My heart is breaking for all of those hurting across Israel & Gaza today. I’m praying that your families are safe, stay safe, and for a fast resolution to the conflict.

Baseball started the post-season this week, and it has some striking similarities for folks who’ve been laid off several weeks (or more). The stakes continue to increase, the losses are more crushing, and it has to end eventually. Personally, the long-term job search continues even as I balance a consulting job and an equity-only (for now) startup role. It is a bit of short-term relief and a chance to grow some skills, which is good but takes up a lot of time that would otherwise be spent networking and job searching. It’s still a balancing act, as I don’t see myself staying a long-term consultant. 

Just like in baseball, we’re all just trying to get home. We’re trying to find the next great job we can lean into, which will reward us for our hard work. My job search strategy has been like my favorite baseball strategy: small ball. Rather than swinging for the fences and hoping for a home run (or a strikeout) every time, my goal has been to have lots of things going simultaneously. Networking with laid-off coworkers and those currently working to stay aware of opportunities. Job searches on LinkedIn, Indeed, Otta, Google, and more each day. Applying to roles quickly after finding them. Polishing my resume. Each of these things feels like a single, a swing, or a bunt. Enough to keep momentum going to find the next role. 

The consulting, the startup, and the training course I’m developing are more like home run swings. They have the chance to dramatically change the course of the next few years of my career. But I’m not banking on them (yet). They’re enabling me to develop new skills while I keep the job search running. 

Post-Season Blues

3X more mentions of reassignment (or similar terms) in earnings calls year over year (signs of companies quiet cutting) source

Round 2+ of layoffs for some tech companies are showing some traction (Meta, Amazon/Twitch, Block, and others are named) source

300,000+ people laid off in the last 12 months, but tech employment is still above the pre-pandemic trendline source

Post-Season Parties

I missed this when it came out in June, but some laid-off people have taken to throwing parties to celebrate, commiserate, reconnect, and enjoy life in general (7 min read). This sounds like a ton of fun, and while I’m late to the game, having a small get-together sounds very cathartic. Let me know if you’re in the Austin area and up for a small soiree sometime, and I’ll see what I can do. At the very least, it’s an excuse to get out and drink with a few friends for an evening.

Playoff Level Loyalty is Earned Through Change Management

One of the biggest accomplishments I had the privilege of taking part in while at Indeed was rolling out updates to the performance management system for all of Product, Technology, and Engineering (approximately 4,000 people.) I could speak at length about the design and implementation of performance management systems, but I wanted to spend a few words on change management today. Performance management affects promotions, bonuses, compensation, and much more, so getting the communication right on the change was critical. I’ll dive deeper into this topic in a future post, but here’s the headline version on general concepts for change management.

The first thing you must clarify is the purpose of the change. If leadership is unclear on the “why,” there’s a significant risk of losing steam, going off the rails, or a million other failure scenarios. Writing down the goals and the non-goals and wrestling with leaders’ concerns will drive clarity and alignment on the purpose.

Once the vision and motivation are locked in, it’s time to plan and execute the communication. This is the time to think about “tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them.” Multiple communications, in multiple formats, and from multiple leaders will be necessary (of course, depending on the size of the team and change.) 

Lastly, you’ve got to lock in the people side of the change. You’ll have promoters and detractors. Getting ahead of the detractors and working closely with them to resolve or reduce their concerns helps speed the transition. Identifying your promoters and keeping them aligned with the goals and communication amplifies your message and reduces the workload of your leadership team. Lastly, empowering managers throughout your organization to answer questions, share the messages, and execute the change cements the change as the “new normal.”

Getting the purpose, communication, and people right in change management gives you the best chance of successfully rolling out organizational change and growing the trust and loyalty of your team.

Fun

Final Words

If I can help with your search, please contact me. Please give me feedback on what you like or don’t care for in this newsletter, and I’ll adjust. For total transparency, I have no affiliation with any of the tools, companies, or resources I share. These are my impressions, not colored by any outside influences.