“Up in the Air” – The Movie
If you haven’t yet, you must see George Clooney’s movie “Up in the Air” – the story about a charming corporate road-warrior hired by spineless managers to fire their employees.
I saw it last weekend and as someone who spent 18 years witnessing thousands of people lose their jobs it was very hard to watch and riveting at the same time.
When it comes to the polished corporate message of job loss coupled with the employee’s deeply personal reaction as the news gradually sinks in, it was text book. And it was brutal.
The small touches made me catch my breath: the last minute change-of-plan crisis in the parking lot, cowering employees when the corporate terminators walked in the door and the near-empty offices decimated by waves of previous layoffs. I had seen it all before and it still hurt.
Director Jason Reitman (who also directed the Oscar-winning movie Juno) pulled no punches by adding interviews of actual victims of job loss describing their experience of being let go and out of work. As I watched the clips I knew in the moment they were actual people telling their first-hand and painful accounts. It couldn’t be an act, it was far too real.
My old colleagues at DBM, the outplacement firm where I spent 18 years, are quick to point out that outplacement companies never actually deliver the message and hand people their severance packages. That rotten job is typically handled by the manager and the employer’s human resources staff who then pass the disoriented employees to outplacement counselors.
But outplacement companies do train managers on how to deliver the message, plan notification logistics and help write notification scripts. Unfortunately, not all of my client companies were smart enough to ask for help with the tricky and sensitive notifications. I have seen some seriously botched separations during my career.
Some have suggested that on-line webcam notifications as portrayed by the movie would never happen.
Wanna bet? I have killed more than once that specific bright idea proposed by thoughtless managers in technology companies. Notifications over the phone, email and even via fax are common practice for companies too callused, too cheap or too spineless to care.
More importantly though the movie was a metaphor about being cut off from the ties that bind. Clooney’s character had successfully freed himself of all of the baggage of relationships and home. He only realizes what was lost when he too is set “up in the air” by being grounded when his job and life are disrupted by his company’s drive for better margins.
This modern parable of the polished brutality of corporate downsizing and a road warrior’s life surrounded by the paid sincereity of customer service agents , tells us the true ties that bind – home and the people we love – are what keep us grounded.
While some of the scenes might feel too personal for someone who has lost their job, this is a worthwhile movie. And if you were cut free from your job and your career is up in the air, take the message to heart. Stay connected to those who really count.
Tags: lay offs, self improvement, unemployment
This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 11:15 am and is filed under Blog, self-help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I was notified by telephone the week of Thanksgiving, 2009, while I was on vacation. A webcam layoff would have been a step up.