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Clearing Your Desk

Clearing Your Desk

Ted Merz
February 20, 2024

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A friend told me a story about a guy in finance who recently got fired.

His boss stopped by his desk and suggested they grab lunch. As they were taking the elevator down, the man was laid off. When they got to the lobby, he was escorted from the building.

No one could prepare for such a swift denouement.

One minute you are at your desk part of the team; the next, on the sidewalk outside the building realizing you were maneuvered out with the bare essentials: coat, wallet, keys and phone.

It’s cold blooded but calculated. A strategy to reduce the risk the person will videotape the incident or disrupt the process by making a scene.

Welcome to the 2024 version of Survivor, where people are kicked off the corporate island, often with no warning given and no reason provided.

People have always been fired, of course. What’s changed is that even profitable companies are slashing jobs with cuts divorced from individual performance.

That sudden randomness is confusing.

I have five friends, all in their mid-fifties, who were fired recently. They’ve shared thoughts on what it’s like to be thrust back into the job market close the twilight of their careers.

You immediately understand the elimination of income, they said. But you don’t fully anticipate the impact of losing healthcare benefits.

You assume former colleagues will be helpful, but in general they are not.

You realize too late that you should have spent more effort connecting with people at competitors or in other industries who might hire you.

And you realize you could have done more to build a personal brand by writing online or speaking at events or trumpeting your accomplishments.

Having not looked for work in years, they were shocked by the industrial recruiting complex which uses computers to pre-judge applications.

They underestimated losing access to contact information, assuming wrongly they would be able to tap the corporate directory for emails and phone numbers.

One friend realized belatedly that her LinkedIn account was tied to a corporate email which had been cut off. She has struggled to access the account.

You can see the surprise and dismay among the affected playing out on social media.

In one recent post a reporter from the Wall Street Journal published a list of two dozen or so people let go from the company’s Washington D.C. office.

When I tried to connect with the reporters on LinkedIn, I discovered some had no online presence and others had outdated profiles. Few had posted much.

My advice to anyone working today in corporate America:

–Collect email and phone contacts

–Update your LinkedIn profile

–Start posting on social media to advertise your skills and build your network

Finally, clear your desk of any personal items.

You never know when someone will invite you to a lunch from which you don’t return.