Katy Dickinson

After the RIF notice, before you leave

In the two months since John Plocher, my husband, was laid off from Sun, our family has made many changes. Only one of us is commuting to work, so our 16-year-old son Paul and I spend more time together during the drive between home and his High School, on the way to my Sun office. Between job hunting activities, John has more time to cook, so we eat out less. (John is an excellent cook so this is good!). The pets are happier because John is home to give them more attention. Unless I have a meeting, I work from home in the afternoons while Paul is doing homework. I have less free time...

We have also found a good many things we wished we had thought to do before John was laid off. Some of these were contained in a very helpful unsigned email forwarded to John by someone who left Sun last year, called: "Things I Wish I'd Known The Day I Was RIFd". (RIF stands for "Reduction in Force", also known as a lay off or restructuring.) However, we have also found some of the information in that email is out of date.

I am writing this to share the benefit of our family's recent experience with Sun staff who may be caught up in the company restructuring announced on 14 November 2008. Here are my opinions of some good actions to consider after the termination notice but before you leave Sun and lose your SunWeb access (and some actions to consider after). Some of these actions may only be appropriate for Sun staff in California since circumstances will differ from state-to-state, and country-to-country. Some actions - like joining LinkedIn - are good ideas whether you are staying or leaving. Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts.

1. Before your SunWeb access shuts down, print out copies of key records:
   - Current and last year paycheck history
   - Company training history
   - Stock option history and status
   - Health benefit elections
   - Vacation balance
   - Past annual performance review documents
2. If you have not already done so, use your Employee Giving matching grant for the current year.
3. If you have a blogs.sun.com account, post a brief and professional going away message including at least your LinkedIn reference. Your blogs.sun.com postings stay available after you are gone.
4. Change your Sun voice mail outgoing message with a new professionally phrased reference to your home phone or other non-Sun phone number.

Resources which may help and actions to consider later:

1. Sun provides some very good benefits to RIFed staff. Use any coaching services offered as part of your package (such as the excellent Right Management service). Let the service review your resume before you send it out. Join their networking groups.
2. Think through your health, dental, vision, and life insurance choices and application timelines. Read your RIF package carefully. If the staff member who is laid off is the spouse of a continuing Sun staff member, talk with Human Resources (SunDial) soon about when and how you can initiate a "Qualifying Life Event Change" to provide insurance coverage to the RIFed spouse. We had to submit a "Life Insurance Evidence of Insurability (EOI) Form" which is still going through formal review by the insurance provider. It may take weeks before our coverage is reestablished. However, John's other insurance benefits (health, dental, vision, etc.) were reestablished right after his employee coverage lapsed.
3. Immediately locate all personal accounts, groups, billing, etc. that you have linked to your @sun.com email address, and change them to your personal email address.
4. In California, you can apply for Unemployment Insurance from the day of your notification (while you may still have months yet to receive Sun paychecks). If you are asked by the California Employment Development Department, do not call money Sun provides you after the notification period "severance". It is accurate to call it "payment to forestall legal action".
   Here is Sun's address and phone number which you will need for the EDD paperwork - from Sun's 2008 Annual Report:
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.
   4150 Network Circle
   Santa Clara, CA 95054
   (650) 960-1300
5. In the San Francisco Bay Area, there is a networking and lunch group called CSix where job hunters share ideas and leads. Similar formal or informal groups probably exist elsewhere.
6. Buy a current-year copy of the book What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles. This book is available in many languages (French, Korean, Russian, Turkish...). Also check out the resources on Dick Bolles' web site: JobHuntersBible.Com
7. Join LinkedIn - a social networking web site for professionals who want to extend their contacts. Be diligent in linking to your former Sun coworkers so that you don't lose each other once you are no longer @sun.com. Use LinkedIn to recommend people you think highly of and ask them to recommend you. There are several LinkedIn Sun Alumni groups, including SUNAlumni. Sun Engineering SEED mentoring program alumni can join the SEED LinkedIn group.
8. Join the Sun Microsystems Alumni Association "The network is the people"
9. Consider other social networking sites such as Facebook which has several Sun Alumni groups, including: The Sun Microsystems Alumni Group, Sun Alumni on fb, (& several others). Plaxo is another good networking, address book site.
10. Participate in Sun Alumni Blogs
11. Make your own business cards so that you can easily tell contacts your new email and phone.
12. Make doctor, dentist, and other health care appointments soon, so you are seen while you are still insured. Renew prescriptions that are close to refills. COBRA continuation insurance coverage isn't always the same as the coverage you had before.
13. Get a special job seeking email address at yahoo.com or gmail.com. Make it professional, not cute.
14. A job searching and recruitment web site: http://www.dice.com/ - "career website for technology and engineering professionals"
15. A job searching web site: http://www.indeed.com/ "to search job sites, newspapers, associations and company career pages"

Don't lose touch with Sun people you care about. As John says, there are only really 100 people in the Silicon Valley, everyone else is just there to create traffic jams.

Posted at 12:23AM Jan 15, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[10]