Termination, severance and counting your blessings
Dear e-COACH,
After 8 happy years with my current employer, they're closing the location I work at as of January 31st. I am very unhappy with my severance package. My boss says there is nothing else they can do. I got barely more than what's required by law and apparently it's not worth it to sue them, so I'm pretty ticked. I have to stay here until the end or I won't get my retention bonus. Is there anything else I can do?
Dear Sender,
If you have consulted with a lawyer, checked the Employment Standards Act and talked to your boss, all to no avail, then as I see it there's only one thing left to do. Get over it. I say that with no disrespect intended. Do you recall the Serenity Prayer in which it says something like: "… grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change…"? Well, my friend, this is one of those things.
Now you could choose to ruin your health and your relationships by talking yourself into an angry frenzy every day, dwelling on the fact that you've been cheated out of a decent package; thinking of all the people you know who got much better severances; feeling the sting of humiliation when you realize that your employer may not appreciate you enough; fantasizing about what you could have done with all the money that you didn't get; taking the termination of your employment personally and even daydreaming of some sort of revenge that will show them. But I'm hoping that you're smarter than that. Because you have another choice: change your attitude.
You can choose to see this situation as an opportunity to do something new - maybe even something you've wanted to do with your career for a long time. You can start thinking about the future and realize how fortunate you are to have over 3 months to find something else.
You could be thankful that you will have a retention bonus to invest or spend as you see fit. You could count your blessings that you are physically and mentally capable of earning a living. You might use some time between jobs to improve a relationship with someone in your family, or to travel, write a short story, learn to play an instrument, learn a language, read the classics or, and this one is a recommendation, volunteer for your favourite charity. Spend some time with people who have less than you.
By the way, do you realize that if you lived in almost any other country in the world, there's a good chance you wouldn't have received that severance package?
While losing a job can be upsetting it is not the end of the world. There is so much more to who you are and to your life than your job. I'm willing to bet that a few years from now you will be doing something you enjoy even more and may even admit that losing your current job was the best thing that ever happened to you. So, yeah, get over it.
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