Layoffs: The Employee’s Nightmare

“It hit me like a ton pf bricks. I was in a state of shock.” Communications manger, age 44

“It’s a terrible blow to your self-confidence. You feel worthless.” Chief financial officer, age 38

“What kind of economy have we created that sacrifices people in their prime?” Clothing expert, age 47.

What experience did these individuals share? Each went through the traumatic experience of being laid off from work. Look again at the ages of those workers. They were not novices, so they likely felt that they had a measure of job security. And they were at what many would consider their peak earning years. But the end of their employment was quick and unexpected. “They told me to clear my desk and pack my things,” said the communications manager mentioned above. “I was gone, just like that. Poof.”

What Happened?

Economic uncertainty is nothing new. In many countries, there have always been periods of relative prosperity followed by recessions or depressions. And the recent economic downturns experienced throughout the world, even before the war in the Persian Gulf, showed how fragile economics could be even after years of relative prosperity. Many people, some for the first time, realized that they could not take their jobs and incomes for granted. The effect of the economics slowdown on the work force was staggering. Companies were compelled to cut costs to the bone, often resulting in sweeping layoffs. In the wealthier, industrialized members states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a total of 25 million people were unemployed at one time.

“Almost every day I get calls from friends in large companies who have been let go,” said a home-interior designer. “A let of the companies I work with are down to half the business they had a year ago.” Layoffs have always been part of blue-collar life. In the recent downturn, an increasing number of white-collar workers also lost their jobs. “These are the economic icon jobs,” said Dan Lacey, editor of the newsletter Workplace Trends, “the jobs that gave us the ability to buy a house in a nice neighborhood and drive two cars.” Many of those jobs were lost in the last few years. And the workers who were laid off found themselves, as Newsweek put it, “weighed down by mortgages, young families, big bills and an increasingly uncertain future.”