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The Sunshine Eaters: a series on surviving multiple layoffs
Every morning, I log into Duolingo to practice my French. I always begin my daily lesson by working on my previous mistakes, because you get rewarded with double points on Duolingo by correcting your mistakes. Beginning to learn something by first focusing on my mistakes does not come natural to me. For example, I stopped playing the Sims after about ten minutes when my accidentally killed my Sim in an extremely graphic kitchen fire. In the game, she had a very nice funeral, but that experience put me off the game permanently.
Often in business we see books and articles that tell stories about failures which focus to failures are being a good thing, a learning opportunity, a blessing in disguise, or a necessary pivot. On a more personal level, however, those stories shift. When a layoff event occurs, a company decision weighs very heavily and personally on the people who get laid off. There are some cases where layoffs negatively impact companies (Nokia in 2011 or Better.com’s layoffs via Zoom being two examples), but not many.
Companies may fail and budget priorities do change, but the people directly affected often aren’t allowed the space to see their former company’s failure as a “learning opportunity”. They need to make money to pay bills and/or work defines their sense of identity, so a lot of people need to get…
