Page 222 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

You Manage Your Career and Don’t Let Others Do It • 203

When you’ve settled on the package, ask for the settlement offer in
writing.
Go home. Don’t go to a bar. Gather the family and explain the
situation. Give yourself the night to feel the pain. You’ll lie awake and
find it hard to believe that the company has let you go. Take solace in
the fact that there is nothing worse for your career than a bad fit.
Now you are free to go find a good fit.
Rise early the next morning and start your job hunt.
Thoughts from a CEO friend who’s been there:

The day you are terminated [canned, let go, fired, freed to pursue
other opportunities, canceled, downsized, or dismissed], you will
discover that the commuter trains still run, that the traffic doesn’t
care, that none of the network (or local) nightly news shows will
mention your situation, that your car will still need gas, that your
child (who you haven’t told yet and won’t think any differently
toward you when you do) still needs 60 cupcakes for school
tomorrow, that the dry cleaning still needs to be picked up (where
you catch yourself looking at the total bill and conclude that’s a
luxury you’ll have to cut out and you wonder about those products
where you can dry clean at home and you vow to clip a coupon
when you find the advertisement for it), and that the sun still goes
down and the moon comes up. Unfortunately, it’s a half moon,
which makes you think,“Just like me—jobless—half a person.”
You might discover that your spouse has a larger profanity
vocabulary than you thought, which she [or he] now chooses to
spew toward your now ex-boss. You won’t feel much like eating.
You question your self-worth, swinging between feeling dumb and
stupid. Dumb for having trusted your now ex-boss—the person
whom you drank a celebratory glass of champagne with just last
week on the Klondix deal; the person whose two children you
bought graduation presents for, spending more than you wanted,
but you felt that you needed to because you did not want to look
cheap; the person you confided in about that one-time college
experience; and the person for whom you worked four weekends in
a row this spring instead of going to your son’s soccer tournament.
Stupid for finally being found out as to what a fraud you are,
what a crock you provide, what worthless piece of bolshovick you
are in pretending to have added any value to the organization.