By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

"When I got that invitation to join some people in the conference room, I knew what was coming."

With those words, Douglas Capell describes the Friday morning last January when his job as a senior human-resources manager at Trek Inc. in Medina was outsourced. After 28 years with the company, Capell suddenly found himself unemployed.

As the recession deepens, he is far from alone.

The numbers are staggering: 5.1 million Americans have lost their jobs since December 2007. Along with the job losses have come foreclosures, bankruptcy and divorce, at alarmingly high levels. Many Americans who were struggling to get by before are now faced with the prospect of joining a growing pool of job seekers fighting for a shrinking number of available positions. People like Capell who haven't updated their résumé or been interviewed in decades must now sell themselves to prospective employers who are flooded with applicants.

The financial implications are well-documented, but what about the emotional fallout from losing a job? How does the baggage that comes with sudden job loss affect an employee's ability to secure a new job?

Capell is uniquely qualified to speak on both sides of the issue. Though he was on the receiving end of that invitation to the board room, he had been the one sitting across the table many times in the past.

"Delivering the message (of a layoff) is probably one of the toughest jobs there is," he said. "In my role, I may have had to make a big sales pitch to get someone to come on board - and then I may be laying that same person off because of the economic situation we are in."

How an employer handles a downsizing, says Lewis Forti, who spent 25 years as a clinical psychologist, can have a huge impact on the employee's ability to process what is happening.

"There are a lot of factors that will determine how an employee handles a job loss," he said. "Everybody walks into a situation with their own history and personality, and that doesn't change, but how the employer delivers the news is critical."

Forti said that while the employer has a responsibility to look out for the emotional well-being of those it is letting go, the responsibility to bounce back falls to the employee.

"There is a natural feeling of being upset, asking ‘Why me? How come they let me go and not someone else?' " he said.

Like Capell, Forti has experience on both sides of the fence: He left his clinical practice over a decade ago to work for Independent Health, and after 12 years with the health-care insurer, he was recently let go.

"I had to make a choice. I could be bitter or I could have gratitude for all of the years that they gave me," he said. Forti advises others who find themselves out of work and struggling emotionally to try to take the latter approach.

"A lot of it is going to depend on how resilient they are and how well they have dealt with adversity in the past," he said. "For certain people, their job has been their whole life, and it can be devastating."

Capell, the recently unemployed HR manager, said the challenges of job hunting after being with one company for so long can take a mental toll. The idea of going on a job interview gives him butterflies at times, and he knows he is fighting some tough odds as he seeks to re-enter the workforce.

"I haven't (been interviewed) in so long, and coming from HR, I know I need to nail the questions in order to get to the next stage of the interview," he said.

Many companies are retaining the services of outplacement agencies to assist workers in job transitions.

Dottie Austin and Mark Weigel, principals of Career Partners International in Williamsville, work with displaced workers from all levels and offer them training, support and education geared toward securing employment.

The company works with employees to address the emotional hurdles they face before going back out into the job market through classes, group workshops and seminars.

"When they come here, they have been through a lot, and we need to help them get ready to resume their careers," said Austin.

Weigel said many companies include the provision of outplacement services in their employee contracts.

"We have seven private offices, and our clients can contract those out so the executive has a place to come each day," Weigel said. Just being able to leave the house and be around other people in similar circumstances, he said, can be a huge boost to an employee who has been recently let go.

He and Austin see the morale issue - the psychology behind job loss - as a critical issue that needs to be addressed if their clients are going to land on their feet.

"There is an emotional side of a job loss for everyone we work with," Austin said. "But I think for employees who were with the company for 10, 15, 20 years, it is even worse."