Sometimes tragedies happen that seriously impact businesses and the people who work there. It is important to set up writing strategies on how to handle these both on a resume and a LinkedIn profile. What do I mean?
Natural disasters:
Haiti had a devastating earthquake in 2010. Estimates vary about the death toll but typically stand between 200,000 and 300,000.
One of my clients was in the capital of Port-au-Prince. She already had a key role with an agency that was connected to the United Nations. It provided radio and other communication services. We included some specifics in her resume:
- It took 48 hours to locate her staff. They were all alive. (Oh my goodness….I can only imagine.)
- It took six days to obtain and coordinate the installation of furniture, communication, and IT equipment to resume critical operations.
- She hired new employees in five weeks to replace the ones who left the country.
Active Shooter:
Another client was the General Manager at a large distribution center with about 150 employees. In his case, we were not as specific on what he did but stated his overall role.
- Handled active shooter incidents that involved multiple fatalities and injuries. Hands-on leadership resulted in establishing normal operational procedures by the next day and minimize customer impact.
Unfortunately, natural disasters happen all the time, and societal problems become real in the workplace. It is important to define your role and how much detail you want to include. It needs to be clear that if you can handle a real emergency, you can certainly handle business-as-usual.
If you have had some sort of emergency happen in the workplace and are unsure how to talk about it, schedule a free consultation. There will be a strategy on how to do this.