Like the title says, I got laid off on December 19, two days before my birthday, the week of Christmas, and the reason was “not a good fit”. I was never reviewed, my performance is trackable, highly profitable, and went largely unchecked because I worked at home, a pattern was quickly established of blaming me for things that didn’t fall under my responsibility, and because my job was to basically handle problems so that upper management wouldn’t need to, most of the interactions my boss and I had were about problems that were beyond my scope, so I guess he just started to associate me with bad news. On top of that, my requests for a meeting with my superior (to address these issues, among other legal and liability issues) were denied and postponed for weeks leading up to my termination.
I am the third person who has held my job in the past year (coincidence?)
During my 9 months with the company, there was turnover of nearly two dozen people (on a staff of… 30-50). Multiple times, past employees retaliated. One day, the office had to be shut down out of fear of physical violence. Another coincidence? Surely has nothing to do with the employer. I digress.
Now, I’ve been unemployed for 2.5 weeks and can I just say… it’s amazing. I’m also in school full time, so I just got back time to BREATHE again. I’ve regained control of my home – errands, cleaning, home-cooking healthy meals, long walks with my dog, yoga. I’ve started doing some freelance design work in my free time, enrolled in an extra course for my degree, I’ll be taking a gemcutting workshop this weekend I’ve been trying to get into FOREVER. My partner and I have done date nights, I’ve seen friends. I get to deep condition my hair! Baths, people, baths!
Anyway, I’m writing this post as a little hooray for me, but also just to reiterate that work is a capitalist soul-suck and just the tiniest bit of relief from it has provided me with the opportunity and fulfillment I didn’t realize I was denying myself recently.
I’m still figuring out if I want to get a part time job and overload on my courses, or just see how far freelancing can take me. But, rather than fighting the current, I’m enjoying the ride right now.
Fuck the system, do what makes you happy.