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Slate Books

How To!: The Upside of Uncertainty

Slate Books

Slate Podcasts

Arts

3.8546 Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Trish first started working in corporate recruiting, she had wonderful co-workers, a supportive manager, opportunities for growth—it was “bliss.” But the bliss evaporated in 2020 when she got laid off during the pandemic. She’s since found a different job in the same field, but also decided to try her hand at teaching pilates part-time. Now, after burning the candle at both ends, Trish is burned out and unsure of the best path forward. On this episode of How To!, we bring on Nathan and Susannah Furr, authors of The Upside of Uncertainty. They have some useful tools to help Trish—and all of us—find our footing in uncertain times.  If you liked this episode, check out: “How To Bounce Back From Burnout” and “How To Advance Your Career by Quitting Your Job.” Do you have a question without an answer? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work. Thanks Avast.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Whether uncertainty is rising or falling, there's a lot of it, and very few of us have been taught the tools to deal with that uncertainty.

0:09.7

And when we don't have tools, we tend to fall into bad patterns.

0:14.6

But when we have tools, we can face it with greater courage and resilience.

0:21.6

Welcome to how to. I'm Amanda Ripley.

0:24.6

So last year, nearly 50 million Americans quit their jobs.

0:30.6

An unprecedented exodus.

0:32.6

They left in search of something.

0:35.6

Better pay, better hours, more interesting work, or maybe just more

0:40.1

respect. But what has happened since? Did they get what they wanted? As our listener this

0:48.5

week learned the hard way, taking a new job is always a gamble. I'm Trish. I have been working in the staffing and recruiting

0:57.0

world for about five years now. Trish isn't her real name, but she asked us if she could use a pseudonym

1:03.8

because she's in kind of a tricky situation now, as you'll hear, but it wasn't always that way.

1:10.7

At her first real job out of college, Trish had an

1:13.2

awesome manager who was super supportive. In her original email to us, she actually described

1:18.1

that experience as bliss. The culture, my coworkers, like, that was great. I had a sense of purpose.

1:24.7

I was getting my annual promotions and raises and just like checking all those boxes.

1:30.1

But then came the pandemic and all the boxes blew up, along with her amazing boss, Trish got laid off.

1:38.3

And even though she actually got rehired again three months later, it's really hard to get over

1:43.7

the sting of being let go.

1:45.5

And her old boss never returned. So Trish made her first bet, a modest one, quitting her job

1:53.6

for another job in the same industry. So I took that leap. And unfortunately, it just wasn't a

1:59.5

great fit for me. I did not love the company

...

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