Healing the Emotional Toll of Layoffs, by Proxy

Imagine you’re in your kitchen, puttering around putting the finishing touches on your famous Sunday sauce. You’re debating whether or not to add another handful of basil when your spouse of 4 years calls you into the porch. Pretty weird, since you only use the porch for hanging your coats and greeting guests, but you trust them so assume they have a reason for calling you there.

You ask if you can finish up your sauce and they tell you to just turn the burner off and come out to the porch ASAP. When you get there, they have a woman in a suit with them - your partner tells you that unfortunately due to personal decisions they are no longer able to have a spouse in their life and will be terminating the partnership effective immediately. The suit is a lawyer, who hands you a packet full of divorce paperwork that seems to be written in a foreign language and tells you they’ve already packed all of your bags - now waiting for you outside. You’re told you have 10 minutes to vacate the house or else they’re calling the police to forceable remove you. Your questions of “why” and “whats going on” are met with “it’s all in the paperwork” and “it’s not about your performance as a spouse, it’s just a personal decision.”

Sounds harsh? That’s because it is.

But this story (and yes, it was an allegory for layoffs!) unfortunately resonates with many Americans, as over 40% of us report having been laid off at least once in our careers - some of us multiple times. And as we know - layoffs carry with them not only a financial hit, but fairly large emotional damage that victims bring with them for years - or forever.

I had the opportunity to help lessen this damage a bit by partnering with Yowei Shaw, an incredibly talented, authentic investigative journalist on her newest podcast endeavor, Proxy. While Yowei is most well known for creating NPR’s Invisibilia, after being distressingly laid off from NPR, she’s been working to help folks better understand traumatic experiences by connecting them with experts who can share what could have happened behind the scenes. And for Yowei, Miles, and Elliot - who had terrible layoff experiences in common - I was that proxy expert.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think. Slight warning - these are heavy, emotional topics, and I know I cried listening to them so you may too. Though I bet we can all use a bit of cathartic crying right now.

Full Podcast in 3 parts (note: I’m in act III): Proxy, with Yowei Shaw

Summarized Podcast: Planet Money - Layoffs can leave you with big questions. An HR Expert has answers.

Note of support: Yowei is self-funding Proxy in order to keep it as authentic and human as possible - if you enjoyed the podcast, check out her patreon for continued support.