Once more into the breach

I once again find myself in an unfortunately familiar position, that on the receiving end of a downsizing.

This time last year, I was still sitting at home, attempting to pry an opening into the shrinking workforce after being "right sized" by my previous employer. ("Right-sized": who in God's name ever came up with this awful, Orwellian term? Call it what it is... you are firing people.) I had about 3 months notice to that event that finally came to a head in September of 2007, and arrogantly thought that I would land another, better job in a matter of weeks.

As it would happen, life has a tendency to humble arrogance. It took six months (9, if you include the search I started before "D-Day") to finally land another job, and the offer was made the week my last unemployment check was deposited.

This time it came as a bit of a surprise, as they have been continuing to give me large projects up until the week before Christmas. However, today at 3:30, I was informed that the direction of the company was not conducive to employing a full time training manager and that my services would no longer be required. While my previous place of employment was the work-environment equivalent of the hole under an outhouse, I actually really liked this new job. The work was interesting and most days I came home tired and happy. It will be a shame when I clean out my office tomorrow morning.

(Before I go on, I should also say that every manager there offered me their recommendation, so while being laid off still sucks, its nice to know that they respected my work enough to offer that.)

The last time that I was part of the tired, huddled masses, I slowly crept into a depression that really took hold sometime right before Thanksgiving. Partially, this was due to my own inactivity: I had reached a point that I just didn't know what to do any more. It seemed like no one was giving me the time of day, and the first (and only) interview I had for a job that I was over qualified for didn't pan out. Needless to say, my self-worth was taking a major blow, not to mention my ego.

This time around, I have made myself some promises:

• Stay active. Exercise can help elevate bad moods, so I am going to make every attempt to stay active and exercise at least 3 times a week. This should be a bit easier, as I had aleady made that one of my New Year's resolutions. And I'm sure that the dog will love it.
• Write. One thing that I did wrong last time was that I didn't speak to anyone about what was going on, as I have a habit of doing. Keeping negative emotions like that all bottled up cannot possibly be healthy, so this time, I am going to keep track of what's going on right here in the blog.
• Work on the job search every day. I tend to star projects in earnest, but then as time goes on, my ADD kicks in to overdrive and, though I have the best of intentions, I cease to be as committed to the process. I know that I need to put time aside each morning to take on the job search in earnest.
• Stay open to possibilities. I think, for my own sake, I need to look at all of the possibilities open to me. Now is the time that I should look at some of the "out of the box" options, whatever they may be. I'm sure that I will have more on that later.

So the overall plan here is to keep a running update on the whole process. I know that there are literally millions of other people who are in the same predicament as me, at the mercies of a crap economy and failed economic policies, as well as a plethora of other contributing factors, but even if being a single voice in the storm can help a little...well, its worth a shot.