MINNEAPOLIS -- In the first days after being laid off, John Drevlow pledged to stick to a daily routine, as he did in 12 years working for Target Corp.
He still wakes up at 6 a.m. and helps get his young sons ready for school. The rest of the day is less defined but, about a month after becoming one of 1,700 people let go by Target, it still revolves to a large degree around his former colleagues. But now, that happens online.
"That's the amazing thing -- it still feels like we're a team," Drevlow said. "I reflect a lot about if this layoff would have happened 15 or 20 years ago, our experience would have been entirely different. I joke, I can sit in my office at my house, and it feels like I'm just working from home. Because I'm connecting with the same people I used to work with."
Layoffs tend to be a solitary and isolating experience. But so far, that has not been the case for many of the people Target laid off March 10 in the largest downsizing of its corporate headquarters.
Friends, peers, businesses and schools across the Twin Cities reached out to exiled Target workers with ideas, job leads and offers for discounts on everything from photo head shots to yoga.
Meanwhile, recruiters from Home Depot, Gap and other retailers have flown in to meet former Target employees.
When Drevlow settles in at his home computer each morning, one of his first stops online is a private Facebook group that connects Target employees and those it recently laid off. The nearly 5,000 people in the group share job leads, contacts at potential employers, interviewing tips and words of encouragement.
The Facebook group is also a forum for working through the emotions of the layoff. Many former employees shared an optimism for their future. Some discussed tougher moments, such as the odd and sad feeling of shopping at Target now as a "guest" instead of an employee. Others asked for advice on everything from whether to wear pantyhose to an interview to how to transfer contacts over from their company cellphones.
Earlier this month, a handful of ex-Target workers on the forum announced they landed new jobs. Some others confessed they aren't ready to jump into a full-blown job search.
Kevin Khottavongsa, 27, worked in business licensing at Target for just a few weeks. The layoff dealt him another big blow after the death of his father in January.
"It felt like everything got pulled from underneath my feet," he said. "But now I get to get to start over and prioritize my needs."
Khottavongsa is one of about 300 of the former Target workers to sign up for nondegree executive education classes at the University of St. Thomas, something Target offered to pay for as part of its severance package to employees.
There are already wait lists for some classes, so now the school is thinking about adding some more sessions, a university spokesman said.
The University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management is holding a half-day "unexpected job search" workshop next month to help. The school has also kept tabs on the recruiters coming to town to meet the laid-off Target workers.
After Target executives told investors in New York on March 2 that they were planning to downsize the 13,000-strong headquarters staff, Drevlow began to think he was vulnerable. He'd just transferred to a new job as a product manager for shoes. But his paperwork had not yet been processed, so he felt he was in a sort of limbo.
On the morning of March 10, he decided to wear a suit to work, something he'd rarely done after the company last year moved to a business casual dress code.
"There was this sense of walking into my own execution," Drevlow said. "There was this moment of, maybe if just stop and don't go in, this won't happen. But you have to face it."
After learning he was on the list, Drevlow texted his wife, Lisa, and she replied that she was safe. Then, as he later described on LinkedIn, one of the lowest days in his career ended up becoming one of the best nights of his life.
Drevlow went from one restaurant or bar to another, running into co-workers and friends. They comforted one another and told each other how they had improved each other's lives. It was a moment of elation that has kept him feeling buoyant about his future -- a "This is your Target life moment," Drevlow said.
At home, as he tried to find a new routine, Drevlow has taken over more of the household chores, such as folding laundry and cooking dinner and watching expenses as the family adjusts to be a single-income household for a while.
When he talks to those who are still at Target, he sees that they are struggling in a different way: trying to figure out who is doing what job amid a giant reorganization that is still not settled. "Their world has been turned upside down, too," Drevlow said.
One thing he's trying to stick with is his daily Crossfit workout.
Drevlow and a group of co-workers went to the Life Time Fitness at the Target Center every day during their lunch break to work out together. About half of that crew was let go in the layoff.
Next month, his fitness gang is planning to reunite for one last workout together one month after the layoff day. They're calling it "Target Tuesday."
SundayMonday Business on 04/13/2015