We All Have Had A Bear Stearns Bounce

For the employees of Bear Stearns, news of the company’s demise is as bad as it can get.  Of the more than 14,000 people on the payroll, most expect to be laid off soon, with no prospects for other jobs.  In addition to the unemployment issue that they face, many employees took huge hits to their investment portfolios due to the plummeting of the company’s stock value.  So, with jobs that are about to disappear and savings that have evaporated, what should they do now in order to survive, especially in these precarious financial times? In fact, the financial and emotional uncertainty of being unemployed is a scenario which countless people have faced as companies continue to merge and reduce costs. We need to Bounce!

We need to remember that our careers are not linear.  Things occur unexpectedly and bad times happen. Life long employment is dead. We all face major shifts in careers and financial health, through this crisis. It is fine to grieve disappointments, even wallow for a bit in the grief for a day or two, if you need to, but eventually, we have to bounce and make another decision to get us to a new place.  Only by taking action, to we have the opportunity to get on a new path.