How to Announce Your Layoff on Social Media

Advice for handling layoffs on social media

• Look forward as quickly as possible and make a plan. Take a day to get the disappointment out of the way and explore your frustrations at home. Lingering on what happened isn’t going to help solve the problem. 
• Don’t express your anger on social media. It will follow you, and it will linger. It’s okay to be upset but filter those emotions online. Your emotions will go away, but social media won’t.
• You will have to answer to those posts for the rest of your career, so avoid digitally preserving your emotions to be used against you later on.
• What you post tells others who you are. It speaks to what you value, how you approach business, and your decision-making abilities. Who you are will translate into what kind of employee you will be. Employers want to know who they are trusting to bring into their organization.
• Don’t be negative on LinkedIn. Focus on getting your next opportunity. Positively use LinkedIn to help you after a layoff. Start sharing what you’re passionate about in your career and let people know you’re looking. Extend your network and use it to your advantage

Additional resources

• What to do if you’ve been laid off: Plan of action & next steps
• I just got laid off. Now what?
• How to prepare for a recession as an employee
• Search open jobs

Transcript

Pete Newsome  00:00
You’re listening to The Finding Career Zen Podcast. I’m Pete Newsome. And I’m joined today by Ricky Baez. Once again, Ricky, how are you this Friday morning?

Ricky Baez  00:08
I am doing great. Pete, it is a great week a great Friday, and well, for some people, not others.

Pete Newsome  00:16
Not everyone.

Ricky Baez  00:17
Yeah not everyone.

Pete Newsome  00:18
Unfortunately, it’s this is tough. I mean, it’s the layoffs are, we thought they there was a big wave. When was that in December, early December, I think is when the first ones hit around there. 

Pete Newsome  00:33
And we didn’t think it was over unnecessarily. But it seems to be lingering. This week when we have SAP some big names Cora IBM Shutterfly. 

Pete Newsome  00:46
These are household names that are laying people off and those are the ones we know about. I think it’s safe to say that there are many, many layoffs happening around the country that aren’t publicized. So it’s a tough time right now.

Ricky Baez  01:00
It is, and you know what P wheat. We got to give ourselves credit here. I’m gonna go I’m gonna go ahead and pat ourselves on the back because we saw this coming. 

Ricky Baez  01:08
We talked about this about a year ago, a year ago, you and I were right here having a conversation about how hard the pendulum is swinging one way as far as recruiters jumping ship and going elsewhere, and how the pendulum was going to stop and come back the other way, and layoffs are going to happen. 

Ricky Baez  01:27
And it’s starting to happen, actually, not to get back. It started. And it’s still going and like you said, I thought it was going to slow down. It’s, it seems like that snowball is becoming bigger and bigger by the week. Right?

Pete Newsome  01:38
Well, is, as we’ve also talked about a lot over the past year it’s hard to know who and what to believe, is the economy doing well? Or is inflation you know, is it up? 

Pete Newsome  01:53
Is it down depending on who which source you listen to? Right now there’s a shortage of eggs. So I’m gonna say that things aren’t going great in many respects, right? 

Pete Newsome  02:06
It’s almost a strange place to be where you I don’t know if you watch the press conferences, or White House press conferences that take place almost every day. 

Pete Newsome  02:16
But they tell a completely different story than what you see on social media, what people are experiencing in their personal lives where they’ll say, Well, things are going great in the economy. 

Pete Newsome  02:26
And you see that there are pictures of no eggs available at grocery stores and prices way up. 

Pete Newsome  02:34
And then, you know, the jobs report, the numbers look good. Unemployment is at historical lows at three and a half percent. That’s what yeah, we see layoffs daily now. 

Pete Newsome  02:46
So there are a lot of contradictory messages out there. And I will tell you being in staffing, I can say, that times are tight. There are still a lot of companies hiring. 

Pete Newsome  02:59
That’s the good news. That’s the great news in the scenario. The tech workers who’ve been laid off these people are highly marketable. Right. 

Pete Newsome  03:08
But but but but you know, I think there’s there’s a lot of support staff and other positions that get, you know, they’re getting hit, too. And they’re the ones that I think are going to have the tougher time finding jobs right now.

Ricky Baez  03:21
Correct. And, and you’re right, so those folks, most of them are highly marketable, but I don’t want to undermine where they go into because it’s still, it’s still it’s a bad feeling. 

Ricky Baez  03:30
It still is a bad feeling to go into the office thinking you’re gonna continue or start or finish a project. And they’re like, Hey, let’s have a conversation. Now, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this. 

Ricky Baez  03:40
I saw online that there were some organizations that kind of missed the mark and how they did. 

Ricky Baez  03:47
Did you read that one of the big organizations, they were supposed to announce on Monday, that people were going to be let go? But the people who were going to be let go, their information was locked out on Friday. Did you see that?

Pete Newsome  04:01
No. Are you talking about Google’s different companies? 

Ricky Baez  04:04
I didn’t want to say it, but I thought it was Google because people were trying to log in on Friday. And then they found that a little bit earlier, like before the actual weekend started that they were going to be laid off.

Pete Newsome  04:14
Well, this is not necessarily going to be a popular statement. But Google, what I saw was I didn’t see the thing about Friday and Monday, what I saw that employees and I don’t think this was I think this is a week ago. Now. 

Pete Newsome  04:29
The Google employees who showed up for work, you know, their badges didn’t work to let them in the building. And that’s how they were initially notified. 

Pete Newsome  04:37
Or they received emails at midnight that night, and they hadn’t looked at their emails, which is odd to me seeing that you knew this was coming. 

Pete Newsome  04:45
We all knew it was coming even those of us who aren’t involved directly. It was very public. 

Pete Newsome  04:50
So I find that you know, strange but I don’t know of a company, a large company that doesn’t immediately lock out their employees when there’s a lady Golf happening in terms of system access and physical access to the building. 

Pete Newsome  05:04
So I don’t Yeah, there’s no win I think in these situations in this is where even though there’s anger and frustration and disappointment and fear, all those emotions are very real. 

Pete Newsome  05:19
But the company, you know, the company has to protect itself as well. I mean, the last thing you want, if you’re Google is 12,000, you know, pissed-off employees with access to all of your systems. 

Pete Newsome  05:32
I mean, that’s, that’s, that could do more harm than good. So it is a no-win situation. And what do you think about that? Because companies are often criticized for the way they handle this, and we’ve talked about this in the past, but is there a perfect way to do it? 

Ricky Baez  05:47
No well, you know, my way, the best way, and not perfect, but the best way to do this as humanely as possible. And I am coming from somebody who has orchestrated countless, countless, unavoidable layoffs and restructures. 

Ricky Baez  06:02
I’m here to tell you that at least for the people I’ve been involved with, the biggest thing is we want to impact the actual employee as little as possible. That’s where you want to do so. 

Ricky Baez  06:14
Great example, if it’s five people, easy, have a conversation with each and every one of them to let them know what’s happening here, too. Here’s what’s happening. 

Ricky Baez  06:22
But if you have 1000s, like Google does 12,000, Meta 11,000, and Amazon 10,000, to do it in a relatively short amount of time. 

Ricky Baez  06:31
Yes, some things would have to be streamlined. So sometimes it does have to be Zoom. 

Ricky Baez  06:35
I mean, the company is laying people off, it’s not like they can afford to fly managers to lay off 12,000 people individually, or TAs, or other people to do it. So I let’s do it as efficiently and as humanely as possible, it’s got to be a good balance. 

Pete Newsome  06:52
Well from an HR perspective, you know, so I tend to be more personal with these things. It’s, it’s why I started my own business because I want it to be able to operate that way. 

Pete Newsome  07:02
But then there’s a practicality to it that I have with these 12,000 people. And isn’t there a risk? This is this is an HR question. 

Pete Newsome  07:12
So it’s for you to answer more than me because I probably violate certain HR. I know, I’ve made you the correct times, things that I am inclined to want to do because it just makes sense. Right? 

Pete Newsome  07:25
We will talk about those things right now. But sometimes what will get you sued is not necessarily what most people would find logical to say, at least not me. 

Pete Newsome  07:38
But is there a risk? If you don’t control the message if you allow managers, right, so it starts at the top? I mean, this was clearly a big decision. And one that was well thought out when Google made the decision, or any of these companies who are laying off significant numbers, who are big organizations. 

Pete Newsome  08:00
And that message has to be communicated to a large number of people. 

Pete Newsome  08:04
And so you know, just In Google’s case, there may be, what, five, six or more levels between the CEO, right, or the board of directors and the staff level folks who are getting laid off? 

Pete Newsome  08:17
And so, you know, it comes a telephone game thing, do you really want first-line frontline managers communicating that? Or is there a risk? 

Pete Newsome  08:26
You know, is there a risk associated with that for the company, someone’s saying the wrong thing, versus a blanket email, or one message, a one size fits all message?

Ricky Baez  08:36
And in that case, I’m gonna give an unpopular answer here, Pete. So here’s my answer to it. If blanket-wise, he is just holistically, if I have a manager that I cannot trust with this message, then I would ask why that manager is not on the list as well. Right? 

Ricky Baez  08:57
Because I would need I would think somebody in a leadership position would have wouldn’t have the skill set to deliver this message consistently from what everybody else is doing. 

Ricky Baez  09:10
But I hear what you’re saying not everybody is the same way. 

Ricky Baez  09:13
So there’s that balance then. Right? Because you don’t want to risk different information to go out. Right. And then people get different messages. 

Ricky Baez  09:20
At the same time, you don’t want to be too heartless and just send an email, a simple email, I think you send an email with the instructions to the managers, so the managers can deliver the same message to everybody.

Pete Newsome  09:32
Are you allowing the managers to go off script in this in this fictitious scenario? Or are you saying to read this verbatim? In which case is it really personal at all?

Ricky Baez  09:42
So I’m gonna give you the HR legal answer and I’m gonna give you the Ricky answer. 

Pete Newsome  09:46
Yeah because I’m surprised to hear you say this. I mean, it sounds nice, but just save if a manager will go ahead, and play it out. Because I want to, I don’t want to put words in your mouth.

Ricky Baez  09:57
So here’s the thing. 

Ricky Baez  09:58
So as an age, You’re a person who has to worry about, you know, legal issues and spending a lot of money with an attorney, you need to say the exact same thing, do not go off script, do not go away from a legal perspective. 

Ricky Baez  10:13
Now, I’m going to take that hat off, and I’m going to put the Ricky H and HR hat on. 

Ricky Baez  10:17
And say, what do you need to say, but try to say it in your own personal way as to later because that leader has that direct connection with the employees and for the employees.

Ricky Baez  10:27
If I’ve been working with this person for years, and my time, my relationship with this person is going to end with something that somebody typed into the chat GPT, put on a Word document, and print out for me to read.

Pete Newsome  10:41
had to sneak that in there, didn’t you? I have your favorite thing these days.

Ricky Baez  10:47
That is what I want for Christmas. Thanks, you know, but what I’m saying is, is that there needs to be balanced, there needs to be a balance, and I I’m not gonna lie, the times that I’ve had to do it, I have gone off script, I’ll say it and I have gone off script. 

Ricky Baez  11:01
Because this is somebody I spent a lot of time with, I spend 1/3 1/3 of my day with this person. Right? And I want to be able to, to really let them know how I feel about this. What needs to happen? So so long as the key things are hit. I’m good. 

Pete Newsome  11:18
Okay so let me separate the things you said you said it first. She said if a manager is unable to effectively communicate the message that needs to go out, then they should be part of the layoff too. 

Pete Newsome  11:33
And I know you said that somewhat, you know, tongue in cheek, you facetious Yeah, well, okay. 

Pete Newsome  11:38
But it’s a burden you’re putting on them too, or I’m not a burden, but it’s something that could potentially put the company at risk is my question, or is there anything they could say that would put the company at risk, because to your point, the manager who’s having to communicate the message.

Pete Newsome  11:56
And I’ve been part of that, more often than I’ve been part of that more times than I would like where we’re the messenger in the scenario of being in the staffing business where we get the call from, from a client, that is unexpectedly cutting someone for whatever reason, doesn’t matter what whether it’s, it’s, it’s a layoff scenario, or it’s just an individual where the budget was cut. 

Pete Newsome  12:21
And we’re not happy, it the word disappointed, we’re frustrated, we’re angry, to have to deliver the message. And so there’s this inherent risk of saying something out of emotion. 

Pete Newsome  12:36
Because you care about the person you’re delivering the message to. And, as we’ve talked about on this podcast before, anytime I’ve got a call from the individual there, they’re upset that it’s no one no one’s happy. 

Pete Newsome  12:50
It that sounds. I don’t mean to sound insincere by saying, Okay, well, the person who’s still employed, you know, they may not be happy, but they’re still getting a paycheck. But it’s still not a pleasant scenario for anyone. 

Pete Newsome  13:03
But like you said, there’s an age in HR of this for humans. So is there a risk, though, of putting this in the hands of individuals who, and saying, knowing that they’re going to go off script? There is a risk? What is that risk? I don’t know. What is it really? What could someone say?

Ricky Baez  13:28
I mean, a manager can go rogue in so many different ways. Right? And they do. 

Ricky Baez  13:36
Yeah, but I mean, I can, I’m gonna, I’m about to go extreme here, right? This is extreme, I’m not saying this is going to happen. 

Ricky Baez  13:41
The first thing that comes to mind, you know, if there’s a, you know, a Hispanic employee that’s being let go. 

Ricky Baez  13:47
And I’m a Hispanic manager that has to deliver this message. And I’m like, You know what, I don’t agree with this. I really think that targeting Hispanics, we need to get some things together.

Pete Newsome  13:55
So there you go. That’s a great example of managers should

Ricky Baez  13:59
not be having those conversations.

Pete Newsome  14:01
But you just said you wanted to allow them to? 

Ricky Baez  14:05
Well, here’s the thing now, this is in a great environment, unicorns and rainbows. 

Ricky Baez  14:12
If I put a manager if I put somebody in a leadership position, I have to trust them to have those kinds of conversations. 

Ricky Baez  14:19
And if for some reason, I have to divert my workflow for this person to somebody else, because I can’t trust they’re going to deliver. I have to question why I have that person there. 

Pete Newsome  14:30
Okay, but you, in this case, are the CEO of a Fortune 50 company the chief HR officer of a Fortune 50 company who has hundreds and hundreds of managers involved in this scenario, and you think you should trust all of them to not be emotional. 

Pete Newsome  14:46
I think that’s, I think that’s a risk. I think that would be considered irresponsible at the core at that corporate level. As crazy as that sounds. 

Ricky Baez  14:53
I don’t remember my caveat unicorns and rainbows because I know it’s not always that way. Well, I know they are awesome. 

Ricky Baez  14:59
Real good managers. So okay, so let me ask this. So what, let’s weigh out these risks, right? We are not confident enough in this special world, we’re not confident in leadership enough to deliver this message. 

Ricky Baez  15:13
So because of that, we’re going to go ahead and send this really generic email now, just to ensure everything’s consistent. 

Ricky Baez  15:21
The risk there is what we’re seeing right now all the stuff we’re seeing on social media and on on how people perceive that. 

Ricky Baez  15:29
So then you have the court of employment and labor law, then you also have the court of public opinion.

Pete Newsome  15:34
And that’s where there’s no when’s that? 

Pete Newsome  15:35
Right, that that’s that that’s where there’s no win, except one gets you sued, potentially, in and the other is just, look, I think there’s a reason why these guys are doing it in succession. 

Pete Newsome  15:50
You know, where that court of public opinion is easier to do to be shielded from when there’s a lot of you’re in company with a lot of others, right, where, you know, no one company stands out. 

Pete Newsome  16:05
So if one organization did it in a callous way, and it’s happened, I mean, we’ve seen, we’ve heard lots of examples over the past couple of years of, you know, a CEO getting on, I can’t remember the exact scenario, but it was one of the tech companies where the guy got on, got everyone on Zoom and made some really disingenuous statement.

Ricky Baez  16:23
I remember!

Pete Newsome  16:27
I don’t remember but then bailed and left everyone feeling really bad. And they got a lot of heat for it. Right, rightfully so. Except, every time this comes up, I think, what’s the right way to do it?

Pete Newsome  16:39
Because I’ve only had to make a decision like that or be involved in a decision like that, where I was able to have direct conversations with the individuals, or at least a direct conversation was had. 

Pete Newsome  16:50
And so that is the that’s the preferred way to do it. But I’ve not had to be in a situation to say, Okay, I have a public company, that I have a fiduciary responsibility to run properly. 

Pete Newsome  17:06
And could I make that decision at that moment? And I’m not, I’m not in their shoes. So I can’t say what the better thing is, but I know what they all do. 

Pete Newsome  17:16
So I’m guessing that the lawyers say, you know, we’re not going to put it in the hands of individuals to pass out one at a ton happening.

Ricky Baez  17:25
But Pete, I’ll tell you, when I’ll tell you one specific example, when I did about four years, five years ago at Sears Home Improvement now called Transform Corp, I can talk about it now. 

Ricky Baez  17:34
You know, I had a team of HR folks that reported to me, and we, we’ve known about this for three months, right? Because we have to be involved, we have to help with the process. 

Ricky Baez  17:44
Again, we work for everybody listening right now who maybe was impacted, who’s upset. It’s, I’m not trying to make her feel better. That’s what I’m, I’m trying to educate. 

Ricky Baez  17:54
So you understand what goes behind the sessions that come about, it doesn’t have, it doesn’t help. Emotionally, I completely understand that. 

Ricky Baez  18:04
But maybe a little bit of understanding of what other people go through. 

Ricky Baez  18:08
So here’s what happens three months prior, we have to go ahead and start thinking about you know, how to cut payroll, we never start with anybody that has a position ever, we always start with empty positions first and work our way up. 

Ricky Baez  18:23
Now, when I’ve done this over at SEO, self-improvement, I wanted to make sure every single person impacted somebody spoke with them, somebody had a conversation with them, then the paperwork comes out. 

Ricky Baez  18:36
So let me tell you, I had to fly some people to California, I had to fly some people over to Minnesota, and some people over to Texas HR people to go there and make sure all the managers have everything they need to have these conversations leading with emotion and empathy. 

Ricky Baez  18:53
First, a worked beautifully. Now, that was just 4000 employees. Right? Could you imagine 10-15 30,000 that’s when I’m thinking I understand if we go the Zoom routes, but I don’t know about an email. 

Pete Newsome  19:12
Yeah, this is perhaps a bad time to say what I’m going to say but I’ll do it anyway this is the finding career zen podcast and we are. 

Pete Newsome  19:24
We are part of we do this podcast in support of zengig.com which exists to help people find their careers then so to speak. And I don’t know that that’s a win-win when you think of a big company being who is at any given time. 

Pete Newsome  19:44
You as an employee of a large company your risk in this scenario, your fate, your financial well-being in many cases, and your professional success are tied to decisions like this and this is Why I think the freelance market is such a better way to operate? 

Pete Newsome  20:06
Because it’s I don’t, as I go down this path further and spend more time thinking about it, I often question why we have ended up in a situation where someone’s financial freedom and well-being and everything that’s tied to that, or that goes with that is so tied to an employer. 

Pete Newsome  20:33
And I don’t like it, right? No one likes it. But I think there’s a better way. And so I don’t want to talk too much about that right now. 

Pete Newsome  20:42
Because that’s not going to help a lot of people at the moment, you know, to make a decision to be a solopreneur, for example, or a freelancer? 

Pete Newsome  20:49
Yeah, I don’t know if you’ve heard the new solopreneur phrase that’s been used a lot lately, effectively. Yeah, it effectively is a way of a fancy way to describe taking an approach to freelance. 

Pete Newsome  21:02
But I don’t know that you should make those decisions on the fly if you need a paycheck, or you need to pay rent. But I think everyone going through this right now, the hundreds of 1000s, who have been laid off recently, should do what you have to do at the moment. 

Pete Newsome  21:21
But take the steps to not put yourself in this situation, you know, going forward, because as we see on LinkedIn right now, for those of us who spend time on it, my feed I don’t know about yours has been littered with people who were, who have been impacted many of them angry, frustrated, upset, sharing those things publicly. 

Pete Newsome  21:46
So we should talk about that a little bit. But a lot of stories are hard to read right now. 

Pete Newsome  21:53
And, you know, I’d rather avoid the problem than solve it isn’t for me and what I want to recommend to others. 

Pete Newsome  22:02
So that’s why we’re going to continue to promote the world of freelance you, you have chapped GPT, and I have the freelance way of operating to really control your own professional fate, more, more so than anything else. 

Pete Newsome  22:18
And so just everything that’s happened over the past few months just reiterates my, sort of my feelings.

Ricky Baez  22:25
I got a quick question for you. It’s got to do with this, but it will transition into what we are going to talk about. Now that you see this happening. 

Ricky Baez  22:33
It’s that snowball effect, it’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger. 

Ricky Baez  22:37
People are going to start really I’m going to anticipate people are going through and start realizing exactly what you just said, they’re going to realize, man, I can easily go on Uber Eats and Uber and Lyft and Instacart and all these different things. 

Ricky Baez  22:53
How far? How much? How, how much of a wave are we going to see of tenants and workers in the next three years? I think we’re gonna see, well wave and people who employ W2s. have to pay attention to that, though.

Pete Newsome  23:10
Do you think so? Yeah, well, there are so many. It’s multifaceted with that. And I’m not necessarily talking about going to work for Get a side gig or go. If you’re a software developer, or you’re a digital marketing professional, I’m not going to work as an Uber driver is a different route. 

Pete Newsome  23:31
I’m not talking about that. Now, again, for those people who are full-time, those roles seem to be a pretty good, pretty good deal, too. 

Pete Newsome  23:41
I mean, I love it, I love that you have the freedom, to choose your schedule to work when you want to. I mean, every time I’m in an Uber, I talk to the driver as much as I can. 

Pete Newsome  23:55
And I love the stories be they’re they all come from such a different places in terms of how they came to make that decision. And the ones that do it full-time. 

Pete Newsome  24:04
Seemed pretty happy to me. 

Pete Newsome  24:05
So I’m a fan of that. But what I’m specifically referring to in this case is someone who says, well, I’m not going to I could I could be an employee and have, my financial well-being tied to the whims of this organization, right or success of this organization and the 1000s of people or hundreds of people who work for it, who if they work for a big company. 

Pete Newsome  24:30
Or I can take control of my own destiny and work as a consultant as a freelancer and choose who I work for when I work for them how much I work for, you know all the things that are restrictive working for a big company go away when you work as a freelancer and again, that’s its own episode. 

Pete Newsome  24:54
It’s its own series, but it is just me More strengthens my conviction that it’s a better way to work.

Ricky Baez  25:03
Yep, I agree. It gets I’m experiencing it right now. To me, it is a really, it’s better way to work. And I’m an advocate now where before my God wants to each his own, but now I’m more of an advocate than I was before. 

Ricky Baez  25:16
But let’s see, I wasn’t P, let’s see, I wasn’t let’s say all I wanted to do is work, I wanted to work for a company, I don’t want to deal with solopreneur headaches, and I want to work for another organization. And I just got laid off, I’m mad, I’m upset. 

Ricky Baez  25:31
And I am, I got my phone in hand, taking top recording how upset I am about this organization that I’m stealing things on the way out.

Pete Newsome  25:40
You wanna, you want to get them back, you want exact some vengeance.

Ricky Baez  25:45
Dedicated five years of my life to this organization. And now they laid me off with an email and I’m really upset. And I want the whole world to know about it. That happens.

Pete Newsome  25:54
And then it’s happening right now. And well, let’s just say let me just say this, and then we’ll focus on your question. 

Pete Newsome  26:02
If you’re, if you’re content with the risk and happy to not have those headaches that you just referred to, by all means, that freelancing is not for everyone, right? 

Pete Newsome  26:11
There are pros and cons to every decision. So just know that. And as I’ve often said, even though I started my own business and quit my job to do it over 17 years ago now, it was only because I could I wasn’t content and happy if I had been I wouldn’t have. There were reasons I did it and it wasn’t. 

Pete Newsome  26:35
But man, there are a lot of pluses to letting someone else worry about everything. Instead of just worrying about yourself, you’re doing your job to the best of your ability. 

Pete Newsome  26:47
So that that is a whole different conversation. 

Pete Newsome  26:51
But um, yeah, so So what we’ve seen each of us have seen on LinkedIn in particular, some people expressing anger directed at their former employee and employer. That’s a that’s don’t do it. Right. I think that’s the short every week their podcast is over, let’s move on it. 

Pete Newsome  27:16
So the why you shouldn’t do it, I think is the relevant part. And it’s because it will follow you it will linger. We’ve spoken a lot about quiet quitting recently. 

Pete Newsome  27:27
And listen, this is also a pretend potentially unpopular statement. But if there was a list of people getting laid off, who do you think was at the top of the list? 

Pete Newsome  27:37
The ones who were doing the bare minimum at their job, if they’re happy, if there were 10 people in the same role are the ones who were doing the best they could, and in every scenario, I think we know the answer to that. 

Pete Newsome  27:49
So your actions will follow you and your words will follow you, especially if they’re made public on a social media channel.

Ricky Baez  27:59
So let me say this, because yes, it’s mine the end result is going to be don’t do that it is it that does not help you or anybody at all. Now, should you be angry, I do not want to say that, if you shouldn’t, you shouldn’t. 

Ricky Baez  28:15
But if you feel angry, if you feel that needs to happen, look, I understand I’ve been laid off before and I know how it feels. 

Ricky Baez  28:22
And I know that this big wave of emotions and it’s okay for you to experience them do what you need to do to reflect right because as a human being, you got to filter those emotions. 

Ricky Baez  28:34
But please do not let those emotions get the best of you. And because your emotions will go away. 

Ricky Baez  28:43
At some point and a day or so or a week or so or a month, everybody’s different. You’re gonna feel better about your situation. And who knows, sometimes people may see this as a wake-up call, they needed to do what they’re really passionate about. 

Ricky Baez  28:56
Those emotions will go away. But if you captured those emotions on video, that raw emotion is gonna be there tomorrow, next year. 20 years from now, when you’re looking to get that job, and you forgot about this. Somebody is going to bring that video up. Just don’t document Oh, man.

Pete Newsome  29:14
Did you see I mean, this is off-topic a little bit but it’s also a great case in point did you see the Pfizer video that was supposedly the supposed Pfizer, Research Director video that was on Twitter? Last couple of days? Yeah, I saw that. 

Pete Newsome  29:34
No, of course we have no way to know what was staged or not or how real it was. 

Pete Newsome  29:40
But if it’s real, here’s a guy who didn’t even know he was being recorded and was saying things about, you know, that was if they were, again, if it was anything that was real, it could have should have been assumed it was highly confidential and not to be repeated. 

Pete Newsome  29:59
You know that that’s all it takes, right if you say it or do it assume it’s going to be captured especially well if you maybe I shouldn’t assume that someone’s tape secretly recording you that’s its own thing. 

Ricky Baez  30:15
But that’s a trust breach there. 

Pete Newsome  30:16
So yeah, to say the least right? That’s just a mess. So who knows? I don’t know if it’s real.

Ricky Baez  30:23
That’s a good point. Pete, that’s a good point. Because although that is the first part is not what we’re talking about, now that he knows that the video is public, he has to answer to that for the rest of his career. 

Ricky Baez  30:35
Somebody’s gonna bring that up. Right. Now, obviously, he didn’t have any plan that we do. 

Ricky Baez  30:41
So for everybody out there, there’s, you know, recording their emotions, that’s going to come back later on choose do not. And this is what the laureates call digitally preserved, do not digitally preserve that emotion for it to be used against you later on. That’s it.

Pete Newsome  30:55
I didn’t know that phrase. That’s great. 
 

Pete Newsome  30:58
Well, I mean, I described it perfectly right? Yeah. So because someone is going to digitally preserve it on your behalf, that’s what we know, will be will happen. 

Pete Newsome  31:09
And when, when you’re on LinkedIn, you it’s okay to express that you’re disappointed. It’s okay to express that you’re, you’re anxious and eager to find your next role and that you’re highly motivated, and that, you know that those things are fine to do. And, you know, LinkedIn is an interesting place. 

Pete Newsome  31:37
You have different people with different perspectives I think that’s probably the thing we should focus on in this context. Because if someone’s going on Twitter, or Tiktok, in expressing it, there’s not going to be any upside to you probably know, you, no one’s getting hired, because they make a TikTok video. 

Pete Newsome  31:56
And, of course, there are exceptions, weird ones out there that any today anything, anyone get hired for anything, and it could go viral, and all that means, of course, all those opportunities exist. 

Pete Newsome  32:07
All we’re talking about is that for the vast majority of cases, no, you can’t make a TikTok video saying you need a job and expect to get one right, that would not be the path that we would recommend. 

Pete Newsome  32:20
LinkedIn is really the social channel that exists for these things. And, you know, in the not-too-distant past, LinkedIn was really a place where you didn’t see personal information shared. 

Pete Newsome  32:33
And that’s, that’s evolved, I think, probably around the time COVID head, I don’t know if one had anything to do with the other. But I don’t know what your thought is on that. But we’ve seen it become you’re much more personal in nature over the past few years.

Ricky Baez  32:46
I have I, which I’m okay with, for LinkedIn. But when you start going from professional, personal professional Facebook, vast one that turns me off.

Pete Newsome  33:00
Well, where do you draw that line? Right? Do you know, do cat videos, for example, big hit on Facebook, you wouldn’t have seen those on LinkedIn. 

Pete Newsome  33:11
A couple of years ago, now it’s commonplace, or people celebrating milestones in their life personal things, you know, tragedies, successes, milestones, anniversaries, graduations? 

Pete Newsome  33:25
I mean, there are a lot of it’s it’s common now somewhat calm. And I don’t know if people will use it to pull people into their personal lives. And I, I, here’s what I know. It gets some attention.

Ricky Baez  33:42
It does. And it’s, they’re succeeding in their goal of being noticed. Right? And I guess if your goal is to be noticed that the question is why you want to be noticed, that you want it to be noticed because you had that success? Do you want to be noticed? 

Ricky Baez  33:57
Because you just finished this project you want to be noticed, because you’re always arguing with people online? How do you want to be noticed? And in LinkedIn, there’s only one answer to that. 

Ricky Baez  34:07
You want to be noticed professionally, you went to people to see who you are professional. And I’m starting to see that on LinkedIn. That’s, that’s starting to be chipped away. 

Ricky Baez  34:15
It’s not gonna go away anytime soon. But I agree with you. It’s starting to become less professional, and more humanistic. And I wanted to stop there.

Pete Newsome  34:23
But I don’t think it’s going to.

Ricky Baez  34:26
Unfortunately, you’re correct. 

Pete Newsome  34:28
Well I mean, why? Why do you say it’s unfortunate?

Ricky Baez  34:31
Because here’s the thing, if this continues, right, the more the younger generation goes online, the more they want to share because that’s how they know how to express themselves. You and I express ourselves differently. 

Ricky Baez  34:45
Because we remember an era when this technology didn’t exist. They don’t know an era with this technology did not exist. So they grow up with it. So that’s gonna keep happening. 

Ricky Baez  34:56
So I’m thinking what’s gonna end up happening in about 10 yours, we’re not going to be able to distinguish LinkedIn from Facebook, I faced I agree was trying to get in the the the job game and sales, there’s going to be a point they’re going to be one in the same Amen. 

Ricky Baez  35:12
And that’s why I’m like, to me, it’s unfortunate because LinkedIn was a place where you don’t have to filter all the other stuff to get the information of the people you’re looking for.

Pete Newsome  35:23
So here, here’s my take on it as a recruiter mindset. And it’s also a tale of caution, perhaps for anyone who’s, who may need LinkedIn to promote themselves for a job or their business, whatever it might be. 

Pete Newsome  35:41
What people post tells you who they are, and it speaks to what they value, it speaks to how they approach business, and it speaks to their decision making good or bad. 

Pete Newsome  35:53
So if, as it as a recruiter, I want all of that information, right? 

Pete Newsome  36:00
Because if you’re putting something out there, that is showing the world, you’re not the best decision-maker in terms of what you should hold back on and what you should make public. Well, then that’s who you are, and from a background standpoint, who you are, is going to translate over into what kind of employee you are. 

Pete Newsome  36:22
And so, again, as a recruiter, if I see that someone has his bachelor’s former employer, well, I’m going to assume that they’ll do it again, right? 

Pete Newsome  36:33
Maybe they will, maybe they won’t, but it’s on me to look at what someone’s done in the past and assess that and decide whether they’re going to be a good employee, for our client. 

Pete Newsome  36:44
And so that’s why we’re talking about this. Now, as much as anything else is to say, You shouldn’t do that. 

Pete Newsome  36:53
You like, it’s going to be used against you whether you think it should be or not, and it’s subtle, you’ll never know, you’ll just use won’t get the call. 

Pete Newsome  37:03
So the but but but I like but on the other hand, I go, I want to know who people are, right? 

Pete Newsome  37:10
I want to see who they are. And in some scenarios, you could make a case that people who are very personally engaging in that, there are roles that are going to be good for them, and it may help them get a job. 

Pete Newsome  37:25
So it’s interesting because it’s evolving as we speak, right? 

Pete Newsome  37:32
And everyone sort of has their own unique view. I mean, if you see a personal post that goes viral to any degree, you’ll see half the I’m making this up, of course, but it seems like half the people are saying this, LinkedIn is not a place for this and the other half argue and say LinkedIn is a place for whatever we want it to be. 

Pete Newsome  37:50
And so but again, all 1000 comments, all of these things are data points to tell you who someone is and how they view things, right?

Ricky Baez  37:59
Yeah, cuz I’ve seen those two, because I’m like, wow, these comments are in the four digits.

Pete Newsome  38:05
That’s right. Are you going to be Are you someone who will argue publicly? Right. And as an employee or employer, you have to consider do I want, that person. 

Pete Newsome  38:16
I find that? I’m not surprised because I’m used to it now. 

Pete Newsome  38:21
But I find it curious how willing people are to argue publicly on social media, whether it’s Facebook or LinkedIn, and, you know, it’s, there’s a Facebook group for my local community, that’s large, you’re probably part of it, too, even though you don’t live on my part of town. 

Pete Newsome  38:46
And, and, and people will get into fights regularly with strangers about innocuous things. It doesn’t make any sense to me. But I know who they are. 

Pete Newsome  38:58
Once I see. Like, okay, this is and if you did it to them, you’ll do it to me, right? And if you bash your employer, publicly, well, you’re gonna bash the next one. That’s why it’s a bad idea.

Ricky Baez  39:11
So, so I see your point because I was looking at it from the employee’s perspective, the candidate’s perspective, but you’re right, from a recruiter’s perspective, I want to know who I’m trusting to bring into this organization into this circle. I’d rather see her right now. 

Ricky Baez  39:27
Now with these videos. So let’s stick to LinkedIn for a second with these videos. Yes, don’t do anything negative. But this is a double-edged sword. 

Ricky Baez  39:37
You can also do something positive to help you after a layoff. Whatever. Now, after you’ve done your reflection, you’ve gotten all your emotions out of the way and you’re a little bit more focused, now it’s time to get noticed on LinkedIn. 

Ricky Baez  39:51
So use that video to put one minute a minute, 90 seconds 92nd video on LinkedIn about anything You are passionate about just start talking about anything you’re passionate about. start tagging people. 

Ricky Baez  40:04
Let people know you’re looking. Extend your network, use that to your advantage that will never hurt you. Now, wait

Pete Newsome  40:12
a minute, wait a minute. I want to make sure you’re not being inconsistent here. When you say anything you’re passionate about. If you’re passionate about cats, are you suggesting someone make that video?

Ricky Baez  40:24
Okay, thank you for checking me, I appreciate it. Whatever you’re passionate about when it comes to your career, right? So I’m passionate about training and development. 

Ricky Baez  40:32
I’m passionate about the employee experience. I want to do videos on that and help people out if I show my passion that’s gonna resonate with somebody. 

Ricky Baez  40:41
My passion for cats, or lack thereof. I save that for Facebook. Okay, that yeah, that doesn’t. You see, you know, my passion for steaks and grilling on Facebook. Right. I don’t put any of that on LinkedIn.

Pete Newsome  40:53
Well, and so but do you think that were you in the camp of that’s not what LinkedIn is for? Is that are you in that camp?

Pete Newsome  41:07
For which part for the personal sort of sharing the personal stuff.

Ricky Baez  41:10
I’m to a point.

Ricky Baez  41:12
If you’re showing me your human side, professionally, I’m okay with that because I don’t want to see you as a number. I want to see you as Bob as Mike as Susan who loves or hates the Jaguars, whatever. But I still want to see it. 

Ricky Baez  41:29
But your opinions on anything religious or political have got nothing to do with the work. I don’t want to see that. I’d like them a cat or a dog. And I don’t want to see that on LinkedIn.

Pete Newsome  41:40
Okay, so you’re you’re in the keeping, you’re in the keep it business camp. 

Ricky Baez  41:45
Keep it. Business. What a little human touch, but don’t go too far with it.

Pete Newsome  41:49
Okay. But I guess the point is, everyone has their own unique way of defining that and perceiving it, but regardless, don’t be negative. Right? I think we can. Everyone should agree on that. 

Pete Newsome  42:02
And it happens a lot. And I saw a post, I think even yesterday that I thought was was was really good. And it was shared a lot and seemed to get a lot of attention. 

Pete Newsome  42:13
They said, Look, you’re emotional, you’re upset, fine. 

Pete Newsome  42:17
Make two posts that say you make that one. But then flip it, did you see this, and then focus on here’s what I need, here’s what I want, here’s what I’m looking for, here’s the value I can bring to the next organization. 

Pete Newsome  42:30
So get that behind you if you must write your emotions, but then focus on getting your next opportunity. And I thought that was really good. Right. But I mean, because it makes sense.

Ricky Baez  42:44
It’s don’t ignore the human side. Don’t ignore the emotion. Don’t bottle that up. You know, it’s because if you get that new job, you don’t want to explore there. 

Ricky Baez  42:53
Right, it’s explored, has explored at home and in a safe space where everybody’s safe that you get to do what you need to do. But yeah, I saw that. Ironically enough. I saw that on LinkedIn. Yeah,

Pete Newsome  43:04
that’s where it was. So good. So, someone, someone put out a good message. So and what’s neat right now, and I think we’ve once again, always get to a point where I think we’ve hit this from every angle, right? 

Pete Newsome  43:16
But that, you know, people are helping each other. 

Pete Newsome  43:19
That’s what even people who are looking for jobs see helping others out there. It’s the community effect is been a really cool thing to see. 

Pete Newsome  43:30
While there are so many bad stories going out there that others are really helping people who they don’t know and strangers and for no reason other than that they want to and it’s the right thing to do. 

Pete Newsome  43:42
So I think that’s been a real positive of this otherwise really, really gloomy situation. And then also, as a reminder, the market is still historically good that that’s we don’t know what the future holds. 

Pete Newsome  43:58
And we’re, we have some concerns about the trend. But right now, it’s still good. So don’t get too distracted by the bad that’s happened, folks. 

Pete Newsome  44:08
Look, look forward and make a plan. You need to take 24 hours to get it out of you get the frustration and disappointment out of the way do it. 

Pete Newsome  44:19
But then you gotta look forward as quickly as possible because lingering on what just happened isn’t going to help solve the problem. I think that’s the message I would want to deliver more than anything else.

Ricky Baez  44:29
And I cannot I it’s you said it perfectly. It’ll be okay. That same drive that got you that job before. It’ll get it for you again.

Pete Newsome  44:44
So yeah, except for the Pfizer guy might not be okay.

Ricky Baez  44:46
They won’t know that’s not

Pete Newsome  44:48
every all these up. I’m hoping he’s an actor. It was. It was because otherwise, it’s not. It’s not anybody else.

Ricky Baez  44:55
It’s gonna be okay. I know what this would feel like. Like, go through those emotions. As in trust me, you’re going to be alright. 

Ricky Baez  45:01
Now that said, Pete, I think this is a good idea to put this out there. Would you be okay and taking questions or maybe comments later on from somebody who’s just going through those and experiencing those, and maybe come on the show live and talk to us? Absolutely open to that. 

Ricky Baez  45:19
Alright, so find us at which email, can they email us?

Pete Newsome  45:27
At [email protected], how to make sure I get that right? So go ahead and email us and if you want to appear, we can even do that one of those confidential interviews they do on TV, we’ll have the dark room disguise your voice. 

Ricky Baez  45:44
But we would love to hear from you because we want to see how you experienced this and how we can help you live on the air. So [email protected]

Pete Newsome  45:53
Great, Ricky, anything else? Any big plans for the weekend? 

Ricky Baez  45:58
You know what, today is this Friday. So as soon as I’m done here, I got one more meaning that I’m gonna go to Publix. I’m gonna give you a nice ribeye steak. And guess what I’m going to do with that stick there. 

Pete Newsome  46:07
I assume you’re going to eat it eventually.

Ricky Baez  46:10
Well, we’ll eventually because I’m going to throw that bad boy on the grill with some fixings and you’re gonna get endless supplies of pictures of it later on tonight.

Pete Newsome  46:18
Perfect. Well, I look forward. I look forward to that. Awesome, so great. Alright, Ricky. Well, thanks so much again today. 

Pete Newsome  46:28
We appreciate your insight, as always, and if anyone out there have questions for us, we really do want to hear from you. 

Pete Newsome  46:35
And we will address them. I think we have some piling up and so a q&a is probably due maybe as soon as next week. So stay tuned for that too and drive safe. Thanks for listening. Have a good one.