What to expect when expecting to get ... laid off!

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Now that you’ve saved money and taken on the responsibility of three people at your job, guess what? You might get laid off anyway. After all, that’s what happened to Hankee. But from the moment she got that ominous memo saying there might be layoffs, she used her time wisely. Immediately, she updated her résumé. And she made the unusual move of being very honest with her supervisors. “I talked to them on a daily basis. And I always kept a positive attitude, like, ‘If [a layoff] happens, then there is a reason why it’s happening. This is what I think I would like to do.’ ” It was a smart move, because like with a lot of people in a big company, even Hankee’s bosses were worried about getting laid off. And wherever they went, they might be able to take Hankee with them.

But Hankee’s best move came the day she got laid off, when she sent out a mass e-mail to every contact she had, telling them she was looking for a job. (After eight years at LaSalle, she had a lot of contacts. See “Out of network?” on page 20 if you don’t have as many as you’d like.) Again, she took an upbeat tone, using phrases such as amazing experience and very grateful to describe her time at LaSalle. Most important, she noted that she didn’t know exactly what she was going to do next, but she’d like to stay in her field, and she’d love to hear about other opportunities.

Within two weeks, she received a reply to her e-mail from the company that eventually hired her. She didn’t start her new job for a few months, though, so she took some time off. She relaxed. And she proved that, sometimes, if you do it right, getting laid off isn’t such a bad thing after all.

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