Rant: How To Avoid Being Laid Off (Part II)

I was surprised that my rant on how to avoid being laid off got any comments.  I’ve seen comments and discussions move away from blogs and onto social sites… so to get any comments, much less 8, was kind of cool… took me back to the good old days 🙂

One comment that just came it struck me… from Daniel Johnson, Jr.:

… I’ve grown to accept the axiom from “The Godfather”: “It ain’t personal; it’s just business.”

It is just business, really.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it is good business.

In my case, almost six years ago, it was a horrible business decision to lay me off (in my HUMBLE opinion).

I was laid off because I didn’t politic enough.  I was busy doing my job as general manager, while someone else was making regular trips to the board to politic for my job.  Not only did I not know that, I was busy doing the freaking job, and didn’t play the game.

It was just business, though… and I didn’t play by the rules.

[**deleted** see NOTE below]

So, the decision-makers made a business decision.  Their decision was based on the knowledge they had.

The knowledge was incomplete, misrepresented and flawed.

At the end of the day, it was a business decision.

But it was a crappy business decision.

My message is that just because you are laid off, as a “business decision,” doesn’t mean that the business, or the manager, or the owner, is RIGHT.

They are making a decision based on information they have, at their risk level.

It might be a brilliant decision (even though it doesn’t feel brilliant to you).

It might be the stupidest decision them make that year.

Either way, don’t let “it’s a business decision” drag you down – got it?

NOTE: I wrote this and then deleted PARAGRAPHS.  I was telling TOO MUCH of my story… stuff that doesn’t need to be told, especially on this blog.  I’m working really hard at using good judgement on how much to hold back 🙂