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57% of Layoffs Occur in Middle Age

Written by: Les Brown

Article Overview: Just when you're least able to cope with upsets in your life, when you're reevaluating everything, your career gets upended. It's all part of how the midlife game is played.

57% of Layoffs Occur in Middle Age

23255031Even though the information (from the Center for Research on Organizational & Managerial Excellence) may be a little dated, the basic truth behind the facts reported in a 2003 survey from Texas remain very relevant. If you're between 30 and 50, you have an almost 60% chance of being targeted during a layoff.

We can only speculate as to the reasons for your increased vulnerability during midlife. One reason may be that you've amassed sufficient experience and longevity to be significantly more expensive to employ than younger men. Another reason may be that you haven't been employed long enough to have achieved sufficient value or seniority for the company to need to keep you on, nor are you old enough that you might expose the company to charges of age discrimination. For whatever reason, when you hit midlife and you're just thinking that you're reaching your peak, your company thinks that you're most expendible. It's sad, but true.

We're all very aware that bonds of loyalty between you and your company have become a quaint, old-fashioned idea. Your loyalty and the quality of your contribution to the corporate effort take a poor second place to this quarter's bottom line according to the bean-counters who determine your employment status. The larger and more established the company that you work for may be, the more critical the quarterly numbers will be for its investors. Merely changing the sign on the employment office's door to 'Office of Human Resources' or even 'Human Capital Office' does nothing for moving your employment from 'liability' to 'asset' on the company's books. So long as the bean counters are in charge, you're never going to be seen as a real 'resource' or genuine 'capital'; you'll remain just another expensive luxury expense that can be dropped from the books whenever the market takes a downturn.

There's a flip side to your disposability, though: if you're skilled and have some decent experience, you have a very good chance of being picked up by another company that may be experiencing an upswing its fortunes. At the same time, as a new hire, your vulnerability at your new job will remain high for a while. There's a term in the computer world called 'FILO' (sounds like 'phyllo'): it means 'first in, last out' of a data stack. That's often the case with employment as well: if you're the last one on the top of the pile, you'll be the first one to be discarded. And, even though passing through a number of positions and developing a broad range of experience and skills makes you desirable in today's job market, these apparent 'benefits' do nothing to raise your self-esteem as a valued contributor, nor does it help you to develop and maintain a sense of purpose in your own life. What's to stop you from feeling like a disposable tool that you use once, then throw it away?

You'll rarely find employers who concern themselves with your well-being as a person or with developing your talents as an asset to their business. If you do find one, cherish him or her! For most of your working years, you'll experience a more-or-less regular cycle of hope and disappointment as people promise you your heart's desire, then treat you as an expendable commodity when you no longer suit them. Perhaps it's time you took your skills and experience to the marketplace directly. Maybe you'd do better as an entrepreneur.

While I understand the heartfelt desire to escape the cycle of build-up and let-down that being part of the job market entails, you need to think through the entrepreneurial route very carefully. This applies particularly to that most delicate period of life called 'midlife.' That's the stage of life when you may be most prone to make bold and far-reaching decisions; that's also the stage of life where frustration may just as easily drive you to make rash ones. Although the proper interpretation of the data suggests that many more new businesses succeed than people generally assume (business 'failure' rates generally include businesses that are sold or which close because the entrepreneur is hired away; these are not, strictly speaking, 'failures'), many — perhaps even the majority — of our new entrepreneurs are shocked to find that the skills required to build a successful business have nothing to do with the product or service that's provided.

The skill set of an entrepreneur has to do with systems design, marketing, sales, and customer relations. If that's your particular strength and passion, you've got a good chance for success. If not, you probably should do a lot of research and get yourself a good, strong mentor before you make up your mind or lay any of your hard-earned cash on the table. For most people, finding their way through the maze of career choices and job opportunities during midlife can be a real crap shoot. If you're like most people, you'll win some, and you'll lose some; you'll gain some good experience and you'll pay for it with stress. Your chance of coming out ahead from the midlife transition will ultimately depend on how much time and energy you spend getting to know yourself, figuring out what you really want, and coming up with a workable plan that will get you there. You may not wind up where or when you expected, but you'll come out a winner, and that's what's really important

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Article Tags: age discrimination, bean counters, bonds, bottom line, disposability, downturn, employment office, employment status, flip side, good chance, layoff, longevity, loyalty, managerial excellence, office of human resources, quarterly numbers, s books, seniority, vulnerability, younger men



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