Learning During Layoffs

It’s been a few months, and, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem lay-offs are over. The big companies with huge lay-offs make the news, but it’s happening to medium and small companies too. Being laid off sucks. If you’re at a small company, you’re going to feel personally betrayed by people you thought you knew. If you’re at a large company, it’s going to feel like a machine has ground you up and spat you out.

And that’s all assuming they do it competently and with respect. If your management are incompetent megalomaniacs then it’s a whole other mess.

But, it’s happened. This is your new reality. What can you do?

Learn.

This may sound obvious. But the obvious can get over-looked. One problem of being laid-off is that your motivation and focus are going to take a hit. Particularly if you’ve been somewhere for awhile. Give yourself structure and goals. Learning is a great goal, and it can be structured and planned. Here are three places to explore for topics to learn.

1. How has the rest of the world diverged? Organisations have culture: a way things are done here. How has your org’s culture diverged from the mainstream? Different languages, different tech stacks, different approaches to development.

2. What was your company really good at that the rest of the world did differently? Learn the different. Don’t be that person forever mourning the loss of some tech or the way things were done at your last place.

3. What was your company really good at that the rest of the world hasn’t caught on to yet? This will be the hardest to see: it’s those things that made your life smooth, let you reach further, that you’ll really miss somewhere else.

Mine these three areas for tools, techniques and technology to learn. You’re an experienced professional, you’ll know how to turn that list into a plan to explore and learn.

But remember: See one, do one, teach one. Get hands-on, and then teach someone else: blog about it, record video, create exercises.