“I Never Thought This Would Happen to Me”
The Immigration officer at Kennedy Airport was a distinguished, middle-aged man who, in the five minutes it took to admit me into the country, told me the story of his fall in the publishing world. He’d had a high-powered position until his company was acquired by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, which was when he was laid off. Unable to find another job at his former level, he had taken this one because it gave him an opportunity to advance – though not in his chosen field or to his previous career level.
“I never thought this would happen to me,” he said. Famous last words that are repeated throughout the Western world.
That happened over a decade ago. Long before the current economic crisis, midlife professionals were falling in droves, victims to an epidemic that has swept the modern world since the early eighties. Job security? A thing of the past. Blame corporate mergers, downsizing, the computer age, and a business world geared to the under-forties. The present unemployment situation has exacerbated this problem. Top and mid-level executives are more likely to feel the crunch: laid off, made redundant, let go, shunted sideways or down, or put on the fast track to early retirement.
I also fell victim to a corporate merger. It returned me to a job market where there was little/no demand for people like me. Only after many ups and downs did I learn that starting over in a lesser position, like the Immigration Officer, was not a bad thing. It put me on the way to making a comeback. I have since heard other stories of fallen professionals who have also reinvented themselves and made new starts in low level positions.
Would you be willing to sacrifice money and status to make a new career start?
Tags: downsizing, Midlife job loss, new career start
This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Challenges & opportunities after professional job loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
12 Responses to ““I Never Thought This Would Happen to Me””
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From: Gregory Leddy
I just want to comment on your blog and web site and compliment you on all you´re doing. This is brilliant! Congratulations, Pennie! You´ve definitely turned lemons into lemonade!
I find your web site, blog, and surely your upcoming to book, to be most inspiring…even amusing. I can identify, having gone through all these up and down gyrations.
My path started its upward trend when I worked under your guidance at my first serious job, entering the world of advertising at Noble & Asociados. I learned a lot from you then, and now I´m happy to say, I still am!
Thirty-five years have passed, I continued to climb, plateaued, climbed through the corporate ranks, and then, suddenly, the last step put me over a cliff. I´ve been in free-fall for seven years now, but, I´ve also hit uplifting thermals, glided over mountains and into valleys, seen lakes and fields, and beautiful horizons. The adventure continues, with less structure, or none at all – powered by wits and hopes and determination and need. I keep moving, searching and finding.
Thanks for showing us que “sí se puede” (yes we can)!
Thanks, Greg, for the wonderful personal comments.
Your paragraph starting, “Thirty-five years have passed” really hit home. I like your saying that the adventure continues as that is the way I feel, and I love the way you describe how we haven’t stopped, or allowed ourselves to be stranded or washed-up because we keep moving towards new horizons.
Dear Penelope,
I’m so happy for you. Your whole website seems energized with ideas!
I would like to share my story with you.
When I lost my job in 2000 I thought the world would had come to an end. Although I never had career goals it still seemed so unfair.
I was at a loss and didn’t know how to fill my days although I still had my teenage daughter at home. My oldest who was at the time working at Hewlett PAckard as an engineer in the Bay area persuaded me to try my hand at something else.
Do something you’ve always dreamed of doing and never had the time, she said.
So I seriously began to think about going back to grad school since I’ve always wanted to do a PhD in psychology.
But my daughter said I should try my hand at writing.
I resisted the idea.
She worked on me.
Day after day she would call me and ask me if I had written anything and I would say no and hang up!
Then one day I was sitting in front of the computer and this story about my great grandmother sprang up from nowhere.
I had heard stories about my mother’s maternal grandmother all during my childhood and teen years from my mom but the story that I wrote was about that and more…
Then I wrote another short story and another and joined a small writer’s group. The members urged me to make the short stories into a novel since the characters were recurring in every short story that I wrote although they were imaginary and didn’t resemble anybody I knew…
So I did!
I’m still working on my novel and feel so happy that my daughter persisted. Even if I don’t publish my novel I would always have my writing.
Makes me feel lucky.
As they say when a door closes another one opens…
Giri
I was an airline pilot and made good money. I had a really bad habit of spending always a bit more than I earned, expecting my income to steadily increase. I retired with a decent income, but continued to spend recklessly, constantly refinancing my home until I simply could not even make minimum payments on my credit cards.
Five years ago I moved to Mexico, which is a good thing because of the lower cost of living, but I am still living on the edge. It’s humiliating to be broke at the age of 65, but I’ve been motivated to know that there is never a problem that can’t be solved. Never a goal that is too lofty. And now I am writing a book about what gringos need to know when visiting or living in Mexico.
Giri,
Your story is so relevant to people who have lost their jobs and don’t know what to do next or how to fill their time. So many people like you have an undeveloped talent just waiting to be explored, but lacking for time, it often goes unnoticed. Fortunately, thanks to your daughter, you discovered yours and have been able to develop it.
Thanks, Peter, for sharing your post-retirement experience. Your story illustrates the kind of downwards financial slide that appears to affect many midlife former professionals. I’m glad to hear that your move to Mexico proved beneficial not only from the financial standpoint but also because you found the motivation to try something new.
Pennie,
This material is so relevant to today’s world it makes me want to give you a big kiss over the miles. Smack! You’re brilliant (but we always knew that). Your book will be a hit I’m sure. Your writing is clear, sharp and best of all, it’s meaningful. It is wonderful hearing these stories of ‘mature’ workers beginning new lives. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for giving hope to a hurting world.
Dianne -Arkansas
Dianne,
You’ve been with this story/book since its beginning so I’m glad to have you on board. Thanks for your comments and encouragement.
Hi there,
Reminds me of my own story. Laid off last year after twenty five years as a journalist when my newspaper merged or better said, was swallowed up by a corporate giant. No room for older members of the tribe. My kids are grown and don’t have to worry about them so took a job teaching in Community College. Not the same income, have to cut back, sold house, but at least I have a job when a lot of other people don’t.
Positive thinking works all the time.
Penelope I love your positiveness in the face of adversity. I’m a dinosaur in that I’m in the same job for the past 33 years. Luckily, though in many ways it is the same it has also evolved over the years. I’m a believer in work to live not live to work so if it meant greater job satisfaction I would sacrifice money and status. If it was an enforced change I’m not so sure I’d be happy about it.
I used to believe I worked to live in my career in advertising but in later life, with one exception – as a Hispanic research writer – I’ve often taken jobs or worked just to survive, sometimes doing things I really don’t enjoy and that also cause me back pain. Sometimes, we have no choice.