My friend whom I will call Anna lost her job a year ago…well, 14 months ago to be precise. She is late 40s with a son in college and a husband who works on contracts. I thought the loss of her computer job would be devastating for Anna but what did I know. Even though she works in HR support systems, Anna has always been interested in fashion – she’s sort of a refined Stacy London, Denver version. Once Anna did not have to pound the keyboard, she offered fashion advice for a fee, donated coupons for consultations to the church auction and just generally set about enjoying working with other women. In addition, she began to focus on her home – bought a great looking kitchen table/chairs set on craigslist, painted her bedroom four times to get just the right color on the walls, found a new set of china at an estate sale. Anna said that early on in their marriage, she and her husband decided that they would never have a house payment (and other debts) they could not handle on one salary. In 25+ years of marriage, they had stuck with the philosophy and now they were able to do just fine while one of them was out of a job. In spite of the nibbles of anxiety, Anna has had a fun year. Now, she has found a job she really wants. She spent an hour customizing her resume and wrote a dynamite cover letter in which she said she waited for the job she knew she was right for. She had a telephone interview, and yesterday, a face-to-face interview. It went great. Anna will hear the company’s choice in ten days. As she looks ahead to a new year and its challenges and rewards, she looks back on one spent going her own direction and its satisfactions. Not bad. Anna thinks that’s the way to handle it.
The Way to Handle It
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