• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

  • Home
  • Topics
  • Blog
    • About
  • People Artistry
  • Resources
    • Model
    • ENGAGE: The Course
    • 10 Principles of Engagement
    • What Others are Saying about David
    • Clients
    • Books
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Employee Engagement / Un-Employee Engagement: We Need You

Un-Employee Engagement: We Need You

February 25, 2009 by David Zinger 4 Comments

This was a comment I wrote to Rajesh Setty. it was a  short note to people who were laid off. Although this is an employee engagement site I think engagement is so important regardless of our state of employment.

A short note to employees who have been laid off:

Be kind to yourself for life is not a problem to be solved but an experience to be lived. You may not like the layoff (who would?) but can you live the layoff?

I think we get so busy trying to fix things that we don’t stop and take time to realize where we are.

Acceptance is not passivity and it is certainly not panic. Acceptance is so much stronger than simplistic positive thinking.

When life throws me a lemon, I don’t make lemonade, I duck. After that I get back up and figure out what comes next.

Alan Watts once wrote: “If we make where we are going more important than where we are, there may be no point in going.”

I encourage you to be fully where you are while creating your next moves out of acceptance not anger, hatred, fear, anxiety, shame, guilt or one of the other glitchy emotions that can accompany a layoff.

Please take care and carry on caring.

We need you — even if it does not feel like that to you right now.

Love David

Photo Credit: Give me some sunshine by http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/2245665263/

Filed Under: Employee Engagement

Comments

  1. Hayli @ RiseSmart says

    February 25, 2009 at 11:04 am

    I love this note! I have a relative working at a community thrift store/food pantry/help center and the stories are heart-breaking. Professionals from all walks of life coming in to get help for the first time ever, their eyes swollen from crying. Some of them just burst into tears right there in the office… they need notes like this.

  2. David Zinger says

    February 25, 2009 at 4:57 pm

    Hayli:
    Thank you for taking time to write your comment. It encourages me to do even more. Take care and carry on caring Hayli.
    David

  3. Dan says

    February 26, 2009 at 7:34 pm

    This is beautiful and original. At the very moment that this “formal” thing is happening to so many with all the legal, impersonal drek hanging off it, you cut to the part that is hurting the most. Thanks, David. What a service.

  4. David Zinger says

    February 26, 2009 at 9:02 pm

    Thanks Dan,
    It was a quick note from the heart. It seems we were just having a war for talent now we seem to be in a war against our talent.
    David

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

David Zinger

Email: david@davidzinger.com
Phone 204 254 2130

Copyright © 2023 · Aspire Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in