From Hospitality Leader to "Hospitality" Career Coach | Christopher McFadden

What happens when you know a layoff is coming, but there's absolutely nothing you can do to stop it?

If you're worried about an upcoming layoff, watching your industry shrink, or trying not to take job loss personally, this episode is for you.

In this episode of Pink Slip Pavilion, host Ashley Waddington sits down with Christopher McFadden, former hospitality executive, college professor, entrepreneur, and coach, to talk about losing a job he genuinely loved and navigating a career transition completely outside of his control.

After 25 years in the restaurant and hotel industry, Christopher made a major career change into education. Teaching gave him the flexibility his family needed while allowing him to discover work he loved.

Then government policy changes affecting international students began reshaping higher education in Ontario.

Programs shrank. Campuses closed. Colleagues started losing their jobs.

Christopher knew his pink slip was probably coming...and then it did.

Even with months to mentally prepare, losing a career he loved was painful. Christopher found himself asking the same question so many people face after a layoff:

What do I do now?

But as one part of his life changed, something much bigger was happening.

Just months after losing his teaching position, Christopher and his wife were matched with the young boy who would become their son. Suddenly, the time and flexibility created by his layoff allowed him to be fully present for one of the most important transitions of his life.

Professionally, Christopher also began recognizing that he wasn't alone. Former students, colleagues, friends, and professionals across industries were asking the same question: What's next?

That realization helped reshape his own business and the people he wanted to serve.

In this episode, we cover:

• Knowing a layoff is coming and living with career uncertainty

• Losing a job you genuinely love

• Job loss caused by changes outside your control

• Why preparing for a layoff doesn't necessarily make it hurt less

• How to stop taking a layoff personally

• Navigating a major career transition

• Preparing for job loss before it happens

• Thinking about your next career move while you're still employed

• Why layoffs can create unexpected space in your life

• Becoming a father through adoption during a career transition

• Rethinking work-life balance and putting life first

• Turning your experience into an opportunity to help others

• Building the mindset to move forward after career disruption

Christopher's biggest advice for anyone facing a layoff is simple:

Don't take it personally.

Companies change. Industries shrink. Funding disappears. Economies shift. Decisions are made that you may have absolutely no control over.

But you can control how prepared you are for what comes next.

CONNECT WITH CHRISTOPHER:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophermmcfadden/

Website: www.tmgcareercoaching.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tmgcareercoaching/

Email: christopher@tmgcareercoaching.com

Pink Slip Pavilion is a podcast about layoff recovery, job loss, career transitions, career reinvention, entrepreneurship, and turning career disruption into growth.

New episodes release every Wednesday.