American-Latino Immigrants Proudly Assisting the Community

Al Carlos Hernandez
www.LatinoLA.com

I have a deep abiding concern for those who have been laid off, or suspect that they may be laid off in the near future. Employers know that these are severe economic times and have to take extreme measures to stay in business.

In my sordid work experience throughout the years, I have been laid off, let go, re-assigned, promoted, demoted, fired, bum-rushed, asked to leave, asked to manage, often-times handed a ham sandwich and a road map.

Most people think that it cannot happen to them, the boss likes them, and the company needs them. Wake up call: it can and does happen, the good news is now days often times the boss gets the boot as well. There is major consolation when the boss gets the same pink slip at the same time you do. Corporate etiquette indicates that you have to give him/her or her at least a three step lead before you start chasing them.

To me getting fired feels a little bit like getting killed. Your whole identity, lifestyle and ego are drastically changed within one day. Your source of security, identity and income gets executed. In America, what we do for a living sometimes is misinterpreted as who we are. Just because you lose your job do not lose your identity.

I have some hard-lived advice for those who get the short end of the economic stick. The first thing you have to realize is that most of the time it is not your fault. Don’t blame yourself. We are all victims of national mismanagement.

Laying people off is simply a financial decision it usually has nothing to do with you as a person.

The second thing to realize is that those in the company who are not laid off have to do twice or three times the work at the same pay. The third thing is that the company bites anyway.

Most people are in denial and do not anticipate job cut backs. They figure the company can work at a loss for a while, and the boss does not loo k worried. This usually happens when you work for a stupid boss.

Always assume that you can be laid off any minute. Always have a Plan B job that can pay quick cash that you can fall back on, like house painting, babysitting, whatever. Immediately apply for unemployment, even if you expect to be called back.

Be aware of similar companies that can use your abilities, know who is hiring, and consider taking some classes learning another trade should your vocation go into a drought mode.

As a mass media major in college once I was blacklisted from fulltime Spanish language media. I found myself unemployable, so I took a job selling cars, then learned the sales trade. Car dealerships have an intensive sales training system. I used the sales ability to many jobs and feed my family until the economy got right again.

There are a few stages one goes though once handed the pink slip. The first is denial. You are somehow convinced that it is a mistake and they will re-hire you the next day. The first day home is like a day home sick from school. You do not know what to do with yourself and wait for the phone to ring or an e-mail that never comes. You call work to see who misses you or if anything has changed. Soon they make excuses not to take your call. Work friends after the work is gone are not real friends.

The second phase is you humble yourself and start asking folks who's hiring, then go on-line check the want ads eventually. You start going on some whack interviews. You soon find that there are lousy jobs out there with way too many over qualified candidates and they want to pay peanuts with no benefits.

The third phase is that you get used to being home, interview less frequently and for many, give up.

This is a mistake.

Psychologists say in order to be emotionally healthy; people need two things, security and significance. A job gives one significance. In my down times I have learned to forgo ego and have taken jobs that before I would consider beneath my stature and had some of the best and most rewarding times in my life. People around me were happy to know that I was no longer a legend in my own mind.

The life experience of starting over vocationally and knowing that I had to scrap for my money has served to enhance the quality of my life immeasurably and has given me a confidence I could not have received any other way.

I tell my sons that I believe that I could be dropped flat broke from a helicopter in Kentucky and have a job and apartment and a Cadillac within two weeks because now I know how to get my money. Getting laid off at various stages in my life showed me the way.

Tough times do not last, but tough people do. Gotta learn how to hold your mud.