Everyone has a view
Everyone wants to help and therefore everyone wants you to follow their solution.
It seems the biggest issue is my reaction to what is happening. Colleagues sympathise when they see me or come and visit me in the office. The sympathy is well-meant but also a result of the insecurity the whole episode created with those remaining. One of the staff is overheard saying that if it could happen to me, it can happen to anyone in the office. Another says it shows you what type of a company we work for. I correct her; “the company YOU work for” I say. She is not amused.
Most colleagues comment on the unfairness of it all. All say they think of me in the difficult time. A colleague visits me in the office to express her concern that I may be in denial because I show no emotion. No anger, grief, animosity, suicidal inclination and no ranting and raving.
I am not sure what the problem is.
Surely one incorporates certain negative factors when one thinks about/plan your future. It is the nature of life that some bad and some good things will happen to you. If you prepare for it that it may happen that your daughter will one day marry someone completely unacceptable to you and how you will react to it, you will not be surprised when it happens. If you prepare for it that anyone or more of the world’s worst diseases will occur in your family from time to time, you will not be surprised. If you prepare for it that you may be retrenched once or probably more in your life, you will obviously act differently as opposed to people who have not thought about that.
To me this is not an unexpected, bad thing that should not happen because I am such a good/bad person. It is the nature of life and many people have had much more heartbreaking experiences than I had and probably will have. You think I have problems? Look here
This is a list of blogs relating to being retrenched (laid off). Please add more links if you have any:
- One of the most helpful is probably Scobleizer’s blog. He says: “I laid myself off in February 2002″ http://scobleizer.com/2008/01/23/what-to-do-if-youre-laid-off-in-2008-recession/#comment-1981194
- http://laidoffdad.typepad.com/
- http://ryaninc.blogspot.com/2008/04/laid-off-set-free-and-writing-book.html
- http://pewresearch.org/pubs/802/youre-laid-off
- http://www.mytotalmoneymakeover.com/modules/fusetalk3/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=9&threadid=111669
- http://www.bulletproofyourcareer.com/
- http://www.manager-tools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=21244#21244
Those around me seem to make more of a fuss than I do, and when I do not react in the same way, it appears as if I am irresponsibly nonchalant and in denial.
Managing that misconception takes much energy.