Losing your job is painful and unfortunately the current economic conditions have led to many layoffs and firings in companies large and small. However, we’ve learned though thousands of interviews over the years that job loss is one of the most common catalysts for massive life improvement. Below, we’ve shared stories and perspectives from some very successful members of the community around how they dealt with job loss.
Stacey Nicholls
I was laid off from my graphic designer position in October 2023. The business I was working for had been doing poorly, constantly losing clients month after month without gaining new clients. The writing had been on the wall, but my boss had me start working on a new project that was doing well for a time. Eventually, that project went to market and began to have its own problems and financial stress. The perks I was promised for working on this project were drastically reduced. Even though I had all of these signs, my boss had told me that nothing was going to change and our jobs were safe, and I believed him. I should have known better, but I was shocked when I was finally laid off. It was a bad few weeks since my partner had been laid off a few months before and had yet to find a new position. We had a little bit of savings, but with no jobs coming in, those savings weren’t going to last. I gave myself some time to process and grieve this transition, though not nearly enough time since I needed to pull things together – and fast. Since 2019, I have been expanding my skillset and learning website design. I started doing client work in 2022, but this was just supposed to supplement my day job and scratch a creative itch. Read more>>
Chef Benjamin Leggitte
Back in 2020 I was the lead chef at the hilton in dallas and when the pandemic happened I ended up losing my job and I had to work at amazon to support my self after that I quit amazon and started my own private chef company. Read more>>
Batsheva Guy
I got fired from my role as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) consultant for putting my pronouns in my email signature. Yeah, you read that right. I’ll give you a sec to digest it. How did I overcome it? I leaned into it. Let me paint y’all a picture… “Do you have a sweater?”
I stared blankly, not fully understanding the question that seemingly came out of the blue. “Do you have a sweater at your desk?”
“Um, yes, why?” “I can’t have your tattoos showing for this meeting. We don’t do that here.” This was a conversation I had with my boss at a large Catholic hospital system in Cincinnati. I’d been doing the DEI consultant gig for about a month, and this request came as a massive shock to me. There had been other red flags—subtle comments about my appearance, dismissive attitudes toward my suggestions—but this felt like a huge blow. Not to mention a deep disrespect to my identity and principles. How could I, in good conscience, carry out DEI efforts that were clearly performative if I couldn’t even be my authentic self at work? I tried talking to my boss about how I felt, and she basically told me to deal with it. She mentioned that she had tattoos, too, and just had to hide them and that “change comes slowly.” Whatever. It was clear that my concerns were not going to be taken seriously, and I felt increasingly isolated in an environment that preached inclusivity but practiced conformity. Read more>>
