by Lee VanAmee

Created on: August 23, 2010

We live in unprecedented times of layoffs and company closings, and yet most of the time it's really not personal. 

The first time you lose a job you never forget it; it sticks with you the rest of your life, it changes you because something that you were sure would be there for you suddenly is gone. It is a loss, one that most people will probably experience once or even more times in their lifetime. Years ago it was not so common and people could stay at the same company for their whole life; also there were less buy outs so the same company really stayed that way from the day that it was started. But, in the last 10-20 years companies middle names are change or buyouts or here today and gone tomorrow. So, the first thing you have to remember is that unless you lost your job because of something you did; this is nothing personal and you can't take it to heart because it does you no good. 

The next thing to remember is that it is ok to go through the grieving process because it is a big life change, but also know that people over the ages have lost jobs and have said again and again, it was the best change for them in the long run. The one thing that you can't see yet is that when one door closes the one that opens in its place is there to make a change for the better in your life. This is where we really spin our wheels worrying about what's going to happen next, when you don't have all of the facts yet you start your planning. Once you get your bearings, you will instinctively know which door to open and where to turn, but initially it is too much of a guess. Even for the money aspect of this change; you will know what changes to make as they come up. Just don't panic right out of the gate, because you will do yourself more damage in the long run. 

There are people for whom holding onto their jobs like a life preserver is a white knuckled endeavor and then when the lay off's come or the ax is swung; they lose it, they blame themselves and feel that there was something they should have done so that they could have stayed on at the company where they worked, just what did they do wrong? Well, if it is the usual case of a company making the decisions, they could not have done anything different, they were employed and now they are not employed. It sounds simple enough, maybe the company closed or cut back, maybe the department was cut, and there can be many reasons behind all this. Just know that if you take each day as it comes you will find that there really will be a way out of this situation that you may not have been aware of before. 

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