Lay-off Diary Chapter 1 – Before

Loosing  job is the biggest fear among salaried class. It is more impactful if you are at mid or senior level in your organization as the opportunities to find new jobs become less. And this can lead to loss of morale and desperation as days become weeks, weeks become months and you become desperate to land a new job.

So how did I deal with loosing my job? The answer can be found by breaking this question into two time frame – what I did before losing the job and what I am doing after losing job.

In this article, I will talk about the Before part. 

Before losing job –

I am currently 42, was working in IT industry and  since last few years, I realized that I might not be able to survive corporate life till retirement.

Over the last fifteen plus years of my corporate life, I had seen very few people retiring at the age of 60 from IT industry.  Most of the others either took early retirement or started something of their own or just vanished into oblivion due to health or other issues – long working hours, lack of work life balance, job stress, internal power games and politics – all these do take a toll on your health and relationships.

And with current world situation of countries being at war with each other, world economies not exactly prospering, AI taking up peoples job and lay-offs happening in many companies worldwide, I knew that one way or other, many people will be out of job even before they turn 50. 

And that motivated me to start preparing for lay-off / early retirement. I started focusing on few things – managing my finances well, finding ways to build passive income and upskilling myself.

 One thing I was very clear about was that I did not want to live a debt life. So closed off my one and only loan in life – home loan – in my early thirties and have since focused only on maximizing savings for future. At the same time, I tried exploring passive income ideas. Started Home Meal but had to shut down as our funds ran out in an year. Undeterred, kept trying one thing or other and being patient.

 So when I was laid off recently (a few years earlier than I had anticipated), it was a setback but something I could try to deal with.

Good part was that I did not have loans, had enough of emergency corpus, decent life and health insurance and manageable corpus to atleast take care of mandatory items (children education and my retirement).

And I also had a minor passive income stream in the form of my youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@savemoremoney-nishant).

But all this is about me. What are the takeaway from this for you:

1. Be aware of your company and industry – what is the general retirement age in your industry, how is your company performing and how the sector it serves is performing.
   • If you do not see many 50+ people in your company, chances are that you will also not be there by that age. So plan your future accordingly.
   • If sector is growing while your company is struggling, find a new job as soon as possible. There is no point being loyal as the company will not hesitate in laying off people if need be.
   • If both sector and company are struggling, try to survive  in your job and focus on improving your performance. Aim to become a key stakeholder on whom there is lots of dependency. Showcase the work you are doing to senior management so that they know you and think twice before putting your name in lay-off list.
   • If sector is struggling but your company is doing good, be extra careful. Lots of new people may join and it can create a challenge for you if they are better than you and come at lower package.
2. Keep upskilling yourself to stay relevant and have an edge over others.
3. Aim to finish all your loans before you touch 40. This is the age by when you start getting into mid and senior management roles with good package and it becomes difficult to find new jobs.
4. Build 6 months to 1 year of emergency corpus depending on how easy/difficult it is to find new jobs.
5. Purchase your own Life and Health insurance cover. Do not rely on corporate covers as they will vanish the second you loose job.
6. Start working on alternate source of income. Focus on something which you like and want to do even if no one pays you. You may not succeed for months and sometimes even for years. But do not give up and over time, the small income stream will start flowing which will keep getting bigger.
7. Try to live a loan free life if you think your job is easily replaceable  by AI/younger associates or if you think it is difficult to find new jobs in your niche.
8. Keep your family and close friends informed about the situation in your company so that it does not come as a huge shock for them.

Follow these and am sure they will help reduce the impact of job loss if it comes. We will focus on things you can do after losing job in subsequent articles.

Stay tuned and do share your thoughts!