A Good Lay Off

Your recent lay off might be a good thing.

Here in Silicon Valley, the recession has a different face than in Manhattan or Detroit. Our panic is more genteel, softened by balmy California weather, a laid-back attitude, and, OK, the fact that we haven’t had a local industry completely implode. Nonetheless, the meltdown is quite real.

Personal bankruptcies and foreclosures are as high here as in the rest of the country, and established companies are cutting way back on hiring. The Valley lost nearly 10,000 tech jobs in the past year, according to the state’s Employment Development Department, and the trend is expected to continue. If you work in the Valley today, you’re likely as fearful of losing your job as anyone else.

But you need to get over that. In fact, getting fired just might be a good thing.

Here’s why: Valley culture has an unwritten rule that if you don’t like a job, or if you think your company isn’t going anywhere, you leave. Instead of hanging around the office whining, you walk out the door and find something better and cooler to do. Because skilled tech workers are hard to find and interesting companies abound, employees, not employers, call the shots. This was true at Apple in 1984, and it’s still true at Facebook today.

Read the whole thing: Wired Magazine, Paul Boutin, Laid Off? It’s Good for You and Good for the Tech Industry