A Layoff and Being Downsized –It Happens Don’t Take It Personally

After working for IBM for twelve years when the news came.  Everyone that had been working for the company thought they had a job for life as long as we did our jobs satisfactorily, but it didn’t turn out that way.  Management began having meetings the October just before the layoff announcements came out.  Then in December we began getting our notices.  The company was downsizing because the product that we were making was no longer needed in the quantities that it had been.

Even though I knew it wasn’t personal thoughts and conversations kept coming around that we were all good workers and that we usually went above the requirements of the job to get things done in a high quality manner.  Somehow we thought that should count for something, but it did not.  Even with all of the dedicated hard work no one had built-up any equity with the company.  We were all expendable.  The hard part now was to get re-trained to do other types of work because we were all highly trained in a specialized field unique to the jobs we had and now we were obsolete.  The company offered outplacement training which helped several of us find new work but to get up to the level that we had been at would take a long time.  Some of the workers had alternative sources of income that helped them through the transition while the others had to really cut back.

After that experience the biggest lesson that I learned is not to specialize in any job, other than in the  medical field, because it really narrows your chances at finding a new job if you have to and lowers your overall market value as an employee.  You really have to be diversified in the job market to stay competitive and employable.  Doing jobs outside your comfort zone will help you learn new things that you can do that you never thought you could do before.  For example, right after my layoff I started selling cars.  I had never even thought of doing something like that before, I would rather be building them.  But with some training it didn’t turn out to be a bad job after all and unlike all of the bad press you really do help people find the right car for there needs, all of those rip-off articles are way out dated.

If you really like where you are living and don’t want to move it would be a good idea if you learned about all of the employers in your area and the job requirements to be hired to do those jobs.  All you may need to qualify is a specific course at a vocational school or community college.  Not all job changes require getting another college degree.

The worst employees affected by the layoff were in the technical field.  The equipment maintenance technicians on the assembly line, and many of the mechanical and electrical engineer’s whose only disciplines were their technical abilities.  The employees who found new employment or weren’t laid off at all had some training in areas that weren’t as specialized as an equipment maintenance worker for example, employees with management, or training in the accounting field got re-hired quickly.  No matter what type of job you decide to go into it’s a good idea to have an alternate source of income to provide for you on those rainy days.  Perhaps an E-Bay business.

If this happens to you don’t waste your time looking for new work in the private sector unless you already have a retirement coming in you will be wasting your time, instead seriously look into getting into a government job where you will have secure employment, excellent benefits and a solid retirement plan.
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Bob Crane is a Home Business entrepreneur and is involved in developing a one of a kind new Online Recession Proof Work at Home Based Business System.
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