I got laid off. That’s pretty much the reason you’re reading this, or should I say, the reason this exists for you to read. Gotta do something right? Anyway now your life has been affected by my getting laid off. Butterfly effect, or as I prefer to think of it, The Fundamental Interconnectedness of All Things.
Anyway, one thing I wanted to mention by way of this article is a phenomenon I call “McFlying”. And that’s where you immediately start to fade away, once the word is given.
You get the word, sometimes alone, sometimes in a room with five other people – like I did – that your “position has been eliminated.”
And then all the times you thought about the words “at-will employment” run through your head and you’re like, “OK I guess I can start a blog or something.”
But what they don’t tell you is how staggering the psychological changes are, immediately, and also changes to everyone around you. Suddenly you are somewhere you don’t belong. Still employed, but nonexistent. Half in, half out. Schroedinger’s employee.
I’ve been looked through several times now by people I considered, if not friends, then great coworkers and colleagues. Dead Man Walkin’, I guess. Kinda throws cold water on the idea of me getting anything else internally – which, by the way, is probably ridiculous and I’ll spend another article on that absurd notion.
Anyway I just thought I’d mention it. Because if it happened to me, it’ll probably happen to you, if it happens to you, which it probably will, because no one’s above the law of averages.