Last night at dinner, I was telling Chad about some of the tweets I read about people getting let go in the Google layoff.
Although I’ve never been in the role of having to let people go, I have sat with many clients throughout my years as a therapist as they navigated one of the most stressful life events anyone endures.
I can imagine (this is part of the empathy skillset) what it is like to work for a company for 16 years (any amount of time, really) and to lose connection to my accounts and then get the email saying I am one of the many being laid off.
I don’t care how big the layoff is or how big your organization is; letting people go via email is not okay.
𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙬𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙠𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙡𝙠 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙫𝙞𝙖 𝙖 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙨-𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙡?
No eye contact, no presence, no empathy.
No care.
We are humans with families, aging parents, bills, dreams, and full, complicated stories. We spend more time awake at work than we do with the people who love us the most. Of course, losing a job probably always sucks 𝙖𝙣𝙙 when we choose to see one another, walk alongside one another, and care, it can suck a little less.
Side note: As traumatic as job loss always is, with time, work, perspective, and healing, it will be okay. Hell, it will be better than okay, I promise.