Embracing the Game Changers

I don’t usually talk about my work life so much here on A Pinch of Healthy. But something happened last week that is pretty life-changing. It would be awkward to not talk about it. So I decided to share it with you guys:

I got laid off from my day job.

It is still surreal to type that out in black and white! And unfortunately, I know that at least some of you know exactly what that feels like.

This is my first *official* brush with job loss. In years past I have worked at other companies that were bought by a bigger company, and we knew that our jobs would eventually be going away (like three-months-or-more-down-the-road kind of thing). But I was lucky to be able to find other employment rather quickly.

Not this time! I found out last Friday, and my last day will be this coming Friday. I did get a severance package, which is helpful. So I will have a few weeks of extra pay to help with the transition.

Right at this moment I am feeling pretty numb, and I am just still trying to process things. It wasn’t a total shock. The company has been going through a lot of transition as a result of a merger that happened two years ago. There was a lot of reengineering and reorganization going on. Even so, it hit me hard in the gut to hear those official words.

You want to hear some corporate irony!? Just three weeks prior I won a corporate excellence award for some work I did, which was kind of a big deal. And three weeks later…BUH-bye. That is so typical of large corporations! And I don’t mean that in any sort of disparaging way. It’s just the nature of things these days.

I actually have no bitter feelings toward my employer. It is truly just the nature of working for any big company in Corporate America. Most of them are at-will type employment situations where either party can end the employment arrangement at any time, for any reason. And loyalty is almost non-existent. It is what it is.

I still don’t mention my employer by name here either. I stand by that it was a good place to work in my three years there. There is a small change that I could find something else internally, but I am not counting on it.

Several people have asked me if I will be blogging full-time now. Well, I guess I sort of am by default (<- i.e., I have no other employment). I will continue to build my blog as much as I can, and I will use it to try and find other potential work.

I would LOVE to be able to support my family through blogging, but I am just not to that level yet. I will be working to grow and improve. But I will still be posting for other full-time work too. Because I have these guys counting on me.

I guess my main point in sharing this is to encourage you all (and myself!) to embrace the game-changers. Game-changers can be sudden and completely out of our control. But they can also set us free. And they can also lead to better things.

Dealing with the uncertainty in the present can be a challenge. But I remain (1) hopeful and (2) thankful for my many blessings.

I am thankful for the time at my (former) employer, the people I met and the things I learned there.

I still would appreciate your prayers, though!

Have you ever lost your job?

What about game-changers? How do you embrace them?