I filled out an online job application today. It’s been over 20 years. I reached the part when it asks to contact current employer. I felt apprehensive and checked yes. I listed my experience and uploaded my resume and the whole time I felt as if I was betraying the company. It seems crazy to feel this way especially after all the employees that were let go. I don’t know why I still feel loyalty - but I do. It’s insane.
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Welcome to the real, modern world. This is not the era your boomer parents lived in where you can be the sole bread winner for your family and stay in a company for your entire life. I left NIKE to follow my aspirations and was laid off by a company that told me I was important and they cared about their employees more than earning that too dollar. I went for seven months without a job and sent out 67 applications to various companies and job listings. I was stood up and given job offers that were far below the listing, applications sometimes took an hour of my time and were never reviewed at, and I applied at retail floor jobs just to stay a float as unemployment was dwindling. I finally landing a job through a friend and I’m keeping it because it’s a medium sized business with a group of men who don’t tip-toe around their employees when something is wrong and don’t use HR as a means of creating erroneous diversity training programs or “cultural” seminars that are just fat on a rotting company. Hold onto your fake, inflated job while you can because the rest of Portland is dying. Welcome to the world.
Nike the company is not looking out for anyone's best interests. It is a corporation, operating like any big corporately traded company does - impersonally and with the bottom line in mind. I understand where you're coming from, and have been there myself. Wish I would have been more proactive during my years there, I felt like a bag of garbage being thrown out when I was laid off. However...given time and distance, I don't feel like that any longer. I am a valuable asset - loyal and hard working. I would rather be somewhere else making less money than feeling the way I did for so long. My health and mental well-being have improved so much since my departure. I wish you peace.
I keep my resume up to date ALWAYS and apply for new jobs regularly just because. This is YOUR LIFE and your #1 priority is to take care of yourself and your family, etc.... not to tow a company line. Something implored you to take this step, so hopefully you also feel a sense of exploration and liberation in just this act. Best wishes!!!
You’re not disloyal. Demands for loyalty after being laid off are ridiculous.
I learned a long time ago (and through layoffs/reorgs at other companies) to always have one foot out of the door. At this point, if you're not periodically checking out the job market you're doing yourself a huge disservice if you end up getting laid off.
For my particular field, I knew I was being passed by working at Nike for so long. Interviewing for similar roles at different companies let me know where I needed to improve so I could be competitive when the time came.
This is something you should actually be doing even within Nike. I had more than a few interviews (both informal and formal) with other groups in the company. My manager actually encouraged me to do this because he knew that openings in our group were rare. He was doin the same thing as well since he could move up the ladder quicker that way.
Never put your existing job contacts.
Put will provide contact details upon request.
If you get past the gauntlets to a phone interview, then you explain you have various contacts at your current occupation but do not wish to risk your current position.
You should have external contacts, customer references, friends who left the company. If not please grow your network...
That is strange indeed. Loyalty is a two-way street.....think about that.