Laid-Off: 4 Reasons to Ask Your Former Employer to Pay for Your Career HMO Membership

This week, 600 people were laid-off from Yahoo. Massive lay-offs, especially during the holidays, are bad. They hurt a company’s reputation and put a lot of hard-working people out on the street at a terrible time. Sometimes, the company will offer a severance package or outplacement services…and sometimes they don’t. If you fall in the latter, I’d suggest you ask your employer to at least pay for a year’s membership to a Career HMO. Here’s why:

1. It costs them $49 to sign you up, and only $9/month after that. So, for less than $150, they can set you up with a career coaching service for a full year that will focus on helping you find a new job. Given the average length of unemployment is 7+ months in America, it really is the least they can do, don’t you think?
2. It helps off-set the bad publicity. Instead of spending the first few weeks telling all your friends and family how bad your former employer is (not the kind of word-of-mouth branding the company wants), the Career HMO will guide you and motivate you to want to find a new employer. In fact, it will prove to you getting laid off is enabling you to finally approach your career in a way that will let you find greater professional satisfaction. You might even end up being grateful to your employer for letting you go.
3. It’s an expense to the company, so they can write it off.
4. Getting help with your job search from proven experts will shorten the time you spend collecting unemployment. Translation: The company could save a bundle.

So, if you are getting laid-off, don’t be afraid to ask for a Career HMO membership. Send your HR Manager to CAREEREALISM Club [www.careerealismclub.com]. If they don’t do the right thing and sign you up, then consider joining anyways. We’d love to help you find a fabulous new job with a better employer. Besides, since we are a job search expense, you can write the subscription off on your taxes! Photo credit: Shutterstock