The front page hits home

Two days ago, my oldest daughter, Bean, called me to tell me that her roommate was laid off with no severance. Her company, Nortel, declared bankruptcy.

She had worked there for about one year right out of college. Her aunt, however, had given the company 20 years of hard work. Although she had earned 11 months of severance pay, she got none! Her heart is broken.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I can sympathize with them. I was laid off this very week one year ago. I too had worked VERY hard for the company for 11 years. What made it a little surreal is how it happened.

In October of 2006, I received a promotion and a raise in pay for outstanding performance. In March of 2007, I was the apple of the GM’s eye. Then a new CFO came in, demoted the GM, hired a new one who made it obvious that I was not in his plans. 10 months later, I was told to clean out my desk.

My story is not unique. Neither is theirs. It happens all of the time. However, it is one thing to read about it or hear about it. It is quite another when you are in the story.

I wasn’t caught completely by surprise. I could see the writing on the wall. However, I just couldn’t bring myself to believe that they would actually make that decision. Bean’s roommate didn’t really consider other possible options as the company’s fortunes were turning because she would have had to take a pay cut.

Was it pride? Was I just stupid? Was her aunt naive to think that her loyal service would be requited? Perhaps. Life looks much different when viewed through the rear view mirror.

But you won’t get very far trying to drive through life while looking through the rear view mirror. You drive looking ahead. Most of the time, we make our decisions in the bright light of hope.

Sometime life unexpectedly turns that light off. Sometimes the road we have chosen has a section that is closed. Perhaps the last storm caused a mudslide, a sinkhole or washed out a bridge.

Our character determines how long that light stays off. After we come to terms with the fact that our plans didn’t work out, that we can’t get to our destination the way we thought we could, and that our schedule is messed up, we have to get back in the car, turn it around and figure out another way to get where we want to go.