Critical Incident - Surviving My First Layoff by Applying BCPDRP Principles

Explore a personal account of surviving a layoff by applying Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery Planning (BCPDRP) principles. Learn how to navigate the emotional and practical challenges of unexpected job loss through this 43-minute conference talk from GrrCON 2017. Discover the speaker's journey from initial warning signs to recovery, including strategies for financial preparedness, immediate actions post-layoff, and the importance of a support network. Gain insights on maintaining work-life balance, updating professional materials, and leveraging recruitment resources. Understand how to apply disaster recovery principles to both personal and professional setbacks, using the speaker's furnace breakdown as a parallel example. Equip yourself with valuable lessons on job stability, emotional resilience, and proactive career management in the face of sudden employment changes.

Intro
"...All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy..." - The Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke
Enter Incident One: Early Warning Sign "The furnace stopped working again, and the house is cold." Went home around noon
Incident 2: Early Warning Sign Received a strange message from Chief Architect Asked me if I would be back in the office
Betrayal Anger Fear
DONT PANIC
Bad to Worse Old furnace = problems Thorough inspection before repairs Incident Severity escalated
Round Two! Continued compartmentalization Began planning requirements for recovery
My "Continuity" Plan 1 income mortgage Fully paid car (cheap junk) Saving for "rainy day"
Disaster Recovery Immediately request letters of reference Blow the dust of the resume (untouched for 5.5 years) Breathe
Furnace Disaster Recovery Turn it back on (It was February!) New CO Detector Quote for replacement
Recovery Great Recruiter- James Jackson TEKsystems
Lessons Learned Stable job can become unstable fast My Work/Life ratio was JACKED UP A support network is important. Former Coworker contacted me. It helped.