As the Microsoft workforce around the world reels from the news that 18,000 of them will be looking for new jobs sooner rather than later, I am holding everyone who has been impacted in my heart and sending out the intention that this heralds new and exciting opportunities for all of them. Watching people’s reactions has reminded me of some key lessons I learned working in the corporate world, though, I hope they serve well.
I still remember the first time I had to tell someone, as a green 20-something HR Manager in a far-off Microsoft subsidiary, that their job no longer existed after a re-organization. It was heart breaking and a huge lesson to me. At the time I was an ambitious little beaver, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and prone to “forgetting” to be home for dinner because there was always something else at work that needed to be done. I saw the raw passion for the company and its mission everywhere I turned, and had subscribed wholeheartedly to the “cult-like culture” (see chapter 6 of “Built to Last” by by James Collins and Jerry Porras). So when I earnestly informed a senior leader of the subsidiary – someone almost twice my age, earning more than twice my salary, and with a decade or more of dedicated tenure – that his business unit was being eliminated and there simply wasn’t a job for him anymore, I certainly wasn’t prepared for the epiphany of his response.
This successful, suave, executive broke down. He was devastated, repeating “But I’ve given my LIFE to this company… What am I going to do now? This company is my LIFE..” I was rendered speechless; reduced to offering tissues and repeating the comfortless availability of job search assistance.
Shortly after this, my father was laid off from his high-flying job as an executive helicopter sales professional. Again, devastation. A man, a serial entrepreneur and highly successful corporate employee, who hitherto had never indicated an understanding of the word “No”, reduced in his shock and depression to one question: “Who am I now?”
My worldview crumbled. Immutable laws of nature were suddenly questionable. I had to reframe my philosophy.
Here’s what I ended up with:
Don’t take personally the things corporations do.
Corporations, regardless of what the US Supreme Court says, are not people. They are not humans. They may be run and operated by humans, but the corporate entity itself is not human. So it’s not capable of seeing humans or relating to them – yes, the people running corporations may wield them like weapons of mass destruction, but the companies themselves are simply concepts. Since my layoff epiphany back in those HR days, I’ve taken to likening corporations to refrigerators – the healthiest way to interact with them is to put stuff in and take stuff out. You put stuff in in order to take stuff out.
Do remember the function of a corporation.
It’s to make money for its stakeholders. If it’s a publically traded entity, its job is to increase shareholder returns at all costs. This goes to the point above. It’s not personal, it’s business. Humanity is, sadly, often just collateral damage.
Don’t fall in love with a corporation.
Some corporations have intense and, frankly, amazingly seductive cultures. They employ people with passion and drive – vivacious and positively energetic beings who align themselves with the corporate mission in a way that is magnetic and compelling. It’s easy to confuse that energy with the identity of the corporation – don’t. It’s not the company you’re in love with, it’s the people and their harmonized energy. You can access that energy outside the company – invest in those relationships rather than falling for the thing that can’t love you back.
Do make sure to pursue passions outside of work.
There is a very real phenomenon in which people who worked for a company their whole lives would die shortly after retiring. They had invested so much of themselves in their lifelong career that, when bereft of that meaning and purpose, they had nothing to live for. You’ll hear a lot of talk about “work-life balance” but the bottom line here is: be a whole human being. Be well-rounded – it could save your life.
Don’t allow where you work or what you do become who you are.
There’s more to you than your job. There’s more to you than the title on your business card, the name of the corporation that employs you – while we’re at it, there’s more to you than where you live, what you drive or how much you earn. Sure, there may be some prestige associated with a certain employer or type of work, but one thing is certain: at the end of your life, it’s sure as heck not going to be the most important thing you remember or cherish. Who you are is who your family and friends love; who contributes back to society – not what you do or where you work. What are your talents, what do you love to do, what other roles do you play in your life? Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, Friend – WHO are you – not what do you do.
Do get clear on who you are, what your values are and what boundaries you will defend.
Spend some time investing in getting to know yourself. Get clear about your values, because they drive your priorities and a lot of your decisions. Knowing your values will help you be sure about what you will and won’t trade off so you can set and maintain clear boundaries. As a coach, the most frequent root cause issue I see in people who are unfulfilled or “stuck” is a lack of clarity about, and alignment with, core values.
Don’t (ever) consistently prioritize a corporation’s needs over your own or those of your family.
Bronnie Ware, a palliative care nurse, blogged and later wrote a book (called “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying”) about the most common regrets expressed to her by people at the end of their lives. Do you think “I wish I had worked harder or longer hours” features? Points for guessing – nope! In fact, here they are – check out # 2.
Top Five Regrets of the Dying
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Whenever he learned of my latest all night work effort, or when I refused to take vacation because of a work thing, my Dad always used to counsel me to go fill a bucket with water and stick my hand in it. Then he’d ask how much of a hole was left when I took my hand out. Smart man, my Dad – he clearly learned his lesson after that layoff 🙂
Do your best work anyway.
There is value in applying ourselves and doing our best work. The thing is, you need do your best work for YOU, for your self respect, for your peace of mind. A job done well for the sake of doing it well is a form of meditation and flow. It’s an expression of yourself. So do your best and then let it go.
Don’t mistake a regular paycheck and benefits for job security.
There is no such thing. Appreciate them while you have them, but do not allow them to become “golden handcuffs”. I often ask people how much their salary and benefits are costing them. That leads to some very interesting conversations. Manage your resources as wisely as possible so if that rug is pulled from under you, you can recover quickly. Wherever possible, lose the debt – stop gambling that your salary and benefits will last indefinitely. Sometimes the golden goose decides not to lay for a while.
Do regularly inventory your strengths, check your value on the market and keep your resume up to date.
This is actually a great way to boost your confidence. If you are regularly reminding yourself of your strengths and accomplishments, you know what you’re worth on the market (and what opportunities abound), and you’re ready to rock the recruiting world with your up-to-the-minute resume, it’s amazing how much more resilient you feel, and how less trapped. So do the Boy Scout thing – get (and stay) prepared. It’s insurance.
If you were just fired or layed off, your world has been well and truly rocked. I’m sorry for how that feels, I really am. Take some time to grieve the loss you just experienced. Acknowledge your feelings of betrayal, fear, anger, bereavement and more. And when it’s time – find yourself and carefully pick yourself up. Get to know your amazing, talented, accomplished self. Remind yourself that what happened to you is not personal. And then grab a hold of those bootstraps, pull yourself up and get back out there. Only this time, remember: they’re only refrigerators – you put stuff in and take stuff out. And life doesn’t happen just in the kitchen.
A final word, for managers and HR professionals who have to wield the dreaded Ax:
Do remember that these are human beings with whom you are dealing – be as respectful and compassionate as you can, without sugar-coating the message (goes for firing as well as laying off).
Don’t take people’s reactions personally – they’re going to run the gamut: anger, shock, incredulity, devastation… Give them space to react and maintain a level of detached compassion that holds space for them without dragging you into the vortex.
Do take time to work with the “survivors” who will also be experiencing some intense responses to the changes. Workplace dynamics will shift and managers will need savvy coaching to help their organizations heal in order to achieve the effectiveness originally intended.
Don’t lose your humanity. You’re all the corporation has between it and complete soullessness.
(c) Lorrin Maughan 2014
Very well written, thought out, and organized Lorrin.
This is the way it is in all too many companies; however this is not the way it has to be. Search out Simon Sinek’s TED talk ” leaders eat last”. Companies need to reinvent themselves frm the top down.
Agree – it’s not the way it has to be, and some leaders are building their companies with a more people-centric and compassionate approach. I’d love to see this build as a virtuous cycle across all industries!
Great advices on how to cope with the ugly aspect of today’s corporations. However, this is just a coping mechanism that we’re told to exercise so that all ends as seamlessly as possible whenever the corp decides to roll heads. This is NOT the correction, merely a coping mechanism. The corporations need to get better at living up to their incredible pitch: “People are our best assets.” I wouldn’t trust any corporations in such a capitalist world or I’ll get hurt.
Great article. I am glad you wrote this. As someone who has been more a freelancer vs employee, I have seen this happen more and more to long-time employees over the years. It is very sad, but I think people are starting to see the trend.
The best book I have read on this topic is “Choose Yourself.” The author breaks it down: No one gives a shit about you or your retirement, you are on your own. For a long time people thought that wasn’t the case, those people were wrong. The sooner you can be replaced with a robot that can do your job cheaper, the better for most of these companies. Always remain fundamentally selfish.
Me? Laid off twice now. When I get laid off…I get stronger. I never understood the reactions of people who are sad about being fired. I have only ever known difficulty, lack of appreciation and hard times. Each time I get laid off, I spend 6-8 months teaching myself new skills and the next job is a 50% improvement in salary.
Fucking people over is what companies DO. 300% salary increase in the last three years. My peers who decided to stick in their old jobs often went directly into the shredder, surprised at the result.
I totally don’t get the bucket analogy. Would you mind explaining it for the simpler amongst us?
Great post, though!
It’s just that after you’re gone, it’s like you were never there. After you remove your hand from the bucket, the water just fills in the hole — like your hand was never there.
Then corporations and governments shouldn’t take it personally when I extract everything I can from them and contribute nothing.
It’s just business when I sell their secrets to others.
It’s just business when I cheat them.
It’s just business when I simply stop showing up one day leaving them stranded.
After all, I have a mandate to make as much profit as I can for myself and my family.
Amen! Right?
No, because not doing those things is part of the deal you have with your employer (and most of them are also against the law). If you don’t like the terms of the deal, don’t sign it. You won’t have much trouble making a going concern hold up its side of whatever bargain you signed. The point of the article is to remember that there are things you *don’t* owe your employers, such as unpaid overtime.
And while your contract may say you can’t just stop showing up for work (there is generally a mutual notice period), in practice they probably won’t do more than give a lousy reference.
Be loyal to people not companies because they will never be loyal to you.
Thanks everyone for the comments and thoughts – I appreciate you taking the time to share!
Chris, I hope Bernie’s explanation of the bucket analogy helps – the point my Dad was making was that nobody is indispensable, that companies keep chugging along with or without us (for the most part, unless we’re super influential or it’s a tiny company) and that we shouldn’t make the mistake of trading away important things like rest and having a life because we think we are indispensable…
So the thing is – what prompted me to write this post – if I could give every corporate employee in the world a gift, it would be freedom from the persistent perceptual delusion of victimhood. By allowing ourselves to take personally, and feel brutalized by, the things that happen in the course of corporations doing what they’re in business to do, we cause ourselves so much unnecessary angst.
I’m not trying to be glib, I totally acknowledge that bad stuff happens and that it can have devastating consequences – especially if unforeseen/unplanned for (been on the receiving end of life’s capriciousness a few times myself), but by choosing to paint ourselves as victims of a big bad entity (or even an ogre manager) instead of accepting the situation with a degree of detachment and getting on with addressing our new reality, we create exponential degrees of additional suffering for ourselves.
I’ve played victim more often than is comfortable to admit, in business and personal situations, however I’m learning that if I let go of how I think things *should be* or *should have been*, and simply deal with reality *as it stands*, I suffer less (resentment, bitterness, panic, anxiety) and life flows just that little more easily – that’s what I wish for everybody: more ease, less pain – and the thing is, we can choose that so why wouldn’t we?
Since when did corporation’s primary job become to increase shareholder value? This is *exactly* why the common public has, rightfully, lost almost all of the trust in corporations. Adam Smith is rolling in his grave observing the pseudocaptialistic theory being pandered in his name.
Ever since I stood on a shakey ladder, glueing a heavy board on to a rusty buidling and concluede “One hand for the boss, one hand for myself” was the way forward I’ve been aware of what your saying. I’ve worked in company with a sect like culture, it was great fun, but it doesn’t last. Companies change, they grow, they shrivvel, be prepared to face those challenges. Maintain your carreer like a garden, cut out the dead wood, prepare new beds, foster growth of young plants.
I can’t find any fault with what you wrote Lorrin. Personally I think humans would have a better life if we all had a good grasp of what nature is all about. Being exposed to nature early in life is a good foundation to survive and it provides the necessary insights on many of the points you made. To me all the answers to life can be found in nature.
The one thing I’ve learned over the past 15 years of working in a corp environment, is that there is no such thing as job security anymore.
Corporations are modern-day feudal societies, and guess what part you play? Don’t work for one, don’t buy from them, and they’ll soon be gone the way of divine-rights-of-kings. Otherwise better get used to pulling your forelock.
It is time to change from do-to-be creatures. Our being is not derived by anything we do or role we have. Our being is the source of any choice we make about what to do, how we do it, and who we do it with or around. It’s time to KNOW who we BE. It will not only save a lot of heartache, it will actually change the world.
Thank you, Lorrin. This was a beautiful piece.
Lorri, I have never met you nor do I know your career path. I have myself being in both sides of the wielding and receiving the ax. With all due respect, I think the title of your article does not has much to do with its content, dedicating only about 2 lines to your likening of corporations to refrigerators.
People leaving Microsoft in this wave, will be needing much more than hurray hurray, you are great, you are much more than that, you can do it, we can help type of help.
I am answering this to you and would like to ask you no to publish it. I am nonetheless motivated to write you not to prey in these people at this point in time. Be more respectful about the time they will be facing shortly when they will be receiving the Ax.
By the way, I am not sure if your attempt to try to relate to what they are going to go through was a good one, as you place yourself in the Ax-wielding role in your story, and not in when you received the Ax, if you ever did..
Respectfully,
Armando Exposito
Former Ax-wielder and Ax-receiver
Great read. Touches on some hard facts and frankly reminds all of us, in the end, we own our destiny. It is a stark truth about keeping our values and identity always.
I too have been the bearer of the your-role-has-been-terminated news too many times in my career, and felt totally crushed by the experience of impacting the lives of great people who I respected and appreciated.
On more than one occasion, I’ve laid awake all night dreading the conversations ahead, and I’ve shed tears with these people during the notification process.
But, in later years my perspective has changed completely.
Through my experiences and by observing the outcomes, I am now convinced that as in all aspects in life, real growth comes with dramatic change, even when that change is forced upon us.
With very few exceptions, the people I have seen impacted by corporate restructuring have taken full advantage of the packages and benefits offered to them through the process. More importantly they have actually taken their careers forward, often choosing a new path they have desired but not acted on.
Like every challenge that life throws our way, we all have a choice in our response. We can elect to be resentful, defeated, bitter, and full of self-pity. We can believe that the company conspired against us, and live in the imagery that this is some kind of attack on the employees.
Alternatively, we can accept that there are commercial realities to running a business, particularly where there are shareholders that must be appeased. We can acknowledge that there are people at all levels of the management structure who are nauseated and grieving about the decisions they are making, but have to put on a brave face to deliver the message and manage the impact on those who will remain.
Most importantly, we can look for the opportunity that is created by the event, and maximize it for our own benefit. We can step back and consider what hopes and dreams we might be able to make a reality through the transition we are about to experience. We can remind ourselves of the value we represent in terms of skills, experience, passion & drive and prepare to promote this as our personal brand to any potential new employers.
Lorrin, this post is full of nuggets for those who are looking for gold in the face of dramatic change.
Thank you for posting it!
jd
Eloquently written with pin-sharp observation and excellent advice. This matches exactly my observations of the corporate experience until I got out to go it alone as a coach. I realised there was no safety in the corporate environment if the rug could be pulled from under my feet at any time. With my own coaching practice I am now 100% responsible for my own safety. GREAT article, thanks Lorrin!