When it happens and you're in your fourties or fifties, it can slam you into despair.
"I thought, what do you mean you don't want me?" That is the response of a woman who was abruptly stopped in her tracks--dumped from their executive office just as her career was cresting. It wasn't fair, she said. Never mind that life for her and other women represent mere data points among the 10 percent of Americans officially unemployed as of December 2009. For those successful women, getting fired utterly upended their lives.
"I was still growing," recalls Anne Friend, 55, a vice president and project manager in Washington Mutual's credit card division in Pleasanton, CA. "My boss was getting ready to move on, and it was looking like they might move me to her level." But then WaMu was bought by JP Morgan Chase, her division was closed, and Friend was out on the street.
For many women, the kick in the professional gut knocks the wind right out of the ego, which can be seriously damaged when meaningful work is taken away. Anne Friend also misses the camaraderie. "My job was always my identity," she says. "I belonged in corporate America. I really like a dynamic team. I don't play well alone." After being fired, she felt, "Nobody's calling me, nobody needs me." Those feelings are are shared by many others of the same age and situation. Their relationships are enormously important to their sense of competence, of well-being, of who they are in the world.
When women fail, they look at themselves and say, 'What did I do wrong?' That can open the door for depression and isolation to come in to their lives.
To gain resilience in the face of this adversity and get back on track to becoming employed, working with a personal coach can make all the difference between career failure and success.
Source: www.more.com, March 2010