One year ago on December 20, 2017, I flew half way across the U.S. to interview for a position at a very famous tech company in northern California. I had to miss my daughter’s Christmas program because this was one of those opportunities that you just didn’t pass up. When the recruiter reached out to me and, later, when the hiring manager invited me to come interview at their corporate headquarters near the Christmas holiday, I jumped at it. To provide some context, I had ju

“Layoffs are mostly bad for companies, harmful for the economy, and devastating for employees.” -Newsweek (2010) In December 2017, I (along with many of my colleagues) got laid off by the parent company that had acquired our smaller company in 2014. I think what struck many of us was that this larger company was (and still is) very wealthy and extremely profitable (constantly emphasizing this point in their town hall meetings) and they repeatedly reassured us that our jobs wo

The New York Times ran an article (Luo, 2010) that talked about job loss and adverse impacts on health. What’s most intriguing were the health studies mentioned in the article linking layoffs to poor health and life expectancy. The article also mentioned a 2009 study finding persistent perceived job insecurity to be a strong predictor of poor health and that it's even more damaging than actual job loss. Occupational Health Psychology Quiz Did you know that layoffs more than d

In “The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave (2005),” Leigh Branham outlined seven reasons why workers quit or leave their jobs: Reason #1: The Job or Workplace Was Not as Expected Reason #2: The Mismatch Between Job and Person Reason #3: Too Little Coaching and Feedback Reason #4: Too Few Growth and Advancement Opportunities Reason #5: Feeling Devalued And Unrecognized Reason #6: Stress From Overwork and Work-Life Imbalance Reason #7: Loss of Trust and Confidence in Senior Leade