It's hard, for sure. I have been with the same company for 15 years and have been through several . . . seen many good friends and people impacted. I've been pretty fortunate as far as being in positions where I have been pretty well insulated. The one time I was hit was kind of funny. The company I was with at the time was acquired by the company I am with now and I was the only person left from the marketing dept (which is usually one of the first to go--so I was not in a great spot). Walked into the office one morning and the CEO stopped me and said we needed to talk. Told me my position had been eliminated . . . but that they had someone at the new parent company who wanted to talk to me. Ended up being hired by the parent company into a position tied into the executives at the HQ by that afternoon, so that was a really bizarre ride for a day that ended up turning out extremely well. Was like a scene from Office Space in real life. I was laid off in the morning, had a few video interviews, they told me to sit tight and not to go home and they'd get back to me--took all day.

But you never really get used to that stuff happening. Sometimes you are given numbers to hit and not given options to keep people you really feel you should keep (no place to put them). All you can do is try to be supportive and understand that business can be a real crappy thing sometimes.