In the month of November alone, over 46,000 people lost their jobs. To say that a year like that is a challenge, would be an understatement.
Never has President Truman's words rung so true:
'It's a recession when your neighbor loses their job. It's a depression when you do'.
It's one thing to witness the consequences of a roller coaster economy, it's another to experience it firsthand. In these moments, I'm reminded of words of wisdom from the mouth of a... fish.
If you're a parent that's done any type of long distance driving with young kids, you can probably recite word for word your kid's favorite movie because you heard it played over and over from the backseat of your car during every drive. For me, it's Finding Nemo. I remember the first time I heard it during a snowy late night drive from a family Christmas in Illinois to our home back in Milwaukee. The freshly unwrapped DVD was the perfect distraction for our overstimulated and over-sugared toddlers. While they fell asleep about 20 minutes in, my wife and I spent the next 60 minutes listening to colorful voices that painted an imaginative picture in our minds from these funny characters with names like Dory, Marlin, and of course, Nemo. For the next year or so, I likely heard the film over 20 times but it was the experience of seeing the film with my own eyes that allowed me to connect with the story.
At some point the DVD made its way out of rotation from our minivan and into the rotation of our home. Surprisingly, the experience was altogether new and more meaningful.
While I had listened to this scene multiple times on drives, I remember being in shock at how scary it actually was to witness it.
Perhaps the most unique difference though was to see first-hand how the scene impacted the energy of my kids as they watched it next to me on the couch. It was a feeling that I certainly couldn't grasp while driving, my eyes and energy focused on the road as opposed to feeling it with them.
Market swings like these shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. We've ridden a rollercoaster of economic and labor rises and falls since the start of the pandemic. Throughout this, there have been some segments of the market that have been luckier than others; tech in particular has historically been a more stable segment. Still, with Meta/Facebook laying off 11,000 people and other powerhouses like Cisco and Salesforce not far behind, there is a large population of professionals that are coming face to face with the traumatic experience of job loss. Surely, they are finding the experience much more personally crippling than they had imagined when they were just witnessing it from afar. Combine this with the holiday season, one that adds expenses to a limited checkbook as well as delays to a new job acquisition given holiday company shutdowns, it's a rip current powerful enough to have many struggling to keep their heads above the water.
Again, as Truman said:
'It's a recession when your neighbor loses their job. It's a depression when you do'.
Anyone who has experienced a job loss has experienced it in one of two ways: Predicted storm (you knew it was coming) & Rogue waves (shock)
Predicted storm:
Sales happens to be a job in which many can predict the seas based on the rough skies ahead. Few positions in enterprise orgs are privy to the revenue risks in such detail as front-line sales. It's no wonder that many salespeople can predict with frightening accuracy downsizing and pivots. 'Red sky at night, sailor's delight - Red sky in morning, sailor take warning'. Other times, it may be the person with professional tenure that has their ear to the ground on the ebbs and flows of a market. Fact is, the more time you spend working in space, the more aware you are of the risks. But be it based on your role or tenure or just natural situational awareness, sensing that something is coming doesn't necessarily mean that you can prevent it. The current may have already started to shift and at times, it's so strong that it's already pulling you away from shore.
Rogue waves:
Living in the Midwest, I have a natural appreciation and fascination with the Great Lakes. Not long ago I had the pleasure of chatting with a Great Lakes ship captain and I asked him if he could compare the weather of the lakes to that of the ocean. He said that while ocean waves can certainly be larger, they are also longer, rolling, and rhythmic. Even a large storm has a rhythm that you can feel and move with and through. A Great Lakes storm however is like shaking a bucket of water. Given their smaller size, when there is water disruption the confines of the lake creates unpredictable chaos; there simply isn't enough room for rolling waves to form like they do on an ocean. Instead, rogue waves occur, the result of multiple waves violently colliding together from different directions. It is believed that rogue waves are what sunk the famed Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975.
The job losses that we saw during the height of the pandemic could be consider rogue waves; multiple industry segments collapsing but all at slightly different paces. Eventually, with their dependence upon one another, the violently collided with few labor segments surviving.
Is one type of job loss experience better than the other? Is it better to sense that something is coming or is it better to be blindsided?
Regardless of if you predicted your job loss or you were caught by a rogue wave, the result is still the same:
To revisit our discussion on Finding Nemo, after the loss of Nemo's mom and the other fish eggs, Nemo's dad found himself scared of the unknown, scarred by what happened to him, and overprotective of the only thing he had left (in this case, Nemo). Worse, he finds himself and his son lost.
Are any of those feelings that different than what someone feels after a job loss?
Fortunately, time can perform healing. Though it may not go away completely, whatever confusion or frustration that you feel today, it will minimize. For Nemo's Dad, he went on to raise Nemo on his own. He successfully got him to school age (no small task for a big and frightening ocean). He instilled in him a self of caution. Everything appeared to be moving in the right direction until a rogue wave struck again. Even with the best of precautions, Nemo's dad couldn't prevent Nemo's surprising capture by divers. Suddenly, his Dad was back to square one, lost and crippled by panic. When it seems as if nothing can get worse, he's accidentally set further off course by a goofy companion he didn't ask for but we could all use: the naive positivity of Dory.
Through it all, she just keeps swimming and it drives Nemo's dad nuts. While his world is falling apart, she keeps moving with a naive fearlessness that also just happens to push him forward.
When I was around 11 years old, I almost drowned in the Mississippi River. Walking knee-deep parallel to its sandy shores, I suddenly found myself sinking. River bottoms are unpredictable and even though I knew how to swim, the surprise of the sinkhole paralyzed me in fear as I dropped further and further. Thirty-two years later I can still feel my friend's hand as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the surface. Fortunately, he was walking along side me when I sank and without him there, I am convinced that I would have drown.
In water survival situations, there is debate on which mode of action is best between treading water and floating. Floating requires a mind-over-matter approach in order to relax enough to stay calm and still (not easy when you're panicked). Treading water requires muscle strength and endurance to maintain enough propulsion to stay above water (not easy to maintain for long periods of time). If you find yourself trying to survive a job loss or unstable market, I'd argue that there is a combination of both that will benefit you most. Fortunately, Dory can teach us a bit of each.
Her mantra of 'just keep swimming' is part call to action and part mindset.
Find yourself scared of starting over?
Find yourself carrying scars from trauma of your past?
Find yourself in an unknown quest?
Find yourself face to face with sharks?
Is it possible that Nemo's dad would have found him without the help of Dory? Perhaps. It's also possible that with more preparation and training, I could have found the strength to swim to the surface of the Mississippi on that (almost) fateful day 32 years ago. Lord knows that I think of it each and every time I'm in a body of water now. I also know that without my friend that day, I would not have made it. It is for this reason, that I seek out council and support of others so that my journey is never one where I am alone.
So whether you can Be a Dory or you need to Find a Dory, Just Keep Swimming.
-sam
If you need help during your next phase of your journey, I'm here to help. Let's connect