Okay, this is weird.

There is a chance I may get laid off next Thursday. I don’t know what that means.

I just found out there are layoffs planned for my company… it’s in the news. This comes at the same time as being ordered by my boss (in a bcc email) to turn in my end-of-quarter goals report by next Thursday – a week earlier than usual… as well as them calling a team meeting on Thursday afternoon (which is also the end of a pay period).

Correlation does not imply causation, and of course this is an uncertain time, all around, so I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but there is a chance it might happen.

I imagine I will have insurance coverage for the short term afterwards – at least till the end of the month – but I don’t know.

But things are up in the air.

I just don’t know what this means.

I’ve been hoping for this, to be honest. But now that it looks possible, I’m less enthusiastic.

Oh, well. I needed to update my resume and LinkedIn profile, anyway. So, I guess that decides what I’ll be doing this weekend.

Onward.

Author: brokenbrilliant

I am a long-term multiple (mild) Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI or TBI) survivor who experienced assaults, falls, car accidents, sports-related injuries in the 1960s, '70s, '80s, and '90s. My last mild TBI was in 2004, but it was definitely the worst of the lot. I never received medical treatment for my injuries, some of which were sports injuries (and you have to get back in the game!), but I have been living very successfully with cognitive/behavioral (social, emotional, functional) symptoms and complications since I was a young kid. I’ve done it so well, in fact, that virtually nobody knows that I sustained those injuries… and the folks who do know, haven’t fully realized just how it’s impacted my life. It has impacted my life, however. In serious and debilitating ways. I’m coming out from behind the shields I’ve put up, in hopes of successfully addressing my own (invisible) challenges and helping others to see that sustaining a TBI is not the end of the world, and they can, in fact, live happy, fulfilled, productive lives in spite of it all.

22 thoughts on “Okay, this is weird.”

  1. BB – following you for several years now, it seems like you go through this downsizing agita periodically. Since I don’t catch every single post, I’m unclear whether or not this is still the same company, but if it is, SHEESH! ‘Sup? It sounds to me like their financials aren’t too stable and they are repeatedly attempting to rescue profitability vs. planning for it.

    I sincerely hope you maintain your job so the stay/go choice is still in your hands, but if I were in your shoes I’d start looking around immediately either way. Downsizing is never a sign of a healthy company. Once the dust settles, those who remain will be expected to pick up the slack — and I’ll bet there won’t be pay increases to go with the increased workload.

    There are better ways to handle downsizing besides putting everyone in the office on tenderhooks, but it doesn’t sound like employee emotional well-being is on their radar. Short sighted. Good managers and CEOs get out in front of the rumors and share as much information as they can about the process. At least they do if they don’t want their top talent to walk out the door the minute they can find a better place to work.

    Good luck! I hope, however it works out, you will land on your feet, smelling of roses.
    xx,
    mgh
    (Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
    – ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder –
    “It takes a village to educate a world!”

    Liked by 1 person

  2. You’re wise to have your antenna up on this. It gives you time to emotionally prepare for whatever the outcome is. Great to hear you’re thinking ahead and planning.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Hopefully if you get laid off there will be severance package…including health insurance.

    Its such a bummer that congress did not fund the Affordable Care Act as called for in the law…so all the state exchanges are gone out of business. Insurance companies are dropping out…and we’re going to see some steep premium hikes for next year. Being a TBI survivor, this is going to be expensive. But at least with the ACA in place, someone has to provide me insurance…no pre-existing condition exclusions!!!

    Hang in there….wishing you the very best!!!

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Thanks – this is not the same company as before… it keeps happening, no matter where I am. Yeah, I seem to have a knack for picking companies that do this. Then again, I work in high tech, which is constantly shifting and changing by its very nature, so this kind of volatility is pretty common.

    Plus, for years, I shuffled in and out of positions like revolving doors (or musical chairs). Part of that was me getting to a “super-saturation” point where I couldn’t cognitively or behaviorally function any more in the environment — burned out, with nowhere to go… except on to the next job where they’d never seen me lose it or turn in one of my classic disappointment performances.

    You never know. It could be that this is the start of an exciting new chapter in my life. I’m just not getting my hopes up. And yes, I am looking around. After nearly a year and a half of steady work after my four-year slog of wiping out my credit card debts and having no money at all, I actually have 3 months’ expenses in the bank, so I have a safety net. And I can afford to take a month off, if I need to.

    At my age, though, I never know when I’m going to be able to find a new job. I haven’t been 25 for over 25 years, and that seems to be the preferred age for employers, these days.

    Oh, well. Onward.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Thanks – my main focus is on taking good care of myself. Staying steady. Doing what needs to be done, getting my exercise, eating right, and sleeping. All the basics. It’s the only way I’ll get through this.

    Oh, and not making myself nuts with fantasizing about potential outcomes. I need to be ready for anything, really.

    Thanks again.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Thanks – yeah, one can hope. I do have some savings to carry me, and there are lots of contract jobs I can pick up for the time being. The whole insurance thing puts me on edge. It’s way too much for me to think about, right now, so I’m focusing on getting my resume and LinkedIn profile up to snuff, so I at least feel like I’m doing something productive and pro-active. I hate sitting and waiting to find out what’s going to happen to me.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. I think you hit the nail on the head – it’s endemic in the binary high-tech industry. Not exactly a touchy-feely field: run the numbers, make the cuts.

    I know what you mean about the age thing. I feel it too, even though one would expect greater experience to be a clear advantage in the coaching field.

    The wife of a college friend of mine has been battling her way in another youth-dominated field (casino gaming). He says she feels like she always has to be superior with results to prove her worth. Stressful!

    Congrats on getting out of debt and compiling some reserves. My fingers are crossed that you won’t need to use them anytime soon, so you can keep saving as you begin the process of finding a job that looks more stable (at least for now). Some employers are smart enough to look for skills, experience and wisdom over the unknown potential of youth.

    Life ain’t easy – always something, huh?
    xx,
    mgh

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Companies never handle layoffs well, but some are worse than others. I’ve seen companies all meetings and then march staff out of the building directly from the meeting. Of course, some relocate staff to Texas first, which offers the least protection to employees.
    In your case, if it happens, if you are covered by health benefits, the company is required to make the benefits available under COBRA for 18 months after layoff. Your costs for the benefits will go up, as the company is contributing less to the cost, but you will have them.
    Sanders was the only chance for meaningful healthcare reform in the near future; costs go up by almost the same amount under the proposals Clinton and Trump have presented, although Trump’s plan reduces the number of people who would have health coverage by almost 10 million. The Rand Corp. analysis was pretty scathing.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Thanks for your words. That’s very interesting about Texas. It explains a lot, actually, especially as one of the companies in question has offices in Texas. Now I understand why that may be so. I’ve had COBRA before, and the price was comparable to the ‘health exchange’ prices under the ACA. My benefits are pretty decent, so I may just stick with COBRA, since I know how to do it. The most stressful thing for me in all this, is not knowing how to handle every single thing from past experience. But COBRA I do know from several different transitions over the years, so that’s the least of my worries. Healthcare reform in this country will continue to be joke, unless and until it’s no longer a for-profit sector, and it’s removed from the “salvation” of the vaunted free market. Healthcare in the USA, of all things, is a stacked deck. Probably the most stacked deck on the planet.

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  15. One of the things I do in real life is broker life and health insurance. I’m probably not licensed in your state (there are 50 of them and I work in 4) but am willing to offer advice and share what I know if you need.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. By the way, for all the talk of “socialized medicine”, Germany runs a private insurance system like the US but with one key exception: by rule, all health insurers are non-profit and the salaries of executives are regulated. That one of many things that other countries do to provide healthcare at much lower cost than we spend in the US. BTW, the US ranks on a par with Bosnia in terms of life expectancy (around 50th in the CIA’s global ranking, the last time I looked).

    Liked by 1 person

  18. I lived in Germany for 2 years in the 1980s. Not once did I ever concern myself about getting sick. Of course, I was in my early 20s, so I didn’t worry much about that, anyway, but the simple fact of life is that everyone and everyone could get quality care for something like $300/year. No restrictions. Just take your voucher to the doc / dentist of your choices, and be done with it.

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  19. Good for you. I wish I did that. I tend to pull in, energy-wise, when I’m worried about some outcome I must wait to know. It feels like a sort of anxious/depressed fugue state. I have to force myself to get much of anything else done on the to-do list.

    Reaching out – writing, blogging, teaching, coaching, etc. – help by occupying my mind in other directions. But chores (or admin)? Not so much.
    xx,
    mgh

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Hang in there my friend and don’t get caught up in all the feelings of fear and uncertainty because this will only make things harder. All my best and good luck during these difficult times ahead!

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Thanks very much, Ken. I appreciate it. I’m staying steady, keeping myself from wallowing, and using all my nervous energy to get things done around the house. So, it’s good for something… Thanks again for your support.

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