Eliminated! Now What? 
Finding Your Way from Job-Loss Crisis to Career Resilience
by Jean Baur

		Features up-to-the-minute job search advice grounded in economic reality.
		Deals extensively with the emotions associated with job loss.
		Reinforces key concepts through case studies about real people who rebounded from sudden unemployment.
As the economy struggles and whole sectors wither, millions of people are out of work. Even people who still have jobs are waiting for the axe to fall. Eliminated! Now What? teaches people how to view their job loss as an opportunity, rather than a crippling dilemma. It explains what to do in the first days following a layoff, how to talk about career transition with others, and how to create a strong foundation for an effective job search. Author Jean Baur dispels myths and lies associated with job seeking and provides case studies of real people who achieved success after losing their jobs. She equips readers with action steps to overcome obstacles and teaches them how to be resilient in any economy.
Eliminated Now What? can be ordered on the Amazon,com and Barnes & Noble web sites.

you’re no longer needed. And then they might reassure you that this has nothing to do with your performance, in fact… (this is the point where you can’t hear anymore and you’re sure this is a bad dream or hallucination). So their mouths keep moving but nothing is sinking in. And if the company has thought this through carefully, someone like me, a career counselor from an outplacement firm, is waiting in the next room to talk to you.

You are ushered in and told that here is a resource that your company is providing for you. And then you sit down with a complete stranger and want to cry. And this sympathetic man or woman is talking but it’s impossible to pay attention, so you nod, are given a packet of information, and then are escorted to the HR office where you endure another lecture—this time about your benefits.

Depending on your company’s style and industry, you might be allowed to go back to your desk to get your things. Or you might be escorted out of the building by an armed guard after handing over your badge and any other company property. You may have to arrange to go back another day, after hours, to get your personal effects. So here you are on the sidewalk or in the parking lot, and in the course of less than an hour your whole world has been turned upside down.

It’s strange to be out of the building at this time of day. You look around and people are busily going places. Somehow you get yourself home. You call your spouse or best friend. You tell them you were let go. Anger and fear compete for the top emotion. Disbelief is close behind. Someone somewhere made a mistake. They can’t do this. The department needs you. You’re the only one who knows how to…. And now you’re thinking about the hard work you did on your most recent project and part of you hopes that it will grind to a halt without you.

But the phone doesn’t ring and you have a packet of papers with you that proves this is not a reversible decision. And then you think about the signs—the meeting you weren’t invited to, the way your boss dodged the bonus chat, the closed doors, the gossip—and you kick yourself for not being prepared. Why didn’t you see this coming? What should you do now?