Due to a subsidiary merger eliminating my position, I am--as I write this--now among the 11.5 million Americans currently between jobs. I have a strong faith and know I'm going through this for reasons which will probably become clear in about 20 years, but it's still been a difficult part of my life's journey--as can be expected with such. Blah, blah, blah--poor me...okay, now I'm done!
One thing I've really found interesting is how my employment status is the overwhelming topic of choice when folks see me. My job has never been of interest to many of these folks...until I didn't have one. I know (or at least hope!) these job inquiries stem from their caring about me, and I do appreciate the thought behind the words, but this experience has taught me a lot about what's helpful--and what would never be missed if it weren't said--so I felt moved to share in case of interest to others:
Thank you to all my friends and family members who have NEVER...
- said the following to me:
"Have you found a job yet?"
Trust me, the WORLD will know when that happens!
"You haven't found a job yet?"
While I appreciate this might be a recognition of the wide range of skills I offer, it also can have a kind of blaming-the-victim flavor.
"I can't believe no one's hired you yet!"
Me either, but how is this helpful?! ;oD
- acted jealous I'm NOT dressed like I just got off work and rushed to meet them.
As a person who tries to focus on the positives, the fact most of my current work is at my home office on a computer--where I can wear shorts and a cami--NOT having to wear a suit is definitely a positive! Please expect to see me dressed as casually as is publicly acceptable during this time in my life's journey.
- acted like my life is so much less stressful than theirs.
Other than not knowing where my next job will be...or whether I can fit more job searching, article-reading, social-media-learning and marketing-myself in today than I did yesterday...or whether--when I'm offered a job--I'll fit in or not...or whether it will come sooner rather than later...or whether I really have online access to the jobs which best fit me...or whether I'll have to take a job where I'm not able to be as creative or affect change as I truly need in my work...or whether I'll have to worry about outshining somebody--or--worry about those who outshine me refusing to share their knowledge to help me succeed...or whether those in higher positions will be helpful or hurtful (haven't we all had both!)...or whether I can keep up with all these social media advancements and truly grasp how to best use them to market...or whether I'll have to take a pay cut...or whether our personal finances will be in jeopardy to the point we'll have to sell our house in which we plan to retire...or whether it will affect my relationships with those closest to me...yeah, other than all those worries constantly bubbling under the surface, my life really is so much less stressful than others' (twitch, twitch)...NOT! ;oP
- asked me to take on extra new projects under the assumption I have more free time.
Knowing I have a hard time turning down creative volunteer projects for the non profits I love--and I AM continuing with MOST of my long-term commitments through this time--I did make the decision I wasn't doing anything additional philanthropically until I have a job again. This has been tested several times, but I know it was a wise decision as I could easily be a full-time volunteer...unfortunately that's not going to pay the bills!
One positive outcome of this whole situation is I don't have a choice but to embrace being out there now. Because of past unwanted attention (I refer to as "My Five Stalkings"), I have avoided the social media craze with a passion--which has been quite a challenge as I've been in marketing/public relations/sales positions for more than 25 years, and social media is fast becoming THE focus of many promotional campaigns nowadays. I'm also a writer and knew I could become obsessed with all the writing opportunities online! Luckily--or so I thought--I had been able to delegate social media duties to assistants over the years...until now. Now, my full-time job is looking for work, and I've found nobody looks at anybody who isn't on LinkedIn, so that has been my first big social adventure--developing my LinkedIn profile. Continuing this exercise in becoming more familiar with social media--and especially the top three most popular sites--I have also put together a website with links to a Twitter page, a YouTube channel, a Facebook page and now this, a Blog page--all created by yours truly. If you follow these links, you'll find some sites are more personal and others less so, some seem more complete and others less so...but my main goal at this point is to learn the tools to help others in the future, so please pardon any in progress feel to anything you might see.
I don't know where all this will lead, but I'm praying for a position where I can be doing something different every day, helping promote the organization for whom I work in writing, designing, speaking, movie-making, tweeting, blogging, training staff--you name it--leading the way to showing the world this wonderful gem-of-a-company I've found. In the meantime, thanks again to all who are seeing me and not my job status and, if you're out of work and reading this--or just curious how to be a help to others--I wish you great success in your journey as well. See ya on the flip side!
Today's Quote:
"We can rebuild (her). We have the technology. We can make (her) better than (she) was. Better...stronger...faster!"
-- adapted from The Six Million Dollar Man intro (1974-1978)
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