Fired six times in four years. What for a season represented a tough time for Rosario Santa María, she has now turned into an opportunity. It is the same thing that the platform she has promoted intends to do: turn layoffs into opportunities. Through a multidisciplinary team, ElDespido advises people who have been laid off to return renewed to the labor market, but not only that: it also accompanies companies in the prevention and management of layoffs.
The initiative, which advocates for a "more human" layoff with a special focus on women, is aimed at individuals as well as groups and companies, with services ranging from psychology to coaching, training, legal advice, emotional support and practical tools, as well as addressing prevention measures.
ElDespido, which has gone through the Gira Mujeres female entrepreneurship program, was born precisely from those layoffs that Santa María experienced. After 12 years working as a journalist, she was laid off as a result of an ERE (Employment Regulation File) in the communication group where she worked. It was her first layoff; "I didn't know how to manage it." After unsuccessful attempts to find a new job as a journalist, she opted to retrain as a communication director, but more layoffs kept coming: "I didn't retrain well, and I entered a vicious circle in which I kept getting and losing jobs."
Time and perspective gave her tools for dealing with layoffs: "When you are fired, you are not aware that it is a grieving process, and that you have to go through the same phases." It was in 2022 when she entered the Inicia program of Barcelona Activa, for women entrepreneurs, and told herself: "They fired you, forgive yourself, don't feel guilty." And she launched herself into opening a new professional path as a coach, focused on people in a similar situation, especially mothers who go through a layoff, as was her case.
After a year of training and "personal growth," she decided to organize individual coaching sessions and also job search training for people in similar situations. "However, I felt something was missing," and that something ended up materializing in ElDespido. "We have to give it visibility, to help people when they are laid off, and also the employer, both to manage it and to put measures in place, because layoffs can also be prevented."
"I was clear that I wanted to offer transversal services," Sant María highlights. Now, ElDespido collaborates with various coaches depending on the user's profile, as well as with social workers, psychologists, nutrition experts, advisors to prepare for interviews, and multiple options within "a multidisciplinary project with tailor-made services." It also articulates "layoff grief groups," with people who share the situation and who, among themselves, can generate synergies and even promote new projects, as Santa María emphasizes.
Layoff as something preventable
Advising companies is one of the pillars of the platform promoted by Santa María. "We start from the premise that layoff can be prevented. With good internal communication, employee well-being, and good managers, it can be prevented," defends the entrepreneur. In addition to betting on these preventive measures, ElDespido provides tools to companies if, despite everything, the time comes to dismiss an employee.The platform does so with options ranging from resources to learn how to communicate a dismissal to legal support, aimed at "companies that want to do it well until the end." Communicating a dismissal can be done in a harmful or constructive way, addressing the factors that led to the decision, asking the worker for their point of view, or even suggesting possible recommendations: "It is important how it is notified and how it is accompanied."
A company's interest in managing a dismissal constructively goes beyond the well-being of the future ex-employee: in the age of the Internet and social media, "your reputation is at stake." And not only external reputation matters, but also internal, as a dismissal can also influence the rest of the staff and their perception of the company: "More and more importance is given to worker well-being, and if you dismiss badly, you have a problem."
"In a way, for the company, it is also a failure to have to dismiss someone," reflects the entrepreneur. Thus, the startup works to accompany the company and the worker in this process, so that the dismissal represents not so much a failure for either party, but an opportunity for all of them.