In case you missed the news, I was laid off from my job on January 24th. This was just after celebrating my 25th service anniversary in December. You can only imagine the amount of emotions that were taking place in my head, in my gut, and in my heart. It has been nearly two weeks since that “event” has taken place, and I believe that I am finally ready to write about it.
In the coming days, I will begin walking through the Five Stages of Grieving Job Loss. It is based on the Five Stages of Grief described by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her book “On Death and Dying”. My hope is that by describing these stages (not only for others, but also for myself), it will help move us through this process more quickly and with less emotional strain.
Stage 1: Denial
This can’t be happening to me! I can’t believe they are letting me go! They will not be able to live without me!
Whether the writing was on the wall or not, we are almost always shocked when it happens to us. It takes a while for the news to sink in, even when you can see it coming from a mile away. However, I know so many people who were still shocked when they got the word themselves. In my situation, I have dodged so many layoffs over the years that I knew it would be a matter of time before I could not dodge them anymore. I guess that I started to believe that I could keep zigging and zagging for a while longer. But we feel like burying our head in the sand to pretend that this did not happen to us. But it did! The sad news is that this stage could last for a while, especially if you are receiving a severance package – mostly because it appears that you still have money coming into your account.
Faith Response
While it is easy for us to hide in denial, we need to remember that this first stage is necessary to move on with our lives. Experiencing shock and denial is common in any traumatic event. We cannot stop these feelings from happening. However, the challenge is that we must not get stuck in this stage. We need to pray and ask for the strength to accept denial, and then let it go! We need to move from the denial of passing events to the acceptance that our Lord loves us and has a better plan for us. It is to move away from “This can’t be happening to me!” and move toward “This happened to me, so now I need to go where my gifts and talents can be used to help others!”
Prayer
Lord, help me to accept that fact that this event did happen to me. Give me the strength to move out of this stage by placing my trust in you. Give me the ability to listen to your words so that I may hear where you need me to be and what you need me to do. Amen.
