One of responsibilities of a human resources professional is to let employees know that their job has been eliminated. It is seldom easy to do and often painful for person who is hearing news.

Just recently, I was involved in communicating a large layoff to employees at a Fortune 500 company. I sat with one woman after she had heard news to tell her about career transition services she could take advantage of. The woman was in shock and not ready to hear about transition services for her self. She said out loud several times, “How am I going to tell my kids this?”

When I asked her why she would not want to tell her kids, she said that her teenage son had been having a hard year in school and she did not want to upset him. She asked my advice. Recently, my mother-in-law died. Losing a loved one and losing a job have similarities. Both involve losing something you love. Both involve change. I thought back to how my husband and I told our children that their grandmother had died. I remembered that we told them truth, answered their questions and assured them that we would stay a strong family.

If you lose your job, here are some pointers for how to tell your children.

1.First, take care of you. Take stock of talents you have to offer another employer. Take stock of good things you have in your life.

2.If you have a “significant other” in your life, tell your partner before you tell your children.

As a healthy business owner or independent professional, how do you end your year? Well, I tell my clients to stop working. That's right, stop working. The kind of work I'm talking about is work of getting new business. There is no new business in dark days of winter, just clean up of old business. If you have clients that must spend in order to deduct prior to years’ end, go to it. This is for those who have time to take time.

Just stop. Take it easy. Take a day or more to clean out your space. Go through each document and get rid of as many as possible. If it's important, it will show up again. Don't answer phone until bags are full. (Don't answer phone until 10:30 a.m. anyway, just for this month.)

Remain calm during this hectic time.

Throw away all your old magazines. Don't subscribe to any new ones without an old one expiring. Check your e-mail subscriptions. Remove those you never read. Review past year and identify intangibles that contributed to your success. Passion, attitude, commitment, integrity and perseverance are solid ingredients in business achievements.