Descriptions of the Nondescript

Being Laid Off Draws a Hard Vacuum

I was laid off yesterday in a move that, as it was explained to me, was part of a "corporate restructuring". The company where I'd worked for the last sixteen years now has a bright new CEO (whom I like a lot, based on very little data) and is planning to move ahead in major new directions. They were moving some pieces around on the board, cleaning out a little bit of dead wood, retargeting their resources. Evidently they felt I was looking a little undernourished — and probably overpaid. I could argue they were absolutely wrong and insane to let someone of my calibre go, but that would be a supremely self-serving thing to do, wouldn't it?

I have to say that after walking a couple of miles from the office in the hot Seattle afternoon I found it pretty easy to get over being hurt and supremely pissed off. In fact, I saw, this might be one of the best things to happen to me in a long time, career-wise. To be honest (and I always try to be), I had been getting a little sedentary in my old job. Not in the ways that would lead to me actually being redundant or suitable to be laid off, mind you. But in my own mind. I was finding myself dreading each day whacking away at the same old problems, no matter how comfortable and familiar they'd become.

Today I set my course upon a new, hopefully happy trail. I'm hoping I'll find a way to pay my bills long before I have to start having to dip into my retirement savings to do so. We'll have to see how it turns out.