Second round of layoffs today at work. The first round was in December, not that long ago. So far I’ve dodged the bullet.
Seems like the first thought the people who remain employed have in a layoff is “Thank God it wasn’t me.” And there is a huge sense of relief.
However, that’s soon followed by a feeling of guilt for immediately thinking solely about yourself and for somehow being lucky enough to still have a job.
And you feel sad about the loss of your coworkers, some who you know well and will miss, others you didn’t know that well, except that you assume they have a mortgage or rent to pay and perhaps kids to support and there are no jobs out there to be had. And you wonder what they are going to do.
Which leads you to wondering what you would do. Because if things don’t get any better soon, you could be next. And there it hangs over your head.
You have absolutely no control over the situation, but you try to figure out how you can control it anyway and you make yourself crazy with fear.
You already had more work to do than could possibly be done by one person and now you’ll need to do even more. What if you can’t do it? The uncertainty and fear eats at you and doesn’t do a whole lot for your job performance or your health.
So what’s a person to do?
I say, you try to see the beauty in the shit.
Or something like that.
Really, I don’t know what you do. Especially if you are one of the people that lost your job. Me, I’m praying for all of us — those that lost their jobs already and those that are afraid of losing their jobs.
And I’m trying to appreciate the good things in my life — my husband, my family, my animals, my job, that summer is on the way, and a bunch of other, well, you know… stuff.
Sounds pollyannish but it’s all I can come up with right now.
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I’m praying too…and I’m glad you survived round two!
Glad to hear you’re not one of the axed folk….we’ve been lucky, so far, and haven’t had to deal with layoffs. We’ve had a few people fired for missing too much work, or violating store policies, so they’ve dealt with the reduction in hours that way rather than through layoffs. I can imagine how worrisome and scary that must be.