Yesterday I was served my papers. Dismissed after 3yrs at the company. My performance was stellar. I received constant praise for things I did. Was liked by most everyone. But at the end of the day, it's all about money. Company had "limited work", and they needed to make cuts. What better department than the IT department. We're not revenue generating, and an easy target.
I was the sole systems admin on a 4-person team. I managed the server and cloud environments. I did the "Tier 2 and 3" troubleshooting. I was hands-on with the c-suite giving them "white glove treatment". I also would 3D print stuff for the company. Whether it was stuff used in the shop for when they made cranes and trucks, or for events. I was working on wall mount brackets for our WAPs so they were mounted horizontally. I managed the security camera system. UPS', network, you name it. We had an entire year of updates planned. Moving to SharePoint and eliminating an old on-prem file server. Finally getting rid of our last 2 Server 2008 R2 boxes. Upgrading the building security and HVAC control systems.
Despite all that I did, all that I was involved in, it didn't matter. Company needed to cut costs, and I was next on the chopping block. When I arrived yesterday morning at work, I put my keys on my desk, removed a print from my printer to see how it turned out (if you know anything about 3D printing, TPU is not easy to work with), and went to grab a coffee. As I'm at the machine, I hear a "Morning" from behind me. It was my boss. He didn't look happy. Said he needed to talk to me in my office. Then I heard another "Morning" from behind me. It was the CFO. That's when I knew something bad was happening.
We went to my office, I put my coffee on the desk and heard the door close. Was told I was being laid off due to a "lack of work". Was nothing performance related. The CFO gave me a hollow "thank you for your help and all that you've done" and shook my hand. Told me that they can give me a glowing reference if I want. Once he left and it was just my boss and I, I could tell how furious he was over this decision. He told me that he argued hard against this, and that he only found out late the day before. In the end, it fell on deaf ears.
Boxing up everything off my desk was such a weird feeling. I had moved offices a few times, but this was different. When I had all my stuff boxed up, it was almost 8am. Boss mentioned that people were rolling in for the day and asked if I wanted to wait to go out to my car. I told him "fsck that. I want as many people as possible to see this." and he told me he liked that attitude. I held my head high and walked out to my car carrying a box, by boss behind me with another box. Had a few people see me and have shocked looks on their faces. Had one lady come back as I closed my trunk and asked to give me a hug. I always liked her. She's Spanish and has that awesome mom vibe. She hugged me so tight and said she was sorry this happened. Boss shook my hand, and told me how sorry he was. We're meeting for lunch tomorrow because there are some big discussions to be had. He also told me that there are a few people who will be reaching out to me to discuss job opportunities. The amount of support I've received from him even after this is nothing but amazing. He was by far the most supporting and helpful boss I've ever had.
This morning is when it really hit me. Woke up at 930. House was quiet. Slowly went downstairs, got my coffee, and sat down at my computer. I opened my resume to start updating it, and realized that I just couldn't do it. And that's when everything came rushing out.
Decided I'm going to take some time for myself instead. The wound is pretty raw still, and I need to collect myself before I work on anything. Had a friend reach out to an audiobook company to see if they need any male VAs and they do, so maybe this could be a good time to focus on my VA career which went on the back burner. Plus I have a lot of lines to record for a DCS World campaign. Also have some 3D print projects to work on. Adding a runout sensor to the extruder on my k1 max, and printing Obi-Wan's lightsaber from Ep3 to go on my shelf of geeky things. Some things to do around the house as well.
No matter how hard you work. No matter all the good you do for the company, at the end of the day you're nothing but a number on a spreadsheet. And the higher up on that sheet you are, the bigger a target you become. They will discard you like yesterday's jam without nary a thought. Don't kill yourself for your job. Set up your boundaries, and work within them. It's not worth your energy, your sanity, or your well being to kill yourself for your job.