We’re certainly in unchartered territory economically, thanks to the world wide health concerns. We went from ‘flush’ to ‘crash’ seemingly overnight. At least 2.5M people were laid off in about a week with immediate shuttering of retail, travel, services in the US, many more worldwide. Projections indicate 20M may be out of work soon.
States are in self isolation with the CDC advising against large group gatherings through the first week of May. California and other states have suggested schools won’t be back before summer. If you need an income, you’d we wise to assume this will go on for some time and put to bed the fantasy that this is a 2-3 week situation what will resolve itself.
I promise you, CEOs, HR teams and leaders everywhere spent the better part of the week in a ‘replan’ . Some have executed layoff, others are coming in the next few weeks.
In California, we no longer require the WARN process that called for companies to give a heads up of layoff 60 days before they happen. Many will get little to no warning about a layoff. It’s a good time to remind ourselves that management is paid to retain headcount until they are paid to reduce headcount.
The good news is there is hiring happening within the tech community. It’s limited, mostly critical hires, at well funded companies and companies that trend favorably in this current market like home healthcare, really ‘home’ anything, products and services that are in development for launch in a year or more, in supply chain, food and transportation.
And, there’s a lot of hiring in the lower paying jobs around $40-70K.
If you’ve ever been ‘sideways’ with your boss, recieved a marginal review, are in a company that’s been downsizing before the crisis, or are in an industry that’s directly impacted by the health emergency, like most, I’d advise you to immediately:
– Buff your Linkedin
– Refresh your resume
– Create or update your portfolio if that’s applicable to your profession
– Answer all job inquiries that come your way
– Start to scope out and apply for a new job
If there’s any way to get ahead of this, and you need to, do it now. This is the time for hustling, possibly picking up a 2nd job if you need to.
The reality is, you’ve lost leverage in the job market, you will already be competing with a number of other highly qualified people. It very likely that you won’t be paid as much as you were earlier this year.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow, everyone gets that. Life will go on, business will rebound. Keeping an optimistic, focused attitude and being as flexible and willing to adjust as possible, willing to make sacrifices will be key to getting through this.
