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How to Support Your Partner During a Career Setback

by Deborah Grayson Riegel

Quick Takes

  • Take a breath to counteract your body’s natural fight-or-flight response to bad news
  • Choose to maintain a positive mindset
  • Remind your partner—and yourself—that you’re on the same team
  • Use language that validates and supports your partner
  • Take good care of your own career

Whether it’s a bad performance review or a layoff, a relocation or a reassignment, a missed promotion or a lost account, most of us have endured a career setback. Perhaps you experienced anxiety or depression as a result, or maybe you used the opportunity to reflect on your strengths and to take your time to figure out what’s next.

Whatever you did to recover and bounce back from ...

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