If you have viewed the movie “Up in the Air” with George Clooney, you have some opinion of the topic … people hired to fire people from another company. The art of firing someone clearly is a skill that George Clooney’s character has perfected. He offers his suggestion that others who have been fired went on to greater work (or words to that effect). In fact, the newly fired individual can now pursue their perfect work. The work they would have done had money not been the root of the corporate job.
While of little solace to the recently fired, some people in the movie realized the honesty in his words. Other characters spoke of betrayal, unfair and inhumane treatment by the employer, and an end to their world as they know it. What if you were totally derailed from life in the cubical farm?
But what is a person to do when age is a factor, skills a factor and opportunity seemingly non-existent? Are there always options?
Yes, there are options but we may not like them. The biggest struggle is the perceived value of worth in the marketplace. How can you possibly take a job for 1/3 of the pay you used to get for the same kind of work? Or worse, at a position similar to one you had fresh out of college decades ago for less pay than you made then?
How do you separate the economics of today from the years of building a reputation, a skill set and an economic base? The answer is you don’t.
The only reasonable answer appears to be: start your own business. Great if you are entrepreneurial but what if you are a corporate citizen and loved it? Can you transition the halls of the unknown and make it on your own? Do you have the internal initiative to try something you haven’t done before? My question is “What have you got to lose?”
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