Photoessay #1899 - Reflecting on job loss

I lost my job just about two years ago. As is often the case (though not 'in this economy'), my former employer did me a favor.

Wasn't it a year or so ago, that I read a quip ...In this economy, you must start every sentence with 'in this economy'. Love that self-referential stuff.
OK, back to the hard stuff. It was a time when lots of people (especially people my age) became 'no longer employed'. And, if you are pushing sixty, are you really going to work again? And what does that mean anyway?

Looking at the big picture, it's all good. Because my participation with my employer was not working out. By two years ago, communication had broken down so much that I wondered if we all were working for the same company. I stopped working just about the same time that my mom took a bad fall. Check out my story called "The Winter Olympics" if you want to know more. So I was free to go to Rockford for as much as I needed to. Indeed I spent over half of January and February of 2010 in Rockford. After my mom's death, our financial picture changed and I got the chance to 'pursue other opportunities'.

I had worked for that company for fourteen years. I was one of the very first people they hired. I had drifted into sales because nobody else would do it and I knew how. Most of the conflict came from the fact that their internet-based product which was The Bomb in 1996 didn't make much sense in 2010. When I wanted to talk about it, the results were:

a. Shoot the messenger and I would be blamed

b. My comments were dismissed and I would be accused of being 'resistant to change'.

Both results humiliated me especially because I really wanted substantive change. I had promised myself that I would quit if I started fuming or fretting. But I didn't take my own advice. I never lost hope that this was all a bunch of misunderstandings and, one of these days, we would get down to working on how to transform the product. I had joined the company as a 'true believer' and that's hard to let go.

I might add that they fired the one good marketing person they brought in (I loved working with her because we could actually get some things done rather than going into a six month protracted control battle about everything), they fired my manager, they fired the person they hired to be my replacement who I had trained.

And they fired me. That's really what happened. I had never experienced that before. Ever.

I talked with my cousin about it. She lost her job about the same time. And, my other cousin, lost his job when he experienced some health problems. We talked about how hard it is to get over it.

It's hard to let go. That's the main thing. I'm fortunate that it didn't mean financial ruin.

One door closes and another opens.

Picture used without permission from Lee Disability