QUESTION AND ANSWER
Why is it that it seems harder to get a job after you have been downsized?
I think the reason is that we who have been downsized get in our own way and those who haven’t had the experience, do not. I have had clients tell me that in the past they were able to go from one job to the next without trouble but after being laid off, it is different. Yes, it can be the economy but it is also that we who have been downsized are different due to the experience and perhaps haven’t taken the time to process the loss. We didn’t choose this; our self confidence has been shaken.
In the 1980’s I interviewed a man who had a great looking resume. I asked him about why he had left each of his former jobs. He got to the earliest job on the resume, bolted up from his chair, started pacing from one side of my office to the other, pounded one fist into his other hand and started yelling about what had happened to him. Extreme, yes, but our feelings do leak out at inappropriate times unless we process them.
