Yes, layoffs can really be a good thing

Last issue, we ran an article by Dr. Russ Ouellette, managing partner of Bedford-based leadership coaching firm Sojourn Partners, on how letting some employees go could actually be a good thing, both for company and the person. (See “The painful struggle to let employees go”
http://www.nhbr.com/business/insights/505008-277/story.html )

My stomach curdled when I first read the article (I get to read the paper several times through before you good folks see it).

“Who is this guy kidding?!?” I thought.

Then I realized he was actually talking about me.

I was laid off, like so many others, in October 2001, as the horrors of 9/11 pushed the already impending doom of the Tech Wreck recession into a freefall. The health-care enterprise I worked for no longer found my division profitable and sold it to a competitor, letting all of us go. It was without a doubt one of the worst times in my life.

And one of the best.

While they herded us all into a room saying, “If you’re here, you’re laid off,” and proceeded to tell us how valuable we were – replete with crocodile tears – "thanks, so long and don’t let the door hit you in the gluteus," my mind was already working on what to do next.

(And for how to work with your employees before considering this kind of draconian approach to saving money and literally treating people like the living dead, read Gerri King’s article “Before downsizing, talk with employees” coming up in our Jan. 15 issue of NHBR.)

I began helping people write their resumes with the idea of making it a small business. Some had never written one in their lives. Most were so shell-shocked and felt so worthless after being laid off, they could not think of a single positive trait to highlight. One woman actually cried when she read about herself on a resume I wrote for her.

Working with them during after-hours and lunchtimes, my office mate remarked to me one day as our jobs were winding down, “This is what you should be doing.”

Huh? Interviewing people? For a living? Like a reporter? Clearly, she was nuts.

PEOPLE don’t write for a living. Not ordinary people. Only the Walter Cronkites, Bob Schieffers and Jeff Feingolds of the world get to make a living from writing.

But some of what my friend said stuck.

I actually ended up leaving the company to pursue this resume business idea before our department was completely mothballed. (Only to have my husband laid off a few days later… No income, no health insurance, that’s another blog for another day.)

After running the numbers for my erstwhile resume business, which could never have panned out as I’d lose every client once he or she got a job, I thought more about my friend’s comment.

New Hampshire Business Review needed an intern. Well, actually New Hampshire Magazine was the one who needed one, but it was filled just prior to my interview. It turned out NHBR needed one, too.

So I walked in to an interview with Mr. Feingold on a very cold January day, armed with only a resume, determination and a passion for writing bordering on a calling – I had written a lot, I had just never written for a newspaper in my life. I left the interview a journalism intern. NHBR’s first.

Three months later, I got a cubicle and business cards of my very own. Less than three years later, I received my first journalism award, one of the happiest days of my life, second only to my wedding day.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

If I hadn’t been laid off, I’d never have become one those PEOPLE. Maybe, if you're laid off, now's the time to have faith, pursue your passion and calling, and become of those PEOPLE.


(PS…Jeff, I promise someday I’ll finish filing those headshot photos.)