Posted by Rick Denney on November 06, 2002 at 21:42:37:
In Reply to: Perspective posted by Downsized on November 05, 2002 at 17:34:58:
There is life after layoff. I suspect that most of us who have reached a certain age have faced it at one time or another; I certainly have. When it happens, you think that you are in for bad times, but it isn't always so. In my case, it forced me to make a decision I'd been too timid to make before then, and turned out to be a real turning point for the better in my career.
Try to think of what you've been too settled to do before now. Now may be the perfect time to try it. When my father was laid off in his early 60's, he could not afford to retire yet and he was momentarily at a loss, even though he'd hated being at the beck and call of his employer. He was afraid no employer would touch him because of his age. He decided to hang out a shingle and free-lance as a consulting engineer, but the ink had hardly dried on his business cards when he was called by another company. Yet the energy he put into getting it set up made him realize that it was possible, and consequently he never again would he be a slave to an employer. A dozen years have passed since then, and he is retired but still works as sort of a hobby. He has never let an employer get him down since that experience.
Rick "who has learned the most at the low points" Denney