By Sue DiFranco
Copyright © 2002 Sue DiFranco/Fun Facts Publishing  

Thank goodness I try to avoid mainstream newspapers and TV news. Every time I catch a glimpse of a paper or am clicking past a newscast, the horrible, morbid news hits me:

Layoffs. 401K Losses. Enron. Worldcom. Bankruptcy. Corruption....

Corporations.

I am not unfamiliar with the woesome world of layoffs. I've got two notches on my belt so far, so I guess you could call me a layoff vet. The first hit me really hard - I was only 26, bright-eyed and optimistic, blissfully ignorant to what it meant when another corporation bought your corporation (pssst...layoffs). Shock, tears, pain, the whole thing.

Which allowed my second layoff to be much easier. The talk was spreading; I knew now to listen; we were working for a dot-com as the Internet market was crashing down around us, for goodness sake! As I was summoned into the office, I merely said, "OK, how long do I have to pack up my stuff?"

I had until the end of the day, thank goodness. My last layoff, from a local TV news station, happened five minutes after I walked off the set of the 5:00PM news at the end of the day. Thank you, Mr. Boss!

So...I am not unfamiliar with layoffs. Neither is my husband, who got laid off from his dot-com four months after my dot-com's demise. After that, we banded together and said: "Working For Other People? Just Say No!" (Actually, we said it a bit differently than that, but this being a family publication, I feel it's OK to bend the truth.)

So here we are now, watching the corporate world crumble, taking hundreds of innocent victims with it. These workers, staunch believers in the mantra, "Get a good job, work there a long time, retire with a great severance package," are now bitter and confused. Everyone told them this was what they should do to have a "good" life! You get  a job, you work really hard, and you retire. So what happened?

We are living in a different world than the one in which we were raised. My parents raised me to believe that there was no other option: you went to school, got good grades, and got a good job. That's it. It's not their fault - that's how it was when they were growing up. Why should they think things would change?

But things do change. And they have changed. And working for someone else, quite frankly, scares me more than trying to run my own company. So that's why I am happy and proud that I am...

Layoff-Proof and Loving It!

And all of you are in the same position too (or you will be soon). Sure, there are (many) days when I wish I had a full-time job again, just because it was so much easier and I got to leave my job when I got home. (That does not happen here - at least not yet).

But I am in complete control of what happens in my life. There will be no unexpected pink slip, no guy in a suit making up pathetic reasons why they had to let me go. This is my business, and its success is completely determined by how much work I put into it. And seeing as I tend to be a workaholic, that success is guaranteed!

So, take a moment and celebrate the fact that you are lay off proof! If you want to end your business, you decide to end it - not someone else. That is something to marvel over, something that makes you catch your breath. You...it's all up to you. And you, my friends, are layoff-proof. Congratulations!