This past weekend a touching dvd movie arrived in the mail: “The Company Men” starring Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper.
The film portrays the lives of corporate citizens whose world came tumbling down, thanks to the layoff they experienced after spending many productive years in the company that paid them generous salaries and perks. It is a movie that rings a very familiar bell among working folks who have gone through, or continue to undergo, the pains and perils of unemployment.
I related to the movie on a very personal basis, having recently suffered the same fate at the end of August this year. It was the second of layoffs from companies I worked for many years. After the first, I spent two years searching for work. Perhaps it took me that long because I wasn’t just looking for my next paycheck… I was, to be honest, trying to find my next “home-away-from-home.” I figured that since I would be spending more time in that place during the work day than in my own comfort zone, it has to be worth my time. To my good fortune, exactly on the second anniversary of my layoff, I started a full-time job and the work made me genuinely inspired to shine. The downside was that I almost depleted my lifetime savings from taking my sweet time to find the perfect fit.
In May this year I celebrated my seventh anniversary in the company that I regarded as a stable anchor for my retirement in a few years. But the economic hardship in our industry put the damper in my positive thinking. Quite unexpectedly, after mid-year the company owner had no choice but to announce that downsizing was the only way to go. With that gloomy forecast went all my bright hopes for a solid work history and snuffed the fire blazing the path to early retirement.
Like many working people in my shoes, I felt in denial, devastated and depressed. For me, the question was: How do you start over when you’re pushing 60? When I got laid off the first time, I was 50. Two years after I found a good-paying job I felt victorious, patting myself on the back for surviving the younger competition. I felt proud that in middle age instead of battling the often maligned "mid-life crisis," I was proving my mettle in Corporate America! It was a tough ride after sending 355 resumes and doing 16 face-to-face interviews. Wearing a suit to all the meetings left me feeling fatigued specially when many of the companies displayed a casual dress code environment.
Because I knew that I wasn’t fresh from college and willing to get paid minimum wage, I felt tremendous pressure to convince the people interviewing me that despite my age I could deliver the work, and that if they were looking for an invaluable team player, they absolutely were already face-to-face with The One.
My friend Mary has been out of a job for over three years now. She is totally sick about it. She has extensive experience in Human Resources (her specialty) and she knows that these days, the likelihood of getting hired is through the backdoor… via one’s personal contacts… not blindly submitting resumes online. The hiring folks who receive job applications are overwhelmed and if they had their way, would rather consider employing an applicant highly recommended by an associate or someone they know. That is most likely the reason that in one company I worked for in the past, referral fees were awarded to associates who recommended applicants who eventually got hired.
To everyone who has been laid off and are still hunting for employment, I highly recommend surrendering your burden to the Good Lord. As I have experienced, this is the only way you can deal with the stressful difficulty of missing a paycheck. I know that it’s easier said than done, but if you give up your load to the Almighty Being, the light at the end of the tunnel will soon appear to shine hope and bring joy into your life. Keep the faith!
