Like many others during this great recession, Susan was laid off when her firm downsized hundreds of employees in 2009. Susan was devastated [Bridges’ Letting Go phase]. While she was not totally surprised by the downsizing—as a senior executive she was aware of the financial hit the company had taken over the last two years—she held out hope that she would not be impacted because of her contributions and performance to the firm. She was wrong. She did receive a decent severance package and outplacement service, which eased the pain a bit. However, she was quite aware that some of her colleagues from the advertising industry, who had lost their jobs months ago, still had not had a single interview. Susan knew that she would be out of work for quite awhile and may have to consider career alternatives in order to sustain the family’s quality of living and college tuition fees. For awhile, Susan was very angry and the anger was directed at several people—her former boss, her former company, her husband, her children, and herself [Kubler-Ross’s Anger stage].

Fourteen months after losing her job, Susan is still unemployed and no longer receiving her state unemployment benefit [Bridges’ Neutral Zone]. She has been fortunate enough to land a couple of consulting projects during the last year which brought in a little income, and she continues to market herself as a consultant to the advertising industry although these types of engagements are very limited because of the slow economic recovery [Hudson’s Mini-Transition]. Many of her colleagues are doing the same, so the competition for any consulting or contract work is as high as the competition of a full-time job opening. Susan fears that her age is having a negative impact on her reemployment. With her success came a high salary and employers know that they can hire someone 20 years younger than Susan for a much lower compensation package.

The situation is tense at home. The family auto business is holding steady, yet Susan’s husband is feeling the pressure of being the sole income provider. At Susan’s suggestion, he laid off two of his workers and is working longer hours himself to increase the profit of the business to help with the tuition payments. The children are also tense. One is considering leaving college to work full time to help the family. Susan is adamant that she does not want him to quit college, yet the final decision is out of her control. Their junior in high school, the only daughter, has been acting out. An average student, her grades are now slipping, and she often stays out all night, preferring not to be around Susan who she sees as increasingly depressed and anxious. Susan’s reaction to her daughter’s change in behavior varies from ignorance to anger. In fact, Susan is both depressed and anxious. Her physical appearance has changed over the last year. She shows accelerated signs of aging (much like world leaders show rapid aging signs during high tension political times such as war). She has started smoking again after 15 years and is exercising less, even though she has more time to devote to her fitness. It would appear that Susan is on a downward spiral and her spiral is the catalyst for uninvited dysfunctional “guests” into her once vital family [Hudson’s Doldrums; Bridges’ Neutral Zone; Kubler-Ross’s Depression stage.]