It is painful to see and to live it. Advanced notice or not, people you used to work with are being laid off; you have mixed emotions: happy that you were not laid off, sad to see your colleagues go, uncertain about your own job stability, overwhelmed with the workload redistribution (same work needs to be done with less people).

Every economic recession brings with it a wave of reorganization, downsizing, or staff reductions, necessary to allow companies to remain competitive. The impact on workers—managers and employees alike—who lose their jobs is commonly understood. But what is not commonly understood is the impact on the workers who still have their jobs. This latter group can experience “survivor syndrome”, a condition similar to what soldiers feel when they return from battle after surviving the war during which many comrades were lost.

If you have survived layoff periods in your company in the past 5 years, this session is for YOU!

Join us for an interactive workshop on January 24, 2024, from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm MST (7:00 pm – 9:00 pm EDT), where facilitator Claudia Gomez-Villeneuve will share her Strategies for Overcoming the Layoff Survivor Syndrome.

Please give us 5 minutes of your time to complete this survey, which will be used in future deliveries of Claudia’s workshop. Names and companies will remain CONFIDENTIAL.

Register for the session here .

About the Speaker

Claudia Gomez-Villeneuve is a professional engineer, university professor, EDI champion, and brand-new Fellow of Engineers Canada. Before switching to academia, she worked at Enbridge managing petroleum pipeline projects for over 15 years eventually becoming Supervisor. The largest pipeline project she ever led had 100 people for a $120M petroleum tank farm complete with steel tanks, pumps, valves, meters, electrical infrastructure, and associated facilities.

Today, Claudia works in 5 different universities teaching engineering, leadership, and project management in both English and Spanish.

In April 2019 she shared the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) Summit Award, as a Champion for Women in Engineering and Geoscience, with the CCWESTT (Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology) 2018 Steering Committee. Since 2017 she has been an elected member of the APEGA Council, being re-elected by the memberships twice. Finally, in 2022 she was named “Individual Leader of the 30 by 30 Initiative”; by Engineers Canada, which was announced at their annual 30 by 30 conference.

She is also the Founder, Principal, and two-time Chair of WES, Women in Engineering Summit Ltd, a non-profit organization whose mission is to support the 30 by 30 Initiative by Engineers Canada by sharing practical solutions to keeping women and happy in engineering and geoscience jobs for life.

Claudia was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, and currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta, with her husband and their 3 children.