The Hidden Joy of Getting Laid Off

I was cleaning up the photos on my phone recently (90% dog photos, 10% QR codes for restaurants, to give you a sense of my priorities) when I came upon the calendar invite that changed everything.

Rumours of mass-layoffs started brewing that fall when the network president resigned. What followed were waves of redundancies spread out over months, chopping off the heads of execs and vp’s who shaped the company for decades.

I could feel the cutbacks creeping toward my management level and fluctuated between fighting to stay relevant and praying for a sweet release.

When I started working on my last show I was thrilled by the creative challenge. It shaped and molded my creativity in ways I never thought possible. I still consider it my post-graduate degree in content.

But in recent years, as I took on more management responsibilities, the creativity just slipped through my fingers. My day-to-day duties were all about scheduling, fact-checking and quality control. All important tasks. But I still found myself in a rut.

I was terrified to change jobs without a plan. I was terrified to stay with a job that was just “ok”.

I was languishing.

I knew I needed to make a big change, but fear was holding me back.

The company made this decision for me.

When I got the calendar invite simply reading “update”, I knew my job was over. The fear washed over me instantly and my mind flooded with questions:

What am I going to do?

How am I going to pay my bills?

Why me?

And my personal favourite:

What am I going to have for lunch?

This practical question stopped me in my tracks. I realized once I decided on lunch, I didn’t have to make another decision until dinner.

Yes, I still needed to decide on my future, but that wasn’t going to happen in an afternoon.

An afternoon that was once filled with deadlines, assignments, meetings, and unanswered emails was now wide open.

I’m extremely fortunate my situation came with a severance package. Plus I had some savings to live on for a bit. Without this I wouldn’t be able to appreciate the gift hiding behind this traumatic event.

For the first time in almost 15 years I had the time.

Time to read an article in full, instead of just skimming through a few paragraphs.

Time to reflect on my skills — the ones I can market and the ones I can develop.

Time to talk to people whose careers and successes I admire.

Time to think and prioritize what I want to do in life. Not just what I can do, but what I want to do.

It’s been just under a year since my pandemic life took yet another unexpected turn. And while I didn’t plan the path I’ve taken, I can honestly say I’m coming out of this experience better than when I went into it.

I still don’t know the specifics as to why my “services were no longer needed.” Pragmatically speaking, my boss had a certain salary target to hit and I fell on the wrong side of the ledger.

But I sometimes like to feel as if my bosses knew what I couldn’t admit to myself.

As an entrepreneur, fear is your silent partner. It’s the thing that motivates you to try something new, something untested.

You can either let it keep you in place, or grab it by the hand and let it take you to unexpected new places.

I may never know what it’s like to rage-quit a job, and I hope I never get to that point again. But at least I know the hidden joy of racing into the unknown.

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