard conversations with kindness, compassion, and consideration makes a huge difference. If you need to have a hard conversation, here are some tips that may help you:

Consider the day of the week/ Time of the day: The idea of coming in on a Monday, receiving devastating news, and then the expectation to function at full mental capacity for the rest of the employment terms is equal parts insane and ludicrous to me. If the individual is expected to continue working, the least that should be offered is a full day off. This will give them time to process everything before working on proper hand-offs.

Environment: In my opinion, the meeting should happen towards the very end of the work day and it should be as discrete as possible. Assuming that HR is also expected to be in the meeting, it may be beneficial to have HR join the conversation later so the manager has had some time to warm up with the individual and check-in with their current state (ie. projects, workload, etc.). Ideally, by the time the meeting ends, most people would have already left and it is less overwhelming for the individual. There is no worse feeling than coming out of a meeting already emotionally overwhelmed AND having to:

1. Pack all your stuff and walked out in front of all your colleagues without the chance to talk or engage with them;
2. Pack all your stuff to leave for the rest of the day in front of all your other colleagues;
3. Come back to your desk and continue working (I don't think anyone in their right mind actually does this but if they do, that is incredibly ruthless and they desperately need an HR person)

Give them the next day off so the individual has the full day to process the news (ideally if the news can be delivered Thursday late afternoon, they would get Friday and the weekend). This way, by the time they start working out the remainder of their time, they have had a bit of time to regain their composure to hand-off remaining tasks. After formal hand-offs they should be able to leave earlier so they have time to focus on the next chapter of their life.

Language/ Tone: Communication is perhaps one of the biggest reasons for fights and escalations in situations. Choosing words that show empathy, care and consideration plus following it up with actions, can make difficult times easier to handle by the individual. If management struggles with this, consider soft skills training in communication, conflict resolution, and team management. At the end of the day, we all want to work for and be around people who show genuine care and consideration for us. Empathy is everything!

Resources: Ideally, a meeting should be scheduled with the individual and HR so they can work together to help polish their resume, update their LinkedIn profile, and work through some typical interview questions. This will set the individual up for success and the support will make the transition less overwhelming, especially if they are financially stressed. When individuals are emotionally stressed, it can feel like an insurmountable and overwhelming task to redo their resume on their own, let alone interview for new jobs. It will also be helpful to provide individuals with a guide on Employment Insurance and other resources to help them better take care of their mental health during times of uncertainty (I will be working on such a resource so please DM me if you are interested!).

Let me know what your thoughts are on these tips! Do you agree/ disagree? What would you change or add to the list?

In next week's article, I am going to be talking specifically about riding the waves of unemployment and some strategies I've been using to keep sane!