The Layoff: This is How It Happens

Late 2005: New VP takes over the department where I've worked for 10 years as editor in chief of a magazine. We meet and he says my award-winning staff and I do a great job and have nothing to worry about but he is going to "knock some heads together" and it will be uncomfortable. Would I like to help envision the new changes? At first day of the confab to discuss changes in group, I alone am blindsided by draconian proposals. Things go very badly and by the end of it it looks like my job is on the line. I rally back after the meetings and fight to keep the magazine alive but am laid off with another editor on Christmas. Six months later the VP has lost interest in the group and withdraws from communication. An exodus of talented staff ensues over the next year.

Early 2007: New manager takes over large church where I've worked for 5 years as a soloist. I'm told I do a great job and have "a gift for music ministry" but they are going to do some new things. Would I like to help envision the changes? At the meeting, I alone am blindsided by proposals to use middle eastern trance music, electronica, drumming, chanting and recorded music to attract "young people" to the service. "Jazz [which is not what I sing at the service] makes people go inward. We want music that makes people turn outward," they say. Other interesting tidbits from the nonmusician participants include a prejudice against the organ as "an instrument of oppression" (Who knew? I thought Christianity had plenty of other oppressive aspects--being a patron of the arts has always been one of its more laudable qualities) and a visceral hatred of the tambourine (which is not played at the service). By the end of it, it looks like my job is on the line. I rally back for a few months with positive thinking and a low profile after the meeting but ... well, the rest is obvious.

Why am I writing about this? Because I see myself in someone else. At my gym, one of the instructors--the best one, hands down--seems to be out of phase with her organization. She does an amazing job. Her quiet voice and sweet manner are perfect for inspiring and leading classes, her movements are beautiful, her body is slammin' and a source of envy for women and men alike. But the management wants change, and is juggling her classes around the schedule, causing attendance to fall, and then threatening cancellation because of modest turnout. Her loyal students have rallied and spoken to the owner in support of her. But today she said something I could totally relate to: "I've been here for 7 years. There's been so much change, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't leave. If I like a situation, I'm there as long as I can be." I'm the same way. I don't leave. My family members have moved from city to city and are even begging us to move to Sacramento. But I don't leave. I've been in a relationship longer than anyone I know my age (17 years). I've held jobs longer than most, and I've only lost two in my life--as described above. I weather organizational change well, until it knocks on my door with a moving box and a pink slip. I don't hold grudges, I don't look back too much, and I don't leave.

I really don't want this fabulous woman at my gym to fall victim to the forces of change for change's sake. Is it possible? Could she weather this with a different attitude, words or actions? Or are these the final stages of an inevitable outcome?