After I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this company, I wake up one Monday morning and am told that I am no longer needed. Right after being told on Friday that I am heading the 2 biggest and most important projects for the company, that its future success relies on them.
After that meeting, I am immediately locked out of my email account so I can't even let the outside clients know that I am no longer their contact or wrap up existing projects.
I am now seeing all of their Instagram posts, with assets that I collected for them to NO cost of their own except for product cost, being posted with really shitty AI captions.
Right before I was laid off, I was given insane deadlines to rewrite all the copy, which I met, barely, after working multiple 10 hour days, working on airplanes, working during our best man's wedding. It now looks like they're going to feed that copy into AI to generate the Wayfair and Amazon variants of that.
Its such a slap in the face. It's been a few weeks now and I just mailed back my laptop. I made sure to use an entire roll of packing tape to close it just so it makes things difficult to open. While at the post office, there's another guy mailing a laptop. He was forced to quit because, as a sales rep, instead of doing sales rep stuff, they made him go door to door with chocolates to “advertise locally”.
What has fucking happened to this country? It feels like companies don't even care much about anything anymore other than making sure they keep employees as stressed and demeaned as possible.
So then I have to sign my severance agreement in order to get my paltry one weeks pay severance. I've been putting it off because I've been using the time to recover from all the built up panic and stress that this job has put on me. I was on the verge of snapping, truly. Every time I sat behind the wheel I wanted to crash into a tree unless i was driving to the liquor store. So I made my fiance drive me places instead. I didn't want to be given the opportunity.
And then I notice their non-compete clause. I cant work for ANY D2C (direct to consumer) company or product manufacturer for A FULL YEAR. So that basically means I can't work in my field for a whole fucking year.
I looked it up and that's apparently illegal in NYS, so I'm asking them to waive it. I'm not mentioning the legal part unless they say no. It's only like 1200 but I need that to pay for my meds (I have a bill of about 740 I need to pay off). Not to mention for like, you know, food and stuff.
The thought of going back to a corporate environment gives me panic attacks. My soon-to-be-husband and I want to start a family soon and I know if I took this type of job again I'd be a shitty parent. I'd be so emotionally, mentally, and physically drained that I would not be able to be there for my future kids the way they deserve. I'd be raising emotionally neglected children who'd be inheriting some of my trauma as well as (most likely) plentiful ND traits both my husband and I have (we both have ADHD; he also has OCD, and I additionally have bipolar and CPTSD).
So I've made the decision to go into freelancing while trying to make my creative work my full-time job. Being laid off gave me the clarity to see that I can't waste my life being a wageslave. But fuck, it's so humiliating not having money and having to rely on my fiance and parents. I have taken so much pride in how far I've come and how much I've been able to accomplish despite all of the hurdles that have been put in my way: only 16% of bipolar people who go to college manage to get their degrees, for example. I overcame multiple attempts to leave the planet. I've dealt with family trauma and sexual trauma like a fuckin champ. I have pushed and pushed and pushed in everything I do and have gotten some minor recognition for my poetry (award nominations, etc).
But it feels like everything in this country is actively working against me, and people like me, to ensure I don't succeed or live a fulfilling life. It seems hellbent on ensuring we remain slaves to their whims and profits. And I am so lucky to be in a position where both my husband and my parents not only make good money, but are willing to support me while I get on my feet. But that's not a luxury most people get. And it's not fair that we're all forced to bleed our lives out so some fucks can get a bigger yacht.
I dont know what the point entirely of this is other than to vent and to see if any other creative are being forced out of their jobs due to AI. Who else is deciding to say “fuck it” and try to open shop for themselves? I'm probably going to go back to tutoring but it being summer here kinda makes that hard.