Core competencies

Life outside the confines of employment has been utter bliss! Spending each and every minute doing exactly what I want. Sleeping when I want. Seeing who I want, when I want. Working out.

But here's where I need YOUR help: I think there's a socialization piece that may be getting lost. What do you think?:

I just received an invitation from a friend who has her PhD in education. She is putting together an event that costs $15/person to:

Come to dance and PLAY together...giving adults the opportunity to rediscover the joy of play alongside their children as well as meet other like-minded families....inside developmentally appropriate ways of playing and engaging to support critical thinking for children ages two through eight years-old.

The evite responses were private, so I failed to exercise developmentally appropriate restraint and fired off my "no" RSVP:

Pay to play? What is this world coming to!

Hey, but maybe it's not unemployment. I think I just didn't play well enough as a child.

Suspending...

Suspension of disbelief: the audience tacitly agrees to provisionally suspend judgment ...

My current attempt to suspend disbelief comes in response to this unsolicited note from a friend who noticed my changed LinkedIn status:

Subject: Bummer!

You got laid off? I know you are so good at what you do, but you were certainly in the wrong industry at the wrong time, huh? :(

So sorry.

I hereby suspend any judgment as to the value of this message or its author!

Of course, the alternative to such suspension - actually sending my response that is currently saved in my "drafts" folder - may not really build bridges anyway....

Subject: Bummer back!

Hey, thanks for the note. Guess NOBODY'S safe these days: I just read that (your industry) is due to shrink by a gazillion percent this next quarter. But I'm sure you'll recoup at some point. Hope you don't lose your shirt in the meantime!

Diane Bisgeier is exploring opportunities in SF and NYC.

Discordance

In college I did a spring break "experiential learning" program where we explored homelessness. We even spent one night at a homeless shelter. When it came time to share what our main take-aways of the week were, I shared this pearl:

" I learned that I never...ever....want to be homeless."

Fast-forward to a few months ago, when I participated in a "peer coaching" group through my business school. The peers? A bunch of unemployed MBAs. Though I was employed, it certainly left me with a very similar feeling I had all those years ago in college (simply replace "homeless" with "unemployed").

This is why I am bristling at the thought of outplacement services! Hanging out with other unemployed people + a chipper, theoretical organizational development 'professional' rather than with real, productive, employed people somehow does not feel helpful to me...

Perhaps akin to locking up felons up with other felons and expecting it to be "correctional"?

I love you, Mike Judge. You get discordance.