The COVID employment cuts continue to trickle down to your family members, your friends, and yourself. When colleagues next to you have been let go, you feel a bit of conflicted relief – thank goodness it wasn’t you. But … what if it is you … will you react by scrambling to find new employment?
COVID is Beside the Point
As I recently discussed in my video “COVID-19: Physically Okay, Mentally Infected,” COVID is one of many obstacles we will encounter during our life experience. It is unique, of course, in the sense that global pandemics are not a routine issue in our society. It is true your job may have disappeared due to COVID. Also true is that your job could have disappeared at any time for any number of reasons.
Hence, I invite you to explore the idea that your employment was already somewhat at risk prior to COVID. In fact, most jobs are always at risk, COVID or not. There is no such thing as secure, guaranteed employment (not for the common professional earning their own way). But, most people don’t like to envision their employment vanishing into thin air. It is an uncomfortable thought and thus, most people bet their jobs are secure enough.
Some people lose that bet. Now that you are scrambling to find new employment, you wish you would have taken proactive steps.
Do Yourself a Favor
First, stop scrambling. Of course, you may feel shocked, angry or confused. The worst thing you can do is search for jobs and tailor multiple resumes from a feeling of scarcity or desperation. That desperate energy will work its way into your desperate attempts to apply or to interview. You might as well advertise in your resume, “I’m desperate.”
Secondly, your negative or self-defeating feelings ought to be processed through. You would never construct the frame of a house without first securing the foundation. Likewise, allow the negative energy to sit with you as long as it takes. If you create mental permission to let your negative feelings exist, eventually they will leave. That is when you can mindfully regroup and coherently concentrate on your successful job search.
If you find that you are scrambling to find new employment, you’re getting ahead of yourself. Allow the negative energy to come and go; allow yourself permission feel whatever you need to feel. Then, you will be mighty capable of pouring impactful, positive energy into your job search.
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