“So at some point during the next few months we’re going to have to let you go. We thought it was important to be transparent with you.”
I blinked. Once. Twice. I wasn’t sure what they wanted from me as a reaction. Was I supposed to be sad? Cry? For a Marketing job that didn’t even seem real.
When I took the job at ABC company, I was excited to “make a difference”. That was how the job was pitched to me. But after about 3 months, I realised there were a few issues. Like the fact that the projects never actually got executed. They planned (and planned poorly) but never actually reached the finishing line. The workload was much smaller than what I was used to and yet the team was always trying to look for shortcuts. It was like they didn’t even want to be a company. It was like they were playing a weird game of pretend.
But this isn’t about ABC and their inability to run a company. This is about the lessons that I learnt after my “almost-layoff”.
Always Have an Emergency Fund
I left a really stable job to join ABC. But from the second I exited, I made sure to prioritise my savings. I felt very strongly that the business would not be able to continue and I did not want to risk not having money when that happened. After a year at ABC, I had enough for a 6 month emergency fund.
Do Not Put a Company First
In order to not offend anyone at ABC, I had stopped posting on LinkedIn and blogging. Nothing was said to me directly but it was clear that they thought by doing these things that I was looking for another job. I was actually trying to build my personal brand and I halted those efforts because of ABC. Which now left ME in the lurch because of their actions.
The Importance of Building a Network
Shortly after being informed by ABC about this, I reached out to a few friends and they were able to secure me a freelance role. It wouldn’t replace my income immediately but it would provide some sort of income.
You’re Not Your Job
This one was tough for me because I have always been a writer. But I haven’t always been a writer for ABC and I had to remind myself of that. Whether I wrote for ABC or myself, I was always going to be a writer- whether it was my dayjob or not.
The redundancy took months to happen and even the process thereafter for paperwork was painful. But the time from the announcement to the actual lay-off was a period where I learnt much about myself, my style of workplace and the company that I had chosen to work for.