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on a beautiful day in June
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2018 I went into work as
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usual by 11:00 that day I had no job I
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was 56 years
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old I realized I had two
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options one was to panic and
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cry and the other option was to take
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control I decided to take option number
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two good morning everyone I'm Raina and
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welcome to small retired life on this
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channel we talk about all things
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retirement and about living a small
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retired life but a meaningful life so
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let's talk about my layoff story at the
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age of 56 as I said I went into work and
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and I thought it would be a day like any
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other day and I had meetings with
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clients that morning my job entailed a
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lot of uh client meetings that were out
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of the office so I had a coffee set up
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with a client and so that's what I was
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going to do that
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morning and I went to my meeting and I
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heard my phone Ding and I looked down
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and there was a message from my boss now
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just to backtrack a little bit my boss
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actually worked in a completely
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different city in a different Province
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and she came in to our office that day
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and she had the HR guy with her I'm
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sitting there at this coffee meeting and
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I'm thinking you know what I have a
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feeling I'm getting laid off and so when
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my phone dinged and I looked down and it
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was an email from my boss saying hey I
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know you're out of the office but could
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you come back I just want to have a
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quick meeting with
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you I knew I knew at that point that I
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was getting laid off and there
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was a couple of things that kind of went
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through my mind and I
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thought okay I have two options here I
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can completely lose it freak out Panic
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cry whatever and then the other option
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was to actually take control of my life
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and take control of the
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situation and just go back to the office
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in a position of
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strength and I decided to do that
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because I'm a bit of a stoic I kind of
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feel that life hands you
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situations and
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there are things that you can't you have
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no power to prevent from happening
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essentially your company has decided to
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lay you off and there's nothing that you
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can do about that they have made that
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decision
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so the better way to be is to accept it
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and to be in control how you deal with
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that outcome as opposed to letting them
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have the power of dealing with with
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it so I went back to the office to face
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the music um I got to the office and I
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went into the meeting and there was our
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HR guy sitting there with my boss and so
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I knew for sure what was happening I
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very kindly before anything started said
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hey I know I'm getting laid off off um
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I'm all good and I looked at my boss and
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I asked her to leave because quite
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frankly I did not feel like hearing why
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they were laying me off you know that it
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wasn't my
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fault um and whatever kind of thing that
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uh they tell you in situations like this
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and I just really didn't want to hear it
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and so I said I'm I'm just you know
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going to go through my package and we'll
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just leave it at
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that at that point I decided to go home
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and to process the news and I think
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that's the important thing to do is when
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something like this happens to you is
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give yourself time to actually process
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what's
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happened grieve your job because losing
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your job
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is it's not a good thing you need to
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grieve that job you need to
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just settle in with yourself
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and kind of figure out how you're
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feeling in that
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moment I um basically sat there all
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afternoon just um going over what had
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happened and I decided that I just
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wanted to take a time out it was June
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summer was coming
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and in Calgary summers are really short
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only like maybe two months and the rest
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of the year it's pretty much winter
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practically so I just decided
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to enjoy my summer and that's something
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I've never done
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before um I've never just been laid off
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and taken the time to just enjoy myself
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and enjoy the summer what you have to
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understand is Calgary is an oil and gas
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City so a lot of companies here get
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bought and sold and getting laid off is
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kind of a normal thing and I had been
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laid off before but it was different
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because I was a lot
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younger and typically those kind of
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layoffs included huge packages and it
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was kind of great to get laid off
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because you got this huge amount of
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money and um you were able to put it
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away and then find another job and
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that's what happened to me I you know
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was laid off and then I got this huge
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amount of money put it away for
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retirement and a week later I had a job
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but this was different I mean 56 you
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guys like a lot of employers just don't
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want to hire you when you're that old
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because they honestly kind of believe
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that you're only going going to be there
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a few years and then you're going to
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retire and they just don't want to put
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that kind of an effort into um training
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and uh steering a new employee to get
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basically three or four years out of
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someone what concerned me is like I mean
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I had thought about retirement planned
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for retirement but I really wasn't kind
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of looking to retire for for at least
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another four five years so I was
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thinking like maybe 60 61 62 but it was
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a very
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um kind of in the distance thing and I
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definitely wasn't looking to be not
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working at the age of
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56 so I went through my summer just
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really enjoyed my summer and um
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in September of that year I decided that
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I was going to go to Melbourne for a
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month or so my son lived in Melbourne
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and I just thought here's an opportunity
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to go over there and actually spend some
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meaningful time so I booked a trip uh
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and I went to Melbourne for just over a
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month so essentially that brought me
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back to Calgary at that point at some
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time in
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November
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and in November of
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2018 I decided to take stock of my
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finances really look at where I was at
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um what would be the best course of
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action do I look for another job do I
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try to make things work the way they
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were I I really was not in a position to
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completely retire at that point I needed
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at least another three years years
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minimum of work
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and the way my layoff package was
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structured it really was in my best
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interest not to look for work um
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immediately after I got laid off but by
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November I knew that I needed something
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so I started looking for work
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and it was not looking good um I had
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applied at quite a few places and wasn't
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really hearing back I was read reaching
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out to my
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network
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and I don't know all of a sudden I saw
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an ad come across my
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LinkedIn for a maternity leave position
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in my field with a company that was my
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client in my in my previous job and I
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reached
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out and it was a contract position for
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one
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year and I thought
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wow this would be so great it would give
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me an extra year of working it would
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give me time to kind of
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decide where I wanted to go and just
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give me a little bit of breathing space
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to assess
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if I wanted to retire or if I wanted to
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go to work or you know what the
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situation was so I applied for the job
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and
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and I got
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it of course when 2020 came around um
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February of 2020 to be exact I finished
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my job in the middle of that month
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and literally two weeks later the world
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went into
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lockdown
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and everything everything was
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different the great thing the absolute
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best thing that happened was because I
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was in that contract position for just
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over a
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year I had gathered enough hours that I
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actually qualified for unemployment
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insurance if you're
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American you know
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Canada does have a little bit of a
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better social structure than you would
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find uh in America but only because we
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pay a lot more taxes to be able to have
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this but this really worked out for me
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because essentially the world shut down
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I couldn't look for anything else even
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if I wanted to look for anything else
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because no one was hiring no one was
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doing anything companies were trying to
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figure out how to function without
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having employees to come into the office
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so I was able to get unemployment
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insurance for almost a year and and so
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that essentially tied me over for
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another year so out of the four years
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that I really needed between my package
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and my contract position and my
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unemployment
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insurance I covered off pretty much
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three years so I knew that I would be
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okay I knew that I could go into
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retirement
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and figure out what was next for my life
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so here are some tips just off the top
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of my head that I can give you uh if you
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get laid off in late life number one
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number one the most important
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thing take control of the situation take
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control of your layoff story because
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that will make it so much easier for you
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to deal with the aftermath and all of
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the thoughts that come to you after
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you've been laid off because you go
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through you know anger denial sorrow all
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of these grieving processes because jobs
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are a big thing for us there are
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livelihoods they are what allows us to
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pay for
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things
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secondly stay PA positive as much as you
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can but don't be afraid to grieve don't
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be afraid to just sit there with a glass
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of wine or a cup of coffee or whatever
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your comfort drink is and
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grieve your job and grieve the life that
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you've
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had and that you no longer
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have I think the next thing after that
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is to adapt a growth mindset
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instead of thinking about everything
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that you've lost begin to think about
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the type of
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opportunities that you can gain or that
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you can make happen because these
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opportunities
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are in your power to make happen as long
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as you think about them and you get to
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plan them and you you kind of consider
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the options so I would say that should
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be in the early stages of you know after
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the
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layoff after you've done some of these
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healing things I would say the next step
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is to really look at your
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finances and establish what the
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situation is do you have any savings if
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you don't have any savings clearly you
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need to take One path if you have some
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savings then you can take another path
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and it's important to to just sit and
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really look at your situation because
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that will guide you towards the next
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opportunity what came
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next and what decisions I made next
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honestly you guys it's another video
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because
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it was like the world was out there
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telling me that I needed to shake my
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life up change everything get out of my
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comfort zone and just see how I was
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going to deal with all of that so I
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think you need to come back and listen
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to my post work life story and
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understand how I entered
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and how I got to a place where I was
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living a small retired life
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and made it a meaningful
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life so thanks you guys thanks for
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tuning in we'll see you next time and
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um hit that notification Bell because
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the next video will talk about how I
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went into retirement and the
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circumstances
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that brought me
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into a whole new way of living my
00:16:39
life hey everyone it's post production
00:16:42
me I was not going to leave you hanging
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and I realized I really should show you
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what my apple bread turned out like it
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was pretty amazing I'm not a baker and
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this was the first time that I've baked
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this particular recipe and um I'm really
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pleased with the way it turned out it
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was really good with a sharp piece of
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cheddar on it and also I learned how to
00:17:10
do a voice over
