Layoff anxiety, resilience, and being cavalier about it

Photo by Matt Noble on Unsplash

Layoffs are, unfortunately, a fact of life in many industries. If you work in a content job such as technical writing or marketing, you’re bound to be the first one out the door when things break bad for your employer. I concluded years ago that a job is a temporary time and place. No truer words. I’ve even said those words when I’ve been in the process of being laid off much to the dismay of the manager doing the deed on me.

HBR published an article entitled How to Deal with Layoff Anxiety. It lays out the current situation well:

The Great Resignation has given way to The Great Apprehension, as more than half of U.S. companies actively reduce headcount or plan to in the coming months. As a result, layoff anxiety is palpable among workers. More than 39,000 workers have been let go in the U.S. tech sector alone as of August, including employees at industry titans like Peloton, Shopify, and Netflix.

Everybody should explore side hustles, in my mind, especially if you’re a content creator. I’ve been through two layoffs in the past year (embarrassing, I know!). Each time I’ve been able to bring in freelance work quickly to cushion the blow. While I know not everybody can do I do know that if I can have contingencies and I encourage others to seek the same.

For me, I lower my layoff anxiety by being able to hit the ground immediately after a layoff and pull in freelance or contract work while job hunting.

Will Kelly is a writer and keen observer of the IT industry. Medium is his personal publishing platform. He has worked as a technical writer, technical marketing manager, product marketer, and freelance technology writer during his career. Will has written about the cloud, DevOps, and enterprise mobility, most recently for TechTarget. Follow him on Twitter: @willkelly.

Originally published at https://world.hey.com.