DRAWING STRENGTH FROM DOWNSIZING: DISASTER CAN BREED OPPORTUNITY
No-one knows this better than retrenched employees who have been spat out of a corporation and have been able to pick themselves up and find a new way.
In the current ‘downsizing’ climate there are many corporate casualties. Only a minority really get back on their feet. Those who do succeed have generally managed their crisis appropriately. It is largely a matter of how you deal with the disaster. You can see it as the end of the world or you can see it as an opportunity to rethink your life.
There is no question that retrenchment over 50 can be a major body blow, but it does not have to be destructive. Those who face it squarely, suffer it and feel the pain will be much more likely to turn their situation around and make it positive than those who deny what has happened.
If the emotions surrounding the disappointment are suppressed, the man risks becoming depressed and adopting inappropriate ways of coping. He may well become angry, resentful and tend to blame others. Or he may withdraw and develop an attitude of indifference. Denial is ultimately sell-defeating because it keeps the man bound up in the problem.
Thinking things through creatively and seeing new opportunities is far more productive. Difficult as it may be to recognise at the time, misfortune offers an occasion for emotional stocktaking.
One prominent stockbroker lost his job in the last recession. It rocked him to his foundations. He was full of loss and rage. He was so furious he was stuck. Eventually he began to review his life and his relationships at home and at work. In doing so, he recognised that he had been an inflexible, autocratic workaholic, with little time for family or outside interests. He faced it, went through the pain and emerged. Now he has a job back in the same industry and is doing far better than he could have predicted was possible in the circumstances.
But returning to the same industry is not always possible. When employment agencies offer no hope and the consultancy option is not viable, many turn to business brokers. Men who apply to business brokers are executives who can no longer find a place in the corporate market but who have another 15 or 25 years of work in them. They need a second chance and they want a second career. By the time they get to the brokers, they are emerging from the grieving process and are exploring the possibility of buying a business.
They are at the point of being able to see opportunity in their disaster. They may have been privately harbouring the idea of running their own business for years but have felt trapped by the lure of a regular pay cheque. Now, as a result of this setback, they have the chance of being their own boss and of building a new business life.
After stable employment, buying a business is an emotionally complex and nerve-racking process. It is loaded with the anxiety that comes with risking one’s life savings. It is rather like buying a house except that a house is tangible and can be seen and objectively assessed. The uncertainty factor with a business is much higher and it takes guts to take the plunge.
It goes against so much of their conditioning. Many have organised their lives around having long-term employment. They may have left school and gone directly into a bank believing they would be there for the rest of their working life. But things have changed; now they have to change too.
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