There was an interesting post yesterday by Kathy Sierra on her site, Creating Passionate Users. The post, Silver lining on Sun layoffs?, discusses the current reduction in staff happening at Sun’s Colorado Campus and the effect it is having on those involved.
That post inspired the following question.
What do those who get laid off receive?
A. the shaft
B. a ‘gift’
Now remember your answer.
As an aside, Lisa has first hand experience with this. As such, I fully expect her to have a post on this subject soon and, therefore, I won’t to go into those details here. Suffice it to say that she once made it to the third round of layoffs at her former dot com employer before she was ‘ushered out the door’.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program….
What I find interesting in Kathy’s post (and something Lisa has confirmed with me previously) is that it seems that the earlier one gets the ‘axe’, the happier they ultimately seem to be. They don’t have to deal with the anxiety of constantly wondering if they will be next. And they don’t have to compound that with thoughts of how they will make it if they loose their paycheck. (See my previous post on the false security a paycheck provides here). They just seem to be able to move on much quicker.
So why is it that they are able to move on quicker you may ask? Well, I believe it is because they receive an incredible ‘gift’. The ‘gift’ of giving yourself permission to do the thing or things you always wanted to do. This comes easy to some. But some people have to be ‘forced’, by means of a layoff, to give themselves this ‘gift’.
So what is holding you back from giving yourself this ‘gift’? Or are you happy, TRULY happy, right where you are, right now? If not, why not give yourself permission to try something new?