Managing Grief After Being Laid Off

Taylor Swift said it best when she sang, “I’m just mad as hell cause I loved this place…”

The stages of grief following last week’s layoff are wild. In the past few days, I’ve had moments where I feel empowered to scream, “I deserved better, anyway!” and other times, I feel the emptiness that a huge part of my life is now gone. It’s hard to not reduce myself down to a number, but at the end of the day, that’s all I was… a number to cut. It’s why I shifted my mindset a long time ago to not put my entire self-worth into a job, because while a company will preach that they care about their employees, ultimately, they’re going to do what’s best for business.

I’m not going to miss the monotony of my day to day tasks, but what I will miss is the people I worked with - those who saw me grow through so many milestone stages of my life, those who cheered me on and laughed with me during the good days, and those who comforted me through the bad ones. That is the family I will remember, not the “family” that the company boasted we were. What once felt like I hit the jackpot loving the company I worked with when I started there 13 years ago is no longer my reality - I truly don’t recognize the company they are today. If I’m being really honest with myself, we haven’t been in alignment for a very long time now… and for that, I thank them for letting me go. I wasn’t gutsy enough to make the decision to leave for myself this time around, so the universe made it for me.

If there’s one bright light to come from all of this, it’s that I’m not going to waste this gift - at this point in my life, a traditional 9-5 job isn’t for me, so let’s give full-time content creation a real shot. I don’t have a huge safety net to fall on, but to me, it’s worth the risk. I hope you’ll support me on this journey as we navigate what this looks like together.

xo,
Keshia