Finding Support After Layoffs

At work, we experience certain events that I’d like to describe as “reality-shifting.” They are events that may bring you to an emotional extreme that are unexpected, because they are simultaneously a normal course of business, in general or for your industry. This dissonance, and the fact that life continues as usual around you, is what makes them “reality-shifting.” On a personal level, these challenge your identity, may be disruptive to your day-to-day life, and can threaten your sense of safety.

Two such events are a layoff, especially if you have never experienced one before, and an individual job dismissal.

Why these events are difficult

With a layoff or job dismissal, you experience the following direct impacts to your material status:

  • Sudden loss of income

  • Sudden loss of employer-provided healthcare, or a spike in transitional healthcare costs (e.g. in the case of COBRA in the United States, especially if your employer previously contributed to premiums, or providing for dependents), or need to navigate the healthcare system and marketplace at a vulnerable time

  • If you have worked in the same job or industry for some time, a need to navigate new companies and/or industries which have different levels of competitiveness (e.g. need for new training)

Most conversations about layoffs stop here, but there are other challenges that come with a layoff or job dismissal:

  • Sudden loss of social connection, especially in tight-knit work environments

  • Strong feelings like shame, fear, anger, etc.

  • Anxiety at securing future employment and potentially for your employment record (e.g. if performance-related)

  • Disillusionment or fatigue with industry or role

  • If you are not used to extended unemployment, e.g. if you have never taken leave or a sabbatical or other gap in work, you encounter your personal life unfiltered by work for the first time, which can bring up unexpected emotions

  • Major changes to your capacity to function at home: If you are a household of one, you likely do not have a safety net to lean on for transitional economic support, e.g. a spouse or domestic partner; if you have children or other dependents, you may experience dramatic changes in care schedules and resources

This is more pronounced for people who are neurodivergent, sensitive, and/or minorities of some kind, who encounter additional variables, including:

  • Different dynamics in the hiring process

  • Different policy and accommodation needs from a workplace, e.g. will my new position allow for me to have the same work flexibility, physical desk configuration, understand my domestic and family needs relative to standard policies

  • Sudden disruption to familiar habits, systems, social environment that amplify stress

If you are an individual who experiences high awareness of structures and environments, this feeling can be amplified.

  • Where your attention was once occupied by one way of meeting the world through your work (e.g. one problem, role, industry, way of seeing the world, area of focus), you are now thrown back into the wide open experience of life

  • This can be confronting in an existential way: what am I doing with my life, who am I?

More thoughts on layoffs

While something may be “business as usual,” there is an impact that this professional change has on your personal life. It can amplify existing challenges with relationships, schedules, and needs. These events can take years to recover from and are cited as being “one of the most traumatic events you can experience in life.” (LA Times)

Adding to the difficulty, others in your life who have their existing job or social roles may not understand the emotional experience that you are having, and may also be negatively impacted by it and dismiss or want to avoid the subject. What this means is that you are suddenly having a major life experience that you are going through alone. Coaching can be a meaningful and even necessary backstop, where other forms of support fail or are not available.

How Blobworks can help

From my career, both experiencing and managing major workplace changes, one of my implicit goals is to help professionals understand their work-lives in more independent economic and social terms: “I am a person who has a career.”

I offer coaching for post-layoff support at an adjusted rate and format. In these sessions, we will work on understanding your current situation, navigating norms around layoffs, and normalizing your emotional experience. I cannot help you find a new job, but I can help you feel in a headspace to do so and establish some stability. To get started, please contact us.