As you read this, HR is busy prepping paperwork to explain your severance benefits to you. The decisions are made and your life journey will soon veer left.
As the person sits in front of you talking, you won’t hear $hit. Your pulse will increase, your face gets warm, your entire professional life as you know it is about to change and you think about your family, your kids and those that depend on you. You assess how long the severance will last, run through PTO and your prorated bonus. Stock? That will help.
Then, sit back and assess your life. Do absolutely nothing for at least two weeks. Think about what you want out of your life. Really assess what would make you happy. You’re about to be blessed with financial flexibility. Make it count and make a change. It’s scary, but well worth it, trust me!
Humans aren’t meant to sit at a desk all day, chase someone else’s dream and hope to keep a job you really don’t like anyway. It’s a waste of time and energy. You get up everyday thinking “my job s---s, this place is a shell of its former self but they pay me too much to leave on my own. I’m about to spend 45% of my waking day doing something I’m not passionate about”, then you do 10 hours of “let’s do this again tomorrow”, go home, see your kids for a couple of hours. That’s just long enough to feel like a crappy parent because you spend more time at a desk playing the “Do I keep my job today” than you do investing time into your kids. You eat, try to convince yourself that it’s all for the family, rinse and repeat daily. That changes now (well for the lucky ones at least).
At the end of it, you are simply a G&A number, sorry. You may be talented but not talented enough (or talented enough but make too much). Good news is, you’re smart and God is revealing something to you, but you have to watch for it and take action. This post may be just that for you.
Seriously, keep your head, walk out and never look back. Don’t miss what’s in front of you because you are too busy looking back.
If you happen to get laid off, congratulations! You just hit the Devon lottery! That veer left is a blessing, you just don’t know it yet.