At the moment there is an almost manic intensity to go out and celebrate Mardi Gras tonight. Each $5 beer (yup, it’s New York), $8 wine, or $10 mixed drink I buy might keep one more person in his or her job for a little longer.
I just do not feel like celebrating tonight, as many of my friends were laid off this week and it feels wrong to feast during their famine. For those that have not seen it first hand there is a sobering reflective quality during a time when you know that friends of yours will need to find a new job. When it comes down to it, there are few things in life scarier.
There is definitely a consensus of the mentality that “it will never happen to me, I have produced and am good at what I do.” For you reading this who has not yet seen a friend lose their job, I know you are thinking this very thought. To have such bliss ripped from you is somewhat hard to manage.
I will be ok, the axe man missed my head this time. But when you know that it is not your performance that determines your fate, instead it is some other intangible economic factor; it changes your perspective of the business world.
I will listen to the President this evening with guarded hope and skeptical optimism. I will judge his words, not by my own experiences, but that of those friends of mine whose lives just got a lot harder.
It sucks to lose your innocent bliss.
I would love to hear your thoughts, your stories, your situation in the comments below.
2 days ago
