In Coast Or Climb, Surviving The Road Up The Corporate Ladder, we meet Scott, a senior analyst and associate at a large professional services firm. He is a supporting character in the short story, for Maya, a junior recruit. After telling Maya’s story, I was asked about Scott. Did he leave on his own terms? What does he do next?
This business fable is about what happened to Scott in the days leading up to, and months after his final day at the corporate firm.
Scott’s departure was a surprise
I know you want Scott to be the hero of his own story. And you were hoping that he had the courage to up and quit his corporate job. To hear he struck out into the unknown, taking charge of his life, and was happier and more prosperous afterwards. You’re probably disappointed to hear that Scott leaving his job, was not his choice. Scott was laid off.
So why do you think being laid off is such a bad thing? What does a layoff do to prevent someone like Scott from living out a happy and prosperous life after one job comes to an end? Was his work situation before being fired so great? We know that it wasn’t.
It was a Tuesday morning
Scott came to work that day by bicycle. It began in a typical fashion, starting with a morning coffee from the cappuccino machine, and taking it into the breakout room where he would lead the team’s weekly sync. Scott always arrived about five minutes early, before anyone else and prior to starting the video call with all the remote members of the team. But today, Scott wasn’t alone. He was startled to see one of his project managers there.
“Sit down Scott.” The manager said. No ‘good morning’, or ‘how are you?’.
Scott knew something wasn’t quite right. The manager had his poker face on as Scott took a seat in one of the meeting room’s dark fake leather chairs.
Without changing his expression, Scott’s manager says, “There’s no good way of saying this. Scott, today is your last day at the company.” Exhaling, finally, he carries on. “I’m sorry.” Then his expression changes a bit, he looks slightly remorseful. “You can leave your laptop here, and start cleaning out your desk. HR will be in touch through personal email about the next steps.”
It is now that Scott realizes someone is hovering by the door. He doesn’t know her name but recognizes one of the newer members of the Human Resources team standing there holding a clipboard.
The next few hours are hazy
Scott knows he goes back to his desk, though he reminds himself it’s not technically his desk anymore. The HR lady, whom he still can’t remember her name, offers to call him a taxi – but he has his bike. The ride home feels surreal. His hand doesn’t feel like his own as he unlocks the front door to his apartment.
When Scott’s phone goes off at 3:30 in the afternoon, he wakes abruptly on the living room couch. He must have dozed off.
“Hello Scott?” It’s his kids’ daycare.
Surprise turns to dread as he realizes he was supposed to pick them up half an hour ago. “Hey, sorry, I’m just running behind.” He usually leaves work early on Tuesdays to go pick them up. It’s not a big deal, daycare runs until 5pm. But to Scott it’s another failure for the day. He apologizes profusely and promises to be there soon.
Shoes back on, Scott walks the 15 minutes to where the daycare is located. When he gets back home, the kids need snacks, and all of his regular life responsibilities start to make their way back into his mind. The haze is broken, he has things to do even if he doesn’t have a job right now. There isn’t time to feel sorry for himself.
An email from HR is waiting in his personal email inbox. It helps to ease Scott’s awkwardness at dinner, when he informs his wife of the new situation and they discuss immediate next steps.
Figuring out what’s next
Things to be thankful for
They decide to treat the next couple of weeks like a staycation. The firm gave him 2 months of severance pay, plus access to resources like career counselling. Scott gets the paperwork all in order, including applying for employment insurance.
He realizes he is a lot more tired than he thought he was. Even though Scott had been standing his ground at work, not taking on unpaid overtime, saying “no” to the projects that stank of scope creep, and pushing back a lot. Work had drained him. Even after a couple of days with no work responsibilities, Scott feels a non-physical weight lift off his shoulders. His wife doesn’t push him to take on more housework or childcare than he normally does. And he takes the time to get into a healthier eating, sleeping, and exercise routine.
During this time, Scott reflects a lot. What if he had done this or that differently? Should he have seen the layoff coming? What will his project teams do without him? Many emotions surface. Anger, sadness, but also feelings of relief, joy, and a state of relaxation he cannot remember feeling for many years.
Scott starts to realize he needed to leave that job, but that he never would have quit. The financial burden he shares with his wife for their young family and the lifestyle they’ve chosen would always be at odds with quitting. Even if he had started looking for another job earlier… Scott laughs at himself knowing he never would have done that seriously either. The few times he had applied, were half-hearted at best. The interview process for roles of his seniority is often insanely time-consuming.
As he thinks about the seemingly constant rising taxes, interest rates, and general cost of living; a tightness returns to Scott’s chest. This anxiety, of being unable to afford to live, was always in the back of his mind every time he dared ask himself if he was happy with work.
But now, thanks to being laid off, he has no alternative. He has to find a new source of income and now luckily has extra time to look. Scott tries to stay positive, seeing his current situation as an opportunity to try something new. He could take a risk he never would have before, because the risk of failure is smaller now. He’s not leaving his good, well-paid job. He doesn’t have any job.
Networking and inspiration from others
Friends in the right places
Feeling cautious but needing to start somewhere, Scott begins to reach out to his network. Some of his former colleagues sent him an email or text once they found out he was no longer working with them. He also had contact information for many suppliers and sub-contractors he’d worked with on past projects.
Joe was one of those contacts. He worked as a general manager for one of the subcontractors Scott used frequently in his old job. The two met for coffee and caught up on personal matters. Then, mid-conversation, they turned to professional updates.
“You probably know, I was let go a few weeks ago.” To Scott’s surprise, the firm hadn’t said anything to Joe.
“I didn’t know. That sucks man! The only thing I got from them was an email from some new guy. Said he’d be taking over project management. It was a bit odd…” Joe complained, “Some replacement. He’s already bungled client communications.”
Joe went on to talk about the projects he was working on, both with Scott’s old firm and others. Work was good. Busy, as usual, but that was better than the alternative Joe always said. He asked if Scott needed a job. “I’ll always have work for you here, if you want it.” Scott was grateful, and said would think about it.
Talking to Joe made him start to think. The big firms, like at his old job, always had too much work to handle. They turned down small-time projects because the margins weren’t as favourable as the big deals. Where did those small operations go?
After Joe, Scott sent a few emails out. Replied to his long list of unread messages. And started compiling a list of companies in his line of work; small organizations only.
Identifying what you like, and don’t like
Then Scott caught up with his friend Mary. They reminisced about the ‘good old days’, right after they had graduated college together and got their first full-time industry job. Scott and Mary were part of the same cohort of juniors, hand-picked by the firm that had just fired Scott.
“You loved doing all those site visits.” Mary recalls jovially. “Seeing how each company or project worked up close. Sitting in on board meetings. Taking notes for all the big-wigs.”
“Seeing everything first-hand definitely made me a better analyst,” Scott reflects. “Part of it was ego back then, for sure. But I also loved being up close to all the operations. Sometimes I miss it. The last few years my work seemed so inconsequential, stuck behind a computer all day.”
“Have you thought about going back to that kind of work?” Mary asks.
“No. I can’t handle that kind of travel anymore. Between responsibilities at home and feeling tired all the time. Those back-to-back business trips would kill me.” Scott sighs.
“I hear you.” Mary nods to herself. “The same thing is what pushed me to 4 days a week. I still work 40-plus hours though.”
Scott is surprised to hear that. “How is your work these days? Still like the analyst life?”
“It’s fine. Pays the bills.” Scott can tell she’s rolling her eyes even though he can’t see Mary’s face over the phone.
“I guess the grass wasn’t greener on the other side?” Scott laughs. “I remember being so upset with you when you quit and went to our competitor!”
“Despite my wonderful colleagues,” Mary speaks in exaggerated tones, “I could only take being passed over for promotion, so many times.”
“Ya, it did seem a little unfair.” Scott concedes.
“Just a little?” She sighs. “They’re all the same though, really.” After Scott doesn’t say anything else, Mary changes the subject back to him. “I could pass along your resume though, if you’d like. You might even get a pay bump from your last position.”
Scott considers this. It would be the easiest route. But before he can accept, he finds himself saying, “Thanks. But I don’t know if that’s what I really want.”
“No?” Mary is surprised. “Well, let me know. I think we’re still hiring, despite some unfavourable market conditions.”
Scott can’t help but count the number of layoffs he avoided over the years. “I was an expert, a go-to analyst, for almost fifteen years. And for what? At the end of the day, they unceremoniously kicked me to the curb.” Scott goes on, “You say they’re all the same. Then why should I go back? Who will I be helping? Certainly not myself.” He looks down at his worn, boney hands. “No, I don’t think I need to help The Man anymore.”
“So you finally get what grinds me down.” Mary’s tone is emotionless.
A knowing moment of silence passes between the two old friends.
“Why are you still doing what you’re doing?” Scott asks.
“I don’t know.” Mary answers.
Assessing options
Scott thought about Joe’s offer. He could do some project-based work with Joe until he figured out a more long-term solution.
One friend suggested he do his own thing. But that’s an awful lot of risk to take on. Scott has always been the one to play things safe. He needs more certainty and a buffer between him and business operations. Plus, his wife’s income alone isn’t enough to sustain their lifestyle needs, so he needs to start making a regular income again, soon.
Another friend suggested consulting. Scott could lend his expertise to different companies and projects. But again, that would mean having to do sales, contracts, and accounting work himself.
He ruled out joining another big firm. It would be just like what he left. He could keep looking for a small company to join. Where they’d value his expertise. As long as they are established enough. He doesn’t want to keep bouncing around, looking for a job sucks.
Mary had always been smarter than him in school. If she had given up, then maybe there wasn’t any hope of moving on to something better. But what if she was wrong this time? Could he convince her to try something new with him? Find a new company to go to. Or, if together, could they start something themselves?
Possibilities running around his head, Scott knew that in the end, he had to find the right cultural fit. ‘Whoever I work for next needs to be data-driven.’ Scott tells himself. ‘Somewhere I can be a technical leader, but where I don’t have to be a business leader to seem valuable to the team.’
Coming to a resolution
Hey Mary, you like doing contracts right?Mary wakes up one morning to a text message from Scott.
Generally, yes. Why? What's this about?
Scott calls Mary, “You like strategizing, and managing others, and you can do the hard technical work but you prefer to delegate that to someone else. Right?”
“What are you on about? This isn’t being weirdly recorded is it?” Mary blinks the sleep away from her eyes and goes to sit down in her at-home office.
“No!” Scott realizes he is being a bit manic. “I was just thinking. You hate your job, but you don’t know what else you’d do. I’m out of a job and don’t want to go back to the corporate life I was living before.”
“I’m listening.”
“Well, what if we worked on something together?”
She said she had no ties with her current firm and was open to considering options. The world was changing. The work environment, changing. Mary pushed herself so hard in university, and then as a junior analyst. But for the past decade or so, Mary felt like she’d been cruising on auto-pilot. Doing pretty good work, but nothing she was very proud of. Like Scott, she had survived multiple rounds of layoffs as things fluctuated over the years. How long before it was her turn to be in Scott’s shoes?
Mary and Scott talk for another hour, and ultimately decide to experiment together. They narrow down the services they’ll offer, and what the arrangement will look like between them. Mary gets started putting out feelers for contracts. Scott calls up Joe and takes him up on his offer to get onto the next project where his skills are needed.
After a few months of this, the first project comes in. It’s smaller than anything Scott or Mary have worked on before. But it’s their project and their client. They call the shots now.
Lessons learned
This is a fictional story, with fake characters and scenarios. But rooted in real-life workplace experiences, it’s a story we can learn from as current and future leaders.
Summary of takeaways
- Layoffs can happen to anyone. In Canada, there are hundreds of thousands of layoffs each year. Sometimes you can see them coming, and other times they blindside workers.
- Nurture your professional network. You never know when you might benefit from calling on a former coworker, employer, or client. Value your professional connections, treating them with the respect and gratitude they deserve, without the expectation of getting anything in return. In this story, Scott’s great working relationship with Joe is what solidified a source of income for him after being laid off. And the trust built up over years with Mary is what gave him the confidence to find a job he could enjoy more.
- It’s never too late to try something new. Change is hard for everyone, and gets even harder as we age. Scott’s character avoids change until it is forced on him. Eventually, he is able to embrace his new situation for the better and gain fulfilment by trying something new career-wise.
- Your negative experiences are not yours alone. Many people going through a difficult time feel like they are the only ones experiencing it. In the workplace, this is almost never true. If one person sees and feels one way, someone else almost certainly is as well. In this story, Scott and Mary surprise each other, when they share personal negative work experiences that the other one has encountered as well.
- There are many career paths to take. Scott’s road starts out conventional, then veers off of that path. There is no one right way to do it.