Well, I Seem to Have Some Time on My Hands Now
I was laid off yesterday.
If you've never been laid off or fired before, there are a few things you should know about their differences. Getting laid off isn't as bad as being fired. Being fired means that you did something to provoke your company to terminate your employment. Maybe you kept swearing too much at work after they told you to stop swearing. Maybe you slept with your boss's wife at the Christmas party. Just like someone who breaks the law in real life, you're sent to jail and pretty much all rights are taken away from you. You pretty much are out on your own with no obligation from your company to make your life any better once you are escorted out of the building.
Being laid off, on the other hand, is relatively better, but not by a whole lot. Being laid off means that factors you can't control are involved in you being terminated. Since it's not your fault, your termination is more of a 'transition' into unemployment. You might get a severance package or be able to keep some benefits.
So I was laid off. I don't feel great about it, but I'm happy that I'm 'transitioning' into unemployment. Everyone I worked with was really nice. I realized that the job I was doing wasn't what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my career, nor did I want to spend the rest of my career in that particular industry, so I feel that I was actually pretty lucky to leave the way I did.
The goal now is to find employment doing something I like. To do that, I first need to figure out what I like. I like to make money, but that's pretty vague as far as what kind of job would get me that. I took this last job because it paid about 30% better than the job before that (don't worry, if you knew how much I made at that first job, a 30% increase brings me an 'average' salary for someone my age and with my experience). A 30% increase in pay didn't bring me any happiness, so one has to wonder what the monetary value of career happiness is. I would take a pay-cut if it were for a job that made me happy and was satisfying.
So leave it up to you, dear reader. Most of you know me, most of you know what kind of person I am and what I like. Tell me: what kind of work should I look for?
If you've never been laid off or fired before, there are a few things you should know about their differences. Getting laid off isn't as bad as being fired. Being fired means that you did something to provoke your company to terminate your employment. Maybe you kept swearing too much at work after they told you to stop swearing. Maybe you slept with your boss's wife at the Christmas party. Just like someone who breaks the law in real life, you're sent to jail and pretty much all rights are taken away from you. You pretty much are out on your own with no obligation from your company to make your life any better once you are escorted out of the building.
Being laid off, on the other hand, is relatively better, but not by a whole lot. Being laid off means that factors you can't control are involved in you being terminated. Since it's not your fault, your termination is more of a 'transition' into unemployment. You might get a severance package or be able to keep some benefits.
So I was laid off. I don't feel great about it, but I'm happy that I'm 'transitioning' into unemployment. Everyone I worked with was really nice. I realized that the job I was doing wasn't what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my career, nor did I want to spend the rest of my career in that particular industry, so I feel that I was actually pretty lucky to leave the way I did.
The goal now is to find employment doing something I like. To do that, I first need to figure out what I like. I like to make money, but that's pretty vague as far as what kind of job would get me that. I took this last job because it paid about 30% better than the job before that (don't worry, if you knew how much I made at that first job, a 30% increase brings me an 'average' salary for someone my age and with my experience). A 30% increase in pay didn't bring me any happiness, so one has to wonder what the monetary value of career happiness is. I would take a pay-cut if it were for a job that made me happy and was satisfying.
So leave it up to you, dear reader. Most of you know me, most of you know what kind of person I am and what I like. Tell me: what kind of work should I look for?
posted by Carl at 1/11/2006 09:15:00 AM
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