Working with clients for over thirty years has taught us something: people problems are hard.

The similarities between being in a job and being in a relationship are strikingly similar: there are highs and lows; challenges and triumphs; and they often end abruptly without warning. The Employment Divorce® assists employees who may not have access to the information they need to make good, sound, self-interested decisions.

As with any relationship problem, you must evaluate your employment situation clearly and without emotion, and then determine the best next steps. Sometimes problems are solvable, but sometimes it is simply best to part ways. Most individuals have no idea what to expect when an employment separation occurs, just as many have no idea of what to do in any unexpected ending.  Severing any relationship after years of commitment is unsettling. There are questions, a whirlwind of emotions, and financial considerations.

Losing your job and experiencing the break-up of a personal relationship are strikingly similar. While it may initially seem unusual to compare the two, for many people, an involuntary job loss is every bit as emotionally devastating as the break-up of a serious relationship.

Employees currently spend much more time connected to their office and, increasingly, adults define themselves by what they do. You can grow close to your coworkers, and many become like family. The loss of belonging, camaraderie, and support that a job provides can be crippling to some when a job either gets difficult, or simply ends with little or no explanation. The same is true of relationships.  There is a sense of abandonment if you don’t know the breakup is coming, and sometimes even if you do.

We created the Employment Divorce® to educate, inform and help you. If you decide you need legal help, we stand ready to provide it.  Expert consultation and advice can keep you from feeling uninformed when you’re struggling with a work issue, navigating a workplace change, or if someone tells you you’re no longer needed. Change is hard.  We are here to help.

 

 

The dynamics of losing a job and losing a partner differ in one critical way that you can easily overlook:  you cannot avoid taking the loss of a personal relationship personally, but you should never react that way when you lose your job.  It initially may seem difficult — or even impossible — to do.  But the sooner you disengage from the emotional aspect, the clearer your judgment will be and the sooner you will be able to move on.  It is critically important to remember that oftentimes a termination has nothing to do with your performance; it is a simply a financial decision, and you are just part of a headcount that a company needs to streamline.  It is understandable to cause yourself further angst by trying to dissect, analyze or second-guess why a termination occurred.  But it is counterproductive to do so.  Instead, when a company  ends your employment, you should see the termination as a pure business transaction and act accordingly. You need to remove emotional barriers to enable you to be proactive, make good future decisions, and simply and move on.

Our goal in creating Employment Therapy® is to help you do that.  We created it to provide specialized, targeted advice to lessen the anxiety caused by job issues and give you beneficial tools and information to help you develop your strategy to move forward productively. We help you in your moment of crisis; when you feel like you’re being left out of meetings, or you need advice as to whether you are eligible to take a leave of absence. Employment Therapy helps you make sense of often difficult and nuanced situations at work, by providing excellent advice and guidance.