Help! My Company Swiped Left! Has Now Been Published

Help! My Company Swiped Left! is the latest book from Jill L. Ferguson and Laura C. Browne, and the book came about due to the increase in clients who had recently been laid off both women were coaching through their businesses. Ferguson and Browne understand that work and corporate America can  be brutal, and that companies who claim "everyone is a family" really don't care about their employees  and are mainly focused on the bottom line. Ferguson and Browne have both been in career situations that were precarious at best and toxic at their worst. They used this experience to write a sometimes snarky but always informative and helpful short read for anyone who has just experienced a lay-off, been furloughed, or been fired. 

Check out the beginning of book's introduction to see if this book is for you:

"WELCOME TO THIS BOOK. If the title made you laugh r cringe or coil in fear, you may be in the right place. We ve in a time when companies, like people, aren’t very oyal. They expect a lot from those who receive their direct eposited paychecks, and at the first sign of trouble, they may look for people and places to cut. Just as some people ee relationships at the first bit of rockiness, companies may dump individual contributors, whole departments or ivisions, and/or the bottom percentage of its salesforce at any given time.

And when your company breaks up with you, it hurts. It hurts a lot. And you may wonder, was it me? Or was it them?
We’re here to help you navigate through the unknown and the difficult times. And why, you may wonder. Well, we’ve been there. Laura has spent many years in corporate human resources and was let go unexpectedly twice, including one time when she was laid off by a manager who left her a brief voicemail saying her job was eliminated and that was her last day. This was only slightly better than being broken up with over text or social media. But it still stung. Rejection of any kind is painful. And somehow when the person dumping you lacks the cojones to tell you to your face, the rejection feels worse. It’s like you aren’t important enough for them to make the time.

Jill’s experience came in her 20s, during a high level job that ended when it was discovered that the past executive stole and laundered money through the organization and created such a complicated mess that the nonprofit was forced to close its doors forever. The ex-exec was sent to federal prison in Texas, while the people she left behind at the company were out of their jobs.

Regardless of how it happens to you or under what circumstances, suddenly losing your job sucks. It makes you question life, what you could have done differently, your value as a worker and a person of knowledge and action, and sometimes even your worth.

Having your company swipe left can invoke a serious pity party. But before we break out too many Kleenex, pints of ice cream, or drink too much wine or hard seltzer, let’s figure out a way to make the best of a shitty situation.

​Take a deep, cleansing breath. Repeat: it’s those mo- fos and not me. It’s those mo-fos and not me. It’s those mo-fos and not me. And read on."