When Ideals Butt Up Against Reality.

us-layoff-job-cut

For the last 2.5 years, I’ve had a job I enjoy, and colleagues I dig, and an awesome boss. The next 2.5, in which I intended to get my Master’s degree and grow professionally, are up in the air now.

About two weeks ago, I realized that pouring my heart into my career doesn’t guarantee anything. About two weeks ago, we got the news that layoffs were coming to our hallowed halls. I know that losing my job, especially at 24, isn’t a death sentence. But it is sobering and I’m feeling disillusioned about all the things I thought were true. The things I used to believe, like: if you’re lucky enough to find a job you love and are good at, everything will work out to your advantage. Now I sound like my parents: no matter how cool you think your job is, it’s still just a job. When push comes to shove, there is a constellation of things more important to your company than you.

I wonder what other lessons the U.S.’s Gen Y, who grew up in a time of unprecedented national (if not personal) prosperity, will take away from this recession.

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  • quadmoniker

    I’m in the same situation but on the opposite side of young adulthood. I’m nearing 30, my job is announcing a second round of layoffs June 1, and I’ve gotten an expensive master’s degree in a field that’s dying. I feel that if I were a little bit younger, I’d be poised to take better advantage of the vacuum the death of newspapers will leave. But I’m already set in my ways. Help me, Malcolm Gladwell! Find an anecdote that will help me live my non-Outlier life.

  • -k-

    The realization you describe is something that has, for some reason, always been with me. I got my first job with a work permit when I was 15, and I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t absolutely convinced that any one of my employers wouldn’t hesitate for a second in throwing me out on my ass if it came down to me vs the bottom line. (This is especially true for large employers; when I was laid off at Citi, my boss was laid off along with me, and his boss didn’t even know about it until the day of. Many times the people that care enough about you to want to help simply don’t have the power to.) That knowledge translated into a sense of freedom: a refusal to put the companies’ needs above my own. I was and am a highly productive, capable employee, but I sure as shit took the vacation days I had coming to me, for example, and left when I was being treated poorly or a better opportunity came along. I may work for the company, but the company also has to work for me. I thought that this was more representative of our generation, while our parents and especially grandparents tended to value loyalty to one’s employer.

    As always, there are a lot of other factors-beyond just not having a spouse or kids-that have contributed to my confidence in being able to find another job, and the state of the economy has been one of them. My guess would be that scarcity of jobs would make me more likely to jump when my boss says jump. (Knowing me, it’d probably just make me more likely to draw unemployment, but hey.) I’m on my way back to grad school this fall as well, but I see this affecting coworkers of mine right now. It’s been something of a dream, and they are without question the best team I have ever been a part of, but the arrival of a new boss has changed the dynamic considerably. Their stress is making them physically ill, one of the surest signs that it’s time to start sending out resumes– but to where?

    Sorry to hear about the layoffs. Good luck going forward.

  • drfantastic

    This is when you turn to your Gen X brothers & sisters for help. We’ve been through this before at your age.

  • I’ve also sort of dealt with this, though at different times. I lost my “dream job” when I was 27, managed to bounce back in the same field and – like quad – find myself trying to hold on in a dying industry. We had a huge round of layoffs last summer, and there’s a strong chance that we’ll face more this fall.

    Shani, our parents were right – a job is still a job. And to an extent, we’re all expendable when executives are thinking about the bottom line.

    More than anything, I’ve just started thinking about finding freedom and flexibility and a vague sense of value in whatever field I pursue next. With the understanding that nothing is guaranteed. If only I could start up that wilderness store …..

  • black and QM, I have a question for you two. Are you more dedicated to journalism or to newspapers? Or neither, now? (I think I fell out of love with journalism first, but newspapers followed quickly thereafter.)

  • Well I’ve noticed that our Y Generation seems to be going to job to job to job. And with that, there is a freedom like blackink said but there’s also no sense of stability. In the end, it makes everything feel temporary. There is nothing guaranteed out there. It matches my personality perfectly because I get bored easy. However, I wonder how others will deal with this change in the job market with people staying at a job on average 2 years. I also wonder how we, folks who are ready for a change at any given moment, will deal with this change later on when if and when we decide to have our own families.

  • Scott

    I’ve sorry you’ve had to come back to reality. If it is any consolation, the first time you are laid off is the worst. If it happens again it does not feel quite so bad. About three weeks ago my wife who has a MBA and a MHA was just laid off for the second time and she is 36.

  • Tiffany In Houston

    I am 35 and have been fired and laid off before. This is my second lay off period. What I’ve learned most of all is how important it is to keep a vibrant network going. My network was sorely neglected because I was so busy with church and sorority stuff. That will never happen again. What has been the blessing is that I have been forced in to talking and connecting with folks I never thought I had anything in common with.

    Shani-O, my brother is your age and what annoys me mainly about Gen Ys is the sense of entitlement that seems to come with the territory. Nobody owes you anything. Though I do suspect every generation of youth may certainly feel that way (in terms of what is owed them), it seems to reek off Gen Y’s.

    Some of your peers are not going to handle this period well. The lack of continuity is going to be jarring. I would suggest you tell them that this is life and they are going to need to hang on for the ride.