Hallmark Offers Sympathy Cards for Layoff Victims
Just lost your job? Hallmark knows your pain.
With high unemployment rates and few opportunities for those seeking to re-enter the job market, Hallmark has launched a new line of "Job Loss" cards.
The cards offer an array of messages, including words of support and encouragement, as well as humor. One card reads: "Don't think of it as losing your job. Think of it as a time out between stupid bosses."
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"Getting a card like that and somebody caring is fabulous," said Michelle Crowthers-Lunczynski, who works at Work One, an employment agency in Franklin, Indiana, told WLBZ-TV. "The crazy part to think about this is there's so many people laid off. At least someone's caring enough to you know, get a card and say, 'I'm thinking of you.'"
"I think it's neat that there is a card there that can say what needs to be said in a situation like that, because sometimes it's just hard to find the words," said Avril Fisher, who also works at Work One.
David Smason, 25, moved from New Orleans to Dallas looking for work, only to get laid off soon after getting a job in the hospitality industry. Smason was standing in an unemployment line when he told the Dallas Morning News he was not sure how he would feel about getting a card like that.
"I do think it's thoughtful," he said. "But I think you have to have a healthy sense of humor to appreciate that kind of thing."
Derek McCracken, creative director of the Hallmark Greeting Card Company, told NPR that the point of the cards is to remind people that, "A job loss is temporary and that it doesn't define the person."
One of the cards that conveyed that message reads: "Life gave her a lemon, a really big lemon. She started to make lemonade, but then she thought, what the heck, and made a martini with a twist instead." The inside of the card reads: "I think you'll handle this like you do everything else – in your own unique way and everything will be more than okay."
