Attended the Boeing Layoff briefing today and came away surprised at some of the benefits that I didn’t know were there. First item was that I qualify for Medical retirement benefits since I’m within 6 years of early retirement. After having been worrying about losing this benefit, it came as a relief to know that I didn’t.
The other big area is that Boeing is considered covered by Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA). In Washington this could be huge. It means there is money for additional education, extended benefits for unemployment and a big one is that they will pay 80% of the cobra payments and we will have to pay 20%.
The session was planned for 2 ½ hours ran 3 1/2 and was packed with information. May attend again to make sure I got all the information. I also found out that because of my situation, my wife as a homemaker also qualifies for training and other benefits—not through TAA but through special state assistance.
I have a lot to process from this meeting. And urge everyone to attend these as soon as you can. There are a lot of resources out there provided by the company and by the state. Need to partake in the Boeing provided resources as best I can before the layoff date and should start using the state resources as soon.
Another high point today was being able to coach another co-employee with a warn notice through some tough emotional stress. I pray that it was helpful. Basically my advice was to not bottle up your emotions and instead try to fully feel them and to communicate them to others as best you can (hopefully in a loving manner). This blog is helping me communicate the emotions that I have been going through. Next advice was to reach out to give help and to receive help from others. I’m fortunate to have Boeing coaching resources and professional counselors that I can call upon. This coaching today was a way that I could reach out and to help someone else. This has helped me feel better and more complete about myself. Reach out and help someone if you can.
Because of my networking, many people have been making contact with me on a daily basis. This has nurtured my soul over the last week and has made a great difference in my ability to move forward. Thank you one and all.
A scary point of the day was a friend circulated an article New Atlantic Article. It talked about how for every job opening in US there are 6 people looking. I believe I have the skills that are needed in this new economy. The scary part is I might not find out until it is late in the game. I have to develop the resiliency not to let the bad news of the press get me down. This news is always out there and is not going away. What I can control is my reaction to it. A great book to read on the three mega trends that are influencing the world’s economy today is Hot, Flat and Crowded, I highly recommend this book to everyone.
I applied for another job at Boeing today. Maybe stretching the qualifications on this one a bit—we will see. I found out that two of the jobs I applied for Monday rejected me. I’m still up for consideration on the other jobs. This is another place where I will need to learn how to take the rejection of many job applications in stride. I have so much learning to do.
Tomorrow Resume and Interviewing workshop.
inSite Group: 43 members
Jobs applied for: 14
Rejections: 2
Job Posting withdrawn: 1
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Monday, March 01, 2010
Day 10 – Inside Applications
Today, I applied for 12 jobs at Boeing. Not sure if I am qualified or even if I want some of the positions, but thought I would let them sort out if I was qualified and would put off the decision on whether I was truly interested until making the next round. With a resume in the system it is all dependent on my resume and internal profile, no cover letter needed. This makes it pretty easy to apply. Part of routine will become checking on these jobs and for any new postings.
The rest of the day was spent answer emails, networking, and with the time waster of filling out a yearly Performance Management, a Boeing Job requirement that each employee has one of these on file. My manager would get dinged if I refused to complete this task. I guess some body's box can now be checked off.
Tomorrow, I attend a layoff briefing put on by HR, then Wednesday go to a resume writing workshop. Couple other meetings connecting with friends this week. I will update resume based on the workshop and then be trying to get some applications outside the company for the remainder of the week.
Emotionally, the tides of last week have pretty much settled. Feeling overwhelmed at times, because I have lots to do and what seems like little time to get it all done.
inSite Group: 40 members
Jobs applied for: 13
Rejections: 0
Job Posting withdrawn: 1
The rest of the day was spent answer emails, networking, and with the time waster of filling out a yearly Performance Management, a Boeing Job requirement that each employee has one of these on file. My manager would get dinged if I refused to complete this task. I guess some body's box can now be checked off.
Tomorrow, I attend a layoff briefing put on by HR, then Wednesday go to a resume writing workshop. Couple other meetings connecting with friends this week. I will update resume based on the workshop and then be trying to get some applications outside the company for the remainder of the week.
Emotionally, the tides of last week have pretty much settled. Feeling overwhelmed at times, because I have lots to do and what seems like little time to get it all done.
inSite Group: 40 members
Jobs applied for: 13
Rejections: 0
Job Posting withdrawn: 1
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Day 8 & 9 - The Opening Stance
My natural tendency when faced with something fearful, unsettling or troubling is to withdraw; to curl up in the fetal position; go internal and work the problem from the inside out. If I do this in this circumstance it will lead to withdrawal, isolation, and loneliness. In the last year, I have been learning about the power of community, both virtual and physical community, and have been trying to take a different approach than what is natural for me. This new stance includes continuing to expand the my network of support; continuing to connect more pieces together in this network, and focusing on giving and receiving help going through career change. Opening up and expanding instead of closing off and isolating.
I recommend this to avoid the isolating tendencies of getting a warn notice. Being separated from your co-workers is a big influence towards isolation. Spending hours and hours on the computer searching for jobs and preparing resumes also tend towards isolation. There is no way to avoid these influences; both will happen but I can consciously counteract the effects of these.
In the book iBrain: Surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind by Small and Vorgan, I learned the way we stimulate our minds over time physically alters our brain over time, “The current explosion of digital technology not only is changing the way we live and communicate but is rapidly and profoundly altering our brains. Daily exposure to high technology—computers, smart phones, video games, search engines like Google and Yahoo—stimulates brain cell alteration and neurotransmitter release, gradually strengthening new neural pathways in our brains while weakening old ones. Because of the current technological revolution, our brains are evolving right now—at a speed like never before.”
Since I do lot of work at home, also important is making sure that I get out of the house and do things like gardening and walking. Face to face interactions with others is also important. The last two days in the OSR classroom has provided very rich set of personal interactions. In this upcoming week, I have several face to face meetings: a layoff briefing, a resume building seminar, a discussion with a co-working, a meeting with my HR rep., and coffee with another co-worker. Keeping the number of these personal interactions up will be important as time marches on.
Counteracting the technological aspect has meant paying more attention to diet and exercise; making sure that I’m exercising every day and increasing the amount of exercise. I have continued to take tennis lessons and lift weights at the Y. I also plan on continuing to do brain puzzles and reading.
One of the next steps for developing my resume is to develop further detail for each position that I have on my resume—developing the ability to share what I learned in this position, the skills I developed, key projects worked on and accomplishments for each position. Several times in the past I have had interviews that I have not done all that well in and from this have developed a feeling of being weak in this area. Having these details readily available for me to review before an interview is one way to bolster my interviewing skills. I have also heard of an interviewing skills workshop and I need to see if any are available. If not I may have to create the space for one to happen.
Today, I put a note our on Facebook about getting the warn notice and looking for a job. Several people have responded giving encouragement, support, and empathy. These messages have been empowering—I’m glad I put the note out there.
I recommend this to avoid the isolating tendencies of getting a warn notice. Being separated from your co-workers is a big influence towards isolation. Spending hours and hours on the computer searching for jobs and preparing resumes also tend towards isolation. There is no way to avoid these influences; both will happen but I can consciously counteract the effects of these.
In the book iBrain: Surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind by Small and Vorgan, I learned the way we stimulate our minds over time physically alters our brain over time, “The current explosion of digital technology not only is changing the way we live and communicate but is rapidly and profoundly altering our brains. Daily exposure to high technology—computers, smart phones, video games, search engines like Google and Yahoo—stimulates brain cell alteration and neurotransmitter release, gradually strengthening new neural pathways in our brains while weakening old ones. Because of the current technological revolution, our brains are evolving right now—at a speed like never before.”
Since I do lot of work at home, also important is making sure that I get out of the house and do things like gardening and walking. Face to face interactions with others is also important. The last two days in the OSR classroom has provided very rich set of personal interactions. In this upcoming week, I have several face to face meetings: a layoff briefing, a resume building seminar, a discussion with a co-working, a meeting with my HR rep., and coffee with another co-worker. Keeping the number of these personal interactions up will be important as time marches on.
Counteracting the technological aspect has meant paying more attention to diet and exercise; making sure that I’m exercising every day and increasing the amount of exercise. I have continued to take tennis lessons and lift weights at the Y. I also plan on continuing to do brain puzzles and reading.
One of the next steps for developing my resume is to develop further detail for each position that I have on my resume—developing the ability to share what I learned in this position, the skills I developed, key projects worked on and accomplishments for each position. Several times in the past I have had interviews that I have not done all that well in and from this have developed a feeling of being weak in this area. Having these details readily available for me to review before an interview is one way to bolster my interviewing skills. I have also heard of an interviewing skills workshop and I need to see if any are available. If not I may have to create the space for one to happen.
Today, I put a note our on Facebook about getting the warn notice and looking for a job. Several people have responded giving encouragement, support, and empathy. These messages have been empowering—I’m glad I put the note out there.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Day 7 - 60 Day Warn - 7 days gone
Well the first week is gone in a blink of an eye. 53 days to go. And I started the day feeling guilty.
Since I am on a degree committee of one of the current OSR Students, my alumnus Master’s program, I was invited to participate in this month’s session on Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The timing is perfect, since AI is a very life affirming methodology. One is dependent on our personal way of being as much or more than the technical methods involved. This is like getting a booster shot in the arm to what I think is important in the field of OD and to helping others in general. I felt the exercises and readings to prepare for the class have helped me become much more grounded and allowed my thinking to clear up and become more focused than it would have otherwise.
The preparatory exercise was to take a 24 hours period and look at everything appreciate stance no matter how small, like appreciation for the light that comes when we change the switch, the taste of a piece of fresh fruit, the clerk that smiles a greeting, or the color of a flower. Or the second version of this exercise was to look for the life affirming parts of our day; this was the version I did. The outcome was I became very appreciative for all the people that had touched my life or that I have touched their lives over the years. I also became thankful for the many blessings that I have in my life—starting with my wife and kids and extending way out from here. From the standpoint of giving me energy and vitality the class was a great success.
One reason that I wanted to attend was to reinvigorate my connection with the OSR community. This community encompasses all of the past OSR master alumni, the two current classes, and future classes to come. I was able to rekindle some relationships and to build some new connections today as half the participants were current students and half were previous students. From this standpoint it was a great success.
Providing strength for a positive perspective on getting this warn notice was not anticipated. This positive perspective looks at it as opening the door to opportunity—opportunity to create the next phase of my career in way that is more life affirming and better aligned to what is important to me in this phase of my life. This was a mostly unanticipated outcome of the exercise, the reading and the class today.
The guilt comes from questioning whether I shouldn’t be staying home and sending out resumes and scanning all the job ads. Writing cover letters and applying for jobs. Why am I spending time writing blogs, building networks in Boeing to help others, going to classes that will not affect my resume? All this life affirming, phase of life crap is fine to think about buddy, but you need a job. Maybe you should of thought about that sometime in the last the 21 years, now is time for quick action. This was the dilemma playing out I my head. Today, I chose to attend the session and I think the rewards were worth it. I’m sure this dilemma will continue to play out.
InSite group IT People with Warn Notices is at 38 members and growing.
PS - Learning Blogging and making changes as I go. Hope to have this tool down in after some more posts.
Since I am on a degree committee of one of the current OSR Students, my alumnus Master’s program, I was invited to participate in this month’s session on Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The timing is perfect, since AI is a very life affirming methodology. One is dependent on our personal way of being as much or more than the technical methods involved. This is like getting a booster shot in the arm to what I think is important in the field of OD and to helping others in general. I felt the exercises and readings to prepare for the class have helped me become much more grounded and allowed my thinking to clear up and become more focused than it would have otherwise.
The preparatory exercise was to take a 24 hours period and look at everything appreciate stance no matter how small, like appreciation for the light that comes when we change the switch, the taste of a piece of fresh fruit, the clerk that smiles a greeting, or the color of a flower. Or the second version of this exercise was to look for the life affirming parts of our day; this was the version I did. The outcome was I became very appreciative for all the people that had touched my life or that I have touched their lives over the years. I also became thankful for the many blessings that I have in my life—starting with my wife and kids and extending way out from here. From the standpoint of giving me energy and vitality the class was a great success.
One reason that I wanted to attend was to reinvigorate my connection with the OSR community. This community encompasses all of the past OSR master alumni, the two current classes, and future classes to come. I was able to rekindle some relationships and to build some new connections today as half the participants were current students and half were previous students. From this standpoint it was a great success.
Providing strength for a positive perspective on getting this warn notice was not anticipated. This positive perspective looks at it as opening the door to opportunity—opportunity to create the next phase of my career in way that is more life affirming and better aligned to what is important to me in this phase of my life. This was a mostly unanticipated outcome of the exercise, the reading and the class today.
The guilt comes from questioning whether I shouldn’t be staying home and sending out resumes and scanning all the job ads. Writing cover letters and applying for jobs. Why am I spending time writing blogs, building networks in Boeing to help others, going to classes that will not affect my resume? All this life affirming, phase of life crap is fine to think about buddy, but you need a job. Maybe you should of thought about that sometime in the last the 21 years, now is time for quick action. This was the dilemma playing out I my head. Today, I chose to attend the session and I think the rewards were worth it. I’m sure this dilemma will continue to play out.
InSite group IT People with Warn Notices is at 38 members and growing.
PS - Learning Blogging and making changes as I go. Hope to have this tool down in after some more posts.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Day Six - Warn Notice - First Application
Finished the first set of edits on the resume and sent it out to two places. The first was adding it to the Boeing Job search system. It is a little maddening to spend the time to get the resume looking good form wise and then have to convert it to text format. Also sent the electronic copy to a friend, who was going to share it with her boss; this might be a good possibility or could turn out to be nothing.
A large portion of the day was spent connecting with people via email—helping people get set up in inSite the Boeing’s social networking program. The group I started is at 36 people the last time I looked. After spending yesterday and today sending messages and links to the site, the first conversation and sharing happened on its own. I have found that it takes some help to get a community working and I’m thankful that I have been studying this over the last year. This has helped position me for networking which I’m starting to get a deeper appreciation for just how powerful networking is.
Expanded networking to outside of Boeing by starting a discussion with a friend of mine who has many of contacts all over the US. This was a planting seeds conversation; it will take patience, intention and action to germinate these seeds. Tomorrow, my outside networking will be furthered expanded outside by going to a special class of the program that I received my Masters from. This will be at Seattle University and consist of present students and alums that have been coaching the students through their degree committees. I may know some of the alums, the person whose committee I am on, and maybe one or two other students and some of the teachers. At the end of the two day class, I hope to have made many new connections.
There are other reasons for taking the class. I love to learn, and this last week has been stressful and tiring—this class represents a much needed break. Also there is some serendipity taking place spiritually in my life. The class is about a change method call Appreciative Inquiry or AI. Being appreciative and grateful for what I have has come up in dharma talks, meditation, and as part of the emotional roller coaster ride this last week. This is the perfect time to get reacquainted with AI and I am looking forward to spending two days in class on this subject and with students in their second years of their Masters transformation. The classroom experience should be a lot of fun.
I met and talked with my two closest team mates today. In some ways they are having it harder than I am. I am able to turn away from the past, take charge, and start moving forward. They are left picking of the pieces, being faced with uncertainty, and worried about me. I haven’t totally turned away; I am also worried about them and with my other teammates. These relationships that I have taken for granted for so long are very important to me.
A large portion of the day was spent connecting with people via email—helping people get set up in inSite the Boeing’s social networking program. The group I started is at 36 people the last time I looked. After spending yesterday and today sending messages and links to the site, the first conversation and sharing happened on its own. I have found that it takes some help to get a community working and I’m thankful that I have been studying this over the last year. This has helped position me for networking which I’m starting to get a deeper appreciation for just how powerful networking is.
Expanded networking to outside of Boeing by starting a discussion with a friend of mine who has many of contacts all over the US. This was a planting seeds conversation; it will take patience, intention and action to germinate these seeds. Tomorrow, my outside networking will be furthered expanded outside by going to a special class of the program that I received my Masters from. This will be at Seattle University and consist of present students and alums that have been coaching the students through their degree committees. I may know some of the alums, the person whose committee I am on, and maybe one or two other students and some of the teachers. At the end of the two day class, I hope to have made many new connections.
There are other reasons for taking the class. I love to learn, and this last week has been stressful and tiring—this class represents a much needed break. Also there is some serendipity taking place spiritually in my life. The class is about a change method call Appreciative Inquiry or AI. Being appreciative and grateful for what I have has come up in dharma talks, meditation, and as part of the emotional roller coaster ride this last week. This is the perfect time to get reacquainted with AI and I am looking forward to spending two days in class on this subject and with students in their second years of their Masters transformation. The classroom experience should be a lot of fun.
I met and talked with my two closest team mates today. In some ways they are having it harder than I am. I am able to turn away from the past, take charge, and start moving forward. They are left picking of the pieces, being faced with uncertainty, and worried about me. I haven’t totally turned away; I am also worried about them and with my other teammates. These relationships that I have taken for granted for so long are very important to me.
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