Terminations, Firings, and Layoffs with Happy Endings

by William S. Frank, President/CEO of CareerLab®

OUTPLACEMENT is the business of helping people losing their jobs to be re-employed. Sometimes it’s done one-on-one, sometimes in groups. I’ve done onesie-twosies and worked in 5,000-person layoffs. Not all stories have happy endings, but most do. Here are a few of my favorite:

A first for me, this manager cried at having to terminate his best friend in a    recession.

Her boss said, “I can’t say enough bad things about her. I think she’s virtually  unemployable.”

His wife had cancer, he had hip-replacement surgery, and then was laid off.

Crises are usually speedbumps when viewed in retrospect. The offers were both so good Mark worried which to take.

After being laid off, Steve knew he wanted another Chief Financial Officer        position; but as the weeks passed, his fear and anxiety about placing
himself in the world unsettled him.

He was always the smartest person in the room.

Don’t oversell yourself, but don’t undersell yourself either.

If you’re in the job market, I hope you’re encouraged by these true stories. None are fictionalized, except that some names are changed. No matter what your employment or life situation, you can have a bright future. This isn’t Pollyanna. It’s based on my real-world experience providing career consulting, executive coaching, and outplacement to 357 brand-name companies. As the English poet Robert Browning taught us, “The best is yet to be!”

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