Betrayed by Work: Women's Stories of Trauma, Healing and Hope after Being Fired (Vocational Guidance and Job Advice for Invaluable Women)

by Julia Erickson, Suzanne Vosburg PhD

Overview

Recover from Job Loss with Support of Other Women

"This is the first book that I know of that truly helps you learn from women from many professional sectors how to recover from big setbacks in our work lives. It’s a must read.” —Dr. Elena Pezzini, organizational psychologist

#1 New Release in Job Hunting

Successful women show how they reclaimed and rebuilt their personal power and careers after being fired from a job and being rendered powerless by their employers.

Practical job loss recovery tools for women. When women get fired, it is often devastating, traumatic, and isolating. We experience a sudden powerlessness that can destroy our confidence and feelings of self-worth. We grieve. We feel broken. It affects our self-esteem, our financial well-being, our professional identity, and our ability to look for other work―in short, it affects our entire way of life. How, then, does a woman navigate the emotional impact of this event? With other women.

You are not alone. In Betrayed by Work, authors Julia Erickson, MBA, and Suzanne Vosburg, PhD, bear witness to the stories of women just like you―and just like them. This book shows how women lost their jobs, describes what happened to them immediately and in the aftermath, validates women’s feelings about being fired, and offers a source of hope and companionship to those of us coping with either our own job loss or the sudden job loss of someone we know or love.

Discover:

• True stories from women who are honest about how they were fired and their feelings
• Key points to help process each story and apply its lesson to your own experience
• Practical takeaways and suggestions to help you cope with job loss

If you were encouraged by personal growth books about women in business like Invaluable by Maya Grossman, In the Company of Women by Grace Bonney, Presence by Amy Cuddy, or Power Moves by Lauren McGoodwin, then you’ll be inspired and empowered by Betrayed by Work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642505641
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	05/11/2021
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Julia Erickson is a career coach who helps people find their “right fit” work. A survivor of being fired, she has coached many people who have experienced job loss which led to this book. She wrote an ebook, Your Right Fit Job: Guide to Getting Work You Really Love, and has contributed essays to two other books, one of which is the best-selling Success from the Heart. She was Executive Director of two non-profit organizations in New York City over a twelve year period. Prior to that, Julia led public/private workforce development initiatives in NYC government. A graduate of Smith College, Julia has an MBA in Leadership. Among her awards are the James Beard Foundation’s 2003 Humanitarian of the Year and Woman’s Day Magazine’s 2002 “Women Who Inspire Us”.

Suzanne Vosburg has a PhD in the psychology of creativity and is a scientific research consultant and writer for multiple companies. Suzanne’s father owned and managed a medium-sized business; he emphasized how important it is to openly address conflict and respectfully acknowledge emotions for a company to be healthy. He thought this was an essential and often overlooked element in many companies. In her work in various academic and industry environments, Suzanne has thought a lot about her father’s perspective. Her book Betrayed by Work pursues her deeply-held interest in how people work together.

Read an Excerpt

From the Introduction

We began writing this book long before COVID-19. This was before those of us who could stay home, did stay home to minimize the transmission of coronavirus and to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system (‘flattening the curve’). It was also before tens of millions of jobs disappeared seemingly overnight.

As we write, 38.6 million jobless claims have been filed. This number increased by over 2 million since we checked last week. Companies large and small have laid off multitudes of workers. Sephora, Walt Disney, Marriott, JCPenney, Under Armour, Macy’s, GE and other Fortune 500 companies laid off thousands of workers, while smaller companies such as ZipRecruiter, Everlane and Shake Shack have laid off hundreds of workers, all at once. So many job cuts happened in so many sectors of the economy so suddenly that generalized headlines about the millions of jobs lost were often the first broad exposure to the magnitude of numbers.

Considering that the job loss was at the macro-level, we wondered if the premise of our book still mattered. Were women still being let go from their jobs in ways that were traumatic and mean? Did we still think that there could be a more compassionate way of separating women from their work?

The answer to both questions is an unqualified YES.

Even though most of the stories in our book were collected before COVID-19, women’s experiences of losing their jobs and the emotional damage caused by this trauma is still the same. And these stories and their takeaways will help many women traverse the emotional journey to a new work life. In fact, Julie has taken on new clients during the pandemic who have lost their jobs, and she uses the lessons and practical takeaways from this book to help them process their experience, especially their emotional pain.

Table of Contents

Foreword 13

Preface 17

Introduction: I'm What?!! 21

Chapter 1 Julie: I Built Something Worth Taking Over 29

Chapter 2 Kayla: I Texted "There Is One Less Black Girl on Wall Street Today" 38

Chapter 3 Jill: I Had Never Been Fired so Many Times in One Week 46

Chapter 4 Birdie: I Bristled When Someone Said, "Don't Worry, Honey" 54

Chapter 5 Nicole: I Got My Confidence Back 62

Chapter 6 Jennifer: I Discovered My Voice 71

Chapter 7 Joyce: I Loved My Job, and It Broke My Heart 79

Chapter 8 Raka: I Had No Idea This Was Coming 88

Chapter 9 Lisette: I Lost Everything I Ever Did at That Moment 96

Chapter 10 Cynthia: I Still Feel Raw 105

Chapter 11 Chloe: I Asked, "Oh, You Guys Are Firing Me Today?" 114

Chapter 12 Jane: I Wondered How I Would Pay My Bills 122

Chapter 13 Anne: I Felt Betrayed 128

Chapter 14 Bridget: I Was Really Good at What I Did 136

Chapter 15 Carol: I Was "Too Expensive" for the Account 143

Chapter 16 Margret: I Told People Being Laid Off Really Means "Fired" 149

Chapter 17 Priti: I Kept Thinking, "They Never Really Liked Me" 157

Chapter 18 Alice: I Was Powerless to Keep My Own Job 165

Chapter 19 Elaine: I Felt Invisible 170

Chapter 20 Umara: I Didn't Work Miracles 178

Chapter 21 Sofia: I No Longer Feel Like a Victim 186

Chapter 22 Isabel: I Needed Times and Courage to Transition 192

Chapter 23 Melanie: I Moved from Corporate Constraints to Freedom 200

Chapter 24 Jean: I Was Fired Twice and Am Much Happier 207

Chapter 25 Minerva: I Took a Time-Out and Transformed 215

Chapter 26 Well, Now What? 223

Chapter 27 Folks Don't Know What to Say 233

Chapter 28 What We Have Learned: The Personal 237

Chapter 29 What We Have Learned: The Workplace 248

Chapter 30 Compassionate Firing: What We Suggest 265

Chapter 31 Conclusion 276

Additional Helpful Resources 277

Acknowledgments 282

About the Authors 284

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This groundbreaking book validates the experiences, and damage done, from being fired while living in a culture in which so much of our worth comes from ‘what we do’ and ‘where we work.’ Betrayed at Work has informed and inspired me about how to better protect myself as an employee, as well as how to be a more attuned, humanistic supervisor.”
—Gina DelJones, LSW, clinical research manager at The Center for Great Expectations

“Betrayed by Work lends humanity to the oft overlooked reality of women’s experiences and struggles in the workplace. It is truly an essential read and valuable toolkit for anyone at any stage of their career.”
—Kate Speir, senior vice president at Itinera Infrastructure & Concessions

“Betrayed by Work addresses a wide gap in our understanding of human and emotional values in the workplace and shows us how women have personally experienced being mistreated and undervalued. Their stories are moving and inspiring. Having been ‘on both sides of the desk’ in the process described in the book, I know that it often could have and should have been handled much differently. Now we have some urgently needed solutions. Kudos to the authors for sharing these powerful stories and insights!”
—G. Gregory Tobin, former general manager of A.A. World Services and author of The Good Pope

“I wish this book had existed when I lost my own job, as it is exactly what I would have been looking for. Compassion, camaraderie, and understanding are the gifts within these pages. Losing my job was one of the most lonely and isolating experiences I ever went through, and this book would have been a bright light during a very dark time. This book would have made me feel understood and not so alone. It would have brought me solace. For anyone who has ever experienced the trauma of being torn from your livelihood and workday community, this book is for you.”
—Wendy Jessica

“What we do for work identifies us and becomes the mission/vision/purpose and calling in our lives. This is the first book that I know of that truly helps you learn from women from many professional sectors how to recover from big setbacks in our work lives. It’s a must read.”
—Dr. Elena Pezzini, organizational psychologist

“Emerging science proves our choices and decisions—including our engagement, commitment, and loyalty at work—are more often driven by feelings and emotions than by our minds. Betrayed By Work showcases the harm done when leaders ignore this truth. This important book contributes an essential voice to the ever growing call for more caring, supportive, and humane leadership.”
—Mark C. Crowley, author of Lead From the Heart: Transformational Leadership for the 21st Century

“The aftermath of being fired is usually a professional and personal purgatory. Erickson and Vosburg bring this traumatic “life-event” to the fore in Betrayed by Work with intimate, firsthand accounts and instructive tips for replacing shame with personal enlightenment. It forces a reckoning with the callous treatment of women, especially when fired, in the workplace. This book has a rightful place along with other consciousness-raising movements of the twenty-first century. As a woman who has fired other women, I recommend Betrayed by Work not only for those who have lost their jobs, but also as required reading for all managers, especially those who ‘turn off their personhood’ when terminating an employee.”
—Heidi Boghosian, attorney, nonprofit leader, and author of “I Have Nothing to Hide” And Twenty Other Myths about Surveillance

“You’re not the only one! As a management consultant and coach, I hear many stories of women feeling defeated and deflated—before, during, and after a termination experience. This book boldly asserts what often goes unsaid—that you are still whole, still deserving, still worthy. The authors courageously advance this hope-filled narrative: termination is just a moment—what have you learned? What’s next?”

—Tracey K. Allard, strategy, culture, & race equity consultant

“Betrayed by Work is a long overdue text that provides a conduit for expression, validation, and healing from the life altering experience of being fired. This book is a must-read that gives a deep and personal look into the experience of women at work, offering practical guidance at a crucial time. The potential for growth and change here is enormous, not only for employees, but also employers and HR [workers] around the globe. Betrayed by Work could be the new “How To” handbook on humanizing downsizing, layoffs and firings to mitigate the damage done to confidence and reputation on both sides.”
—Cameron Hartl, executive coach