50+ and Laid Off? Always Have a “Plan B”
I have always had hobbies and pursuits outside my day job – travel, yoga, nature walks, cooking and pilates (and I am a bit of a movie junkie). That doesn't mean I wasn't ever consumed by my job, working 24/7. What it does mean, though, is that I always had my "go to" way to decompress and regroup when I was away from the office. I cannot stress enough the importance of self-care and having an outlet from the day-to-day grind.
When the COVID pandemic struck in 2020, I was working full-time in the healthcare industry (IT Strategy and Operations). I became extremely busy supporting my organization’s transition to virtual care and standing up COVID testing centers. I remained gainfully employed, working from home 100% of the time. My work weeks were busy, but evenings and weekends were quiet, as local businesses were temporarily closed (or, sadly, permanently shut). A few months after I was getting used to this new world, I received an email from my local pilates studio offering the opportunity to become a Certified Pilates Mat Instructor. The training was going to be done on weekends entirely over Zoom. I had been doing pilates for about 15 years at the time. Ironically, I had been thinking for awhile about becoming an instructor post-retirement as a means of making some extra cash while doing something I love and, most important, staying in shape. I still thought I was years away from retirement when the opportunity came along to get certified, but I wasn’t doing much else with my free time while businesses and travel were still shut down, so I took the plunge.
A year later, as gyms and studios began to open up again, albeit with masks, the pilates studio once again offered an opportunity, this time to complete the full teacher certification program on all of the pilates equipment. I still wasn’t ready to retire, but the timing was right and the opportunity was calling to me. Some people would say it was a sign. I believe that the stars were perfectly aligned - my weekends were open and I had no travel or family obligations. The certification required study, observation, practice hours, and completion of 100 hours of teaching. I still worked full-time and it was a commitment, but by now I was all in. I knew that, with my work experience teaching and conducting training, combined with more than 15 years as a pilates practitioner, I could help others while continuing to learn and grow myself. The added bonus was that I would actually be getting paid to teach while completing my certification hours. I still thought retirement was at least five years away, but I was excited about preparing my post-retirement plan. After certification, I continued to teach at least 5 hours/week consistently while still working full time.
Less than two years later, I was part of a massive layoff from my job (along with my entire team and hundreds of others at leadership levels). I continued to think of pilates as my post-retirement gig, and still did not plan to retire yet. Pilates teaching income is certainly no match for full-time corporate employment. However, knowing that I could pick up some additional hours teaching pilates to supplement my income while continuing to look for a job, helped relieve some of my post-layoff stress. In the meantime, the job prospects were underwhelming and that led me to rethink my situation, retire from the 9-5 grind, and to put my "Plan B" into action.
Going through the layoff process reinforced a clear lesson for me. One should always have a Plan B, something to fall back on when Plan A (i.e., the day job) fails. Even my boss, who was also laid off, told our entire team that we should have a Plan B as the organization went through restructuring. Pilates was part of my Plan B. Another part of Plan B included working my network to secure employment or exploring freelance contract work, including writing and editing, project management, consulting, and perhaps even acting (throwback to my earlier, pre-MBA days). The upside for me about being a pilates instructor is that it is a 180-degree pivot from what I did previously and I thrive on change. The only thing in life that is constant is change.
After several months of exploring the full-time job market as layoffs and rightsizing continued, and as the job market became flooded with much younger workers being laid off from high tech companies, I decided to take a more serious look at “retirement” and my Plan B. Another key finding for me was that retirement does not have to mean “end of work,” or “end of employment,” or any other kind of ending. The brain needn’t stop working, the body doesn’t need to shut down. You can keep the creative juices flowing and even view “retirement” as the next step in a lifelong career of contributing positively to the world around you. Many people fear retirement because they are afraid their life will no longer have meaning, that they will no longer be contributing to society. I hear people say all the time, “what am I going to do after I retire? I’ll be bored. I don’t want to sit around and watch TV all day.” Well, there is life after retirement and there is life after layoff. Perhaps the next step in the journey is finding something fulfilling to occupy your days after you no longer work a “day job.” If it is something that provides supplemental income, that’s even better. If income is not a concern, the opportunities to do volunteer work are endless.
My Plan B continues to evolve. Before diving into full-time pilates instruction, I expanded my Plan B to start a social media business, Riff on Jobs, with my friend and former colleague, Alex. Our mission is to help others, like ourselves, who are over 50 and find themselves at a career crossroads. Like pilates, this provides me the opportunity to do something I enjoy while helping others. New businesses take time to become revenue generating, so my primary income does come from teaching pilates. In the meantime, I love learning and developing my social media and web development skills as we grow the business.
We all have reasons for retiring or, equally, for not retiring. Financial situations and health circumstances vary. During 30+ years, I earned a paycheck, played by the rules (more or less), and strived to meet performance targets, in order to advance my career. After all the stress and angst of that, the pseudo-retirement chapter of my life is a welcome relief. I don’t have to fill my closet with the latest fashions for power meetings. I can roll out of bed in the morning and slip into a t-shirt and sweat pants. I don’t have to get up early and rush breakfast, or delay dinner, to get dressed, apply makeup and battle Los Angeles traffic driving to and from an office. I can pick the time of day to get outside for a walk, depending on the sun’s willingness to cooperate with me. The same is true of exercise. It is often said that no one on their deathbed says, “I wish I had worked more.” Whether you’re 20 or 60, you have the power to make choices. Some people may feel that a layoff forced them into thinking about retirement before they were ready and before they planned to retire. Others panic about the loss of income (not to mention all the other losses associated with layoff). Those are perfectly normal ways to feel. I prefer to think of my layoff as having “nudged” me into a retirement I hadn’t planned but, thankfully, had planned for. What’s your next chapter?