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Layoff Thinking

blogs.newardassociates.com

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Re: Layoff Thinking

#91

Post by contraposit »

throwaway0048f4 wrote: post #53

> great deal of our identity into what we do [...] establish our identity [...] taking away their national identity [...] re-center your sense of identity away from work This obsession with "identity" (and its counterpart in the Bay Area, "prestige") is so utterly bizarre to me. I was fortunate to end up in relatively well-paying jobs at well-known tech companies, but I told my partner if someone offered me $900k per…

> Certain regions of the world or U.S. seem to care a lot more about peer-perception than others.

This wasn't true even for US few decades ago.

Jerry Seinfeld - MONEY became EVERYTHING

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7BgwUL_X75Y

Re: Layoff Thinking

#92

Post by thr0w »

rayxi271828 wrote: post #51

Internal assessment of self-worth is one thing. But one thing that I noticed while I was between jobs, was that the rest of the world was also built under the assumption that you "had a job". Sign up for financial anything, they always ask you, which company you're with? What's your title? What's the range of your income? I don't know if this is the case in the US, but in my country, I couldn't even open a brokerage…

You should be able to open a brokerage account. You generally need ~2 years of business history to get a loan.

Re: Layoff Thinking

#93

Post by munificent »

0xcafefood wrote: post #33
munificent wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are lucky. Some people, when laid off, struggle with all of the stress of not knowing how to pay bills that you do and on top of that struggle with a sense of lost self worth and other psychological pain.

It's not really "lucky" to have a sense of identity outside of work. The opposite is just unhealthy, even if common.

By "lucky" I mean "you have a beneficial attribute which is uncommon".

Re: Layoff Thinking

#94

Post by littlexsparkee »

moondev wrote: post #46
crystal_revenge wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Following along with this, I find the real hits to self-worth post layoff are in the process of finding that next job. Even when you have a job, a serious job search can be exhausting and, depending on the feed back you're getting, really whittle away at self confidence. But when you can feel the financial timer ticking, you continually start to question yourself and, dangerously, drop your standards. Desperation is…

Being unexpectedly unemployed also starts a virtual timer of sorts not on your terms. Regardless of how you feel about the event, the longer it persists is universally seen as a negative signal to those that would hire you for your next role. It gets exponentially worse as time goes on making it even harder to find a job, because of the increased time you don't have a job.

Fun leaving to deal with a health issue that starts that timer before you can even get to the prepping and interviewing needed to land a job

Re: Layoff Thinking

#95

Post by littlexsparkee »

danans wrote: post #13
kakacik wrote: post #3

> We are so conditioned to believe that we have no inherent worth in capitalism unless we are EARNING. This is a fabulation, right. What kind of POS parent would instill self-worth on money and career into their kids? Apart from being amoral and flawed at the core, it would often lead to mental issues since amount of people that like (not even love) their work is in low single digit %

> This is a fabulation, right. What kind of POS parent would instill self-worth on money and career into their kids? They are not POS, they're trapped in systems and perspectives that push them to do this. Often they are the same kind of parent who had that instilled in them as kids and never had to self-examine those values or the systems that drove them. If not a majority of parents, I'd guess a huge percentage fit…

What a world it would be if people were more open to introspecting, figuring out their motivations, and changing their behavior accordingly. So many people living in reaction to societal influences, not really asking if advice is true or even aligns with their ends.

Re: Layoff Thinking

#96

Post by littlexsparkee »

satisfice wrote: post #47
jjmarr wrote: post #2

I don't understand the American "what do you do?" as first introduction. It's more fun to ask "how do you know 'x'" where 'x' is the host of the party or event or whatever. Although I'm Canadian.

How can you possibly not understand? You really are flummoxed about people who devote themselves to supporting their families economically and thus invest great energy into that pursuit? That’s like going to the Olympic Village, among all the athletes, and being unable to understand why athletes ask each other “What’s your sport?” They are in the Olympics, man! They put everything into getting there. Ask them about t…

How are those the same? You're comparing exclusively star athletes and the general public - many of whom might have jobs in fields not of their choosing, be underpaid, doing grunt work, etc. It's rare to have a high paying, interesting job with good working environment. As another commenter mentioned, it can devolve into status games as well, which is off-putting.

Re: Layoff Thinking

#97

Post by awesomeMilou »

Planktonne wrote: post #63
gedy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> once said long term technical unemployment would be a sign of the singularity; just pray for a soft take off I think that's true, but in your case (mine as well), companies just don't really want to hire older people. People get touchy when this is brought up, but young recruiter women aren't attracted to them and are biased, younger guys/interviewers view them as some dragon to be slayed to prove themselves, etc.…

Have you considered the possibility that the issue might be your own biases, not those of the recruiters?

Honestly, even assuming a bias, I doubt it's attractiveness. What's usually cited with hiring older employees is the additional social cost, as well as time off work (because they often have families to support and are more settled).

Re: Layoff Thinking

#98

Post by awesomeMilou »

contraposit wrote: post #91
throwaway0048f4 wrote: post #53

> great deal of our identity into what we do [...] establish our identity [...] taking away their national identity [...] re-center your sense of identity away from work This obsession with "identity" (and its counterpart in the Bay Area, "prestige") is so utterly bizarre to me. I was fortunate to end up in relatively well-paying jobs at well-known tech companies, but I told my partner if someone offered me $900k per…

> Certain regions of the world or U.S. seem to care a lot more about peer-perception than others. This wasn't true even for US few decades ago. Jerry Seinfeld - MONEY became EVERYTHING https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7BgwUL_X75Y

I don't know, maybe it's the absolute fucking _insane_ social inequality that is present around the globe and in the world.

Also isn't Jerry Seinfeld a billionaire? Completely detached from reality.

Re: Layoff Thinking

#99

Post by guzfip »

jfil wrote: post #85
ilovefrog wrote: post #43

I don't care about this identity thing at all. I only care about survival. If I am unemployed long enough in America, I will eventually die. I worry about not being able to pursue things that matter to me because I am going to die. This article is written for someone who doesn't need money.

I think this "I will die" thought is one of the persistent fallacies that create stress for people who are unemployed (and keep the currently-employed quiet and compliant). Everyone should consider, will you actually die? And - the converse - do you think you'll avoid death forever?

> Everyone should consider, will you actually die?

Depends on where you live. I had the luck of losing everything once. I also had the luck of living in Florida at the time.

Non-homeless, just intoxicated people have frozen to death outside where I live now.

Re: Layoff Thinking

#100

Post by FatherOfCurses »

gedy wrote: post #34
le-mark wrote: post #9

I’ve been in software development since 2003. I’d never been layed off until Jan 2024. I had some dodged several. The signs were all there, company acquired about a year before, product didn’t really fit in their vision. That’s when the layoffs usually happen, a year or so into it. Yet I was still surprised. They got me, they finally got me! At first I thought it was a blessing. I had changed jobs fairly regularly bu…

> once said long term technical unemployment would be a sign of the singularity; just pray for a soft take off I think that's true, but in your case (mine as well), companies just don't really want to hire older people. People get touchy when this is brought up, but young recruiter women aren't attracted to them and are biased, younger guys/interviewers view them as some dragon to be slayed to prove themselves, etc.…

> People get touchy when this is brought up, but young recruiter women aren't attracted to them and are biased

Age discrimination is real (I'm 56) but if you honestly think this way age discrimination isn't your biggest problem. You sound old fashioned and entitled in your thinking rather than experienced. That sort of stuff might fly on Facebook but if that's what you're presenting in your job search it's not going to fly.

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