Thanks for sharing. I've not written much about my personal redundancy experience because I was contractually forbidden to talk about it - but Betrayal Trauma sums it up.
The loss of trust you speak of is part of a wider loss of trust in many institutions that were once relied upon. Politics, the media, the justice system, corporations, charities - and perhaps worst of all, the divisive societal narratives we've become accustomed to are leading us to mistrust each other - the cracks are opening up in every area of life and perhaps underlines the importance of not letting that mistrust pollute our communities any further.
I'd love to see an end to employers being able to make us sign those contractual agreements. If they are so worried about their reputations they could find a way to do layoffs more humanely. There's something very wrong about corporations not having to justify anything that they do.
Luckily I never had any kind of contract in place, which made it easier to be up front in my follow-up job search. If making you redundant doesn’t give them enough of a power kick, keeping you silent about it is just another level.
Sorry that you had to go through that, Michael! But glad you got to spend that precious time with your daughter. Even years later I feel the scar of my first layoff trauma and the second one is too recent and painful to talk about much. It really does seem like a bad idea to have any real attachment to one's career now that corporations treat us like interchangeable machine parts.
Thanks. I try to see everything with a some form of positivity, even though it doesn’t take away from it still being a really difficult situation.
Agreed on the attachment front. Prior to this redundancy I always felt like I was part of something bigger, but now I just feel like a small, replaceable cog in a much bigger machine. It’s part of the reason I continue to explore self-employment, but that doesn’t come without its risks either.
Thanks for sharing. I've not written much about my personal redundancy experience because I was contractually forbidden to talk about it - but Betrayal Trauma sums it up.
The loss of trust you speak of is part of a wider loss of trust in many institutions that were once relied upon. Politics, the media, the justice system, corporations, charities - and perhaps worst of all, the divisive societal narratives we've become accustomed to are leading us to mistrust each other - the cracks are opening up in every area of life and perhaps underlines the importance of not letting that mistrust pollute our communities any further.
I'd love to see an end to employers being able to make us sign those contractual agreements. If they are so worried about their reputations they could find a way to do layoffs more humanely. There's something very wrong about corporations not having to justify anything that they do.
Luckily I never had any kind of contract in place, which made it easier to be up front in my follow-up job search. If making you redundant doesn’t give them enough of a power kick, keeping you silent about it is just another level.
Sorry that you had to go through that, Michael! But glad you got to spend that precious time with your daughter. Even years later I feel the scar of my first layoff trauma and the second one is too recent and painful to talk about much. It really does seem like a bad idea to have any real attachment to one's career now that corporations treat us like interchangeable machine parts.
Thanks. I try to see everything with a some form of positivity, even though it doesn’t take away from it still being a really difficult situation.
Agreed on the attachment front. Prior to this redundancy I always felt like I was part of something bigger, but now I just feel like a small, replaceable cog in a much bigger machine. It’s part of the reason I continue to explore self-employment, but that doesn’t come without its risks either.