Member-only story
The Absolute Worst Feeling in the World
And how to move past it and live
The last few weeks have been really weird for me.
I’m sure they have been for you, too.
In the past few weeks, many of my friends have lost their jobs. That reminded me of times in my life when I lost my own job.
Years ago, I worked for a photographer and found out I was photographically colorblind, rendering me unfit for my position as a printer. It’s not that I can’t see color. I just can’t see it well enough to make the right corrections to the photos I printed.
So after three months on the job, I was let go.
I worked with one company for 17 years as a manager and a store owner. Then after a bad season that was too big to recover from, I was let go with a small severance package. That took me into a year and a half of stringing together part-time work to stay afloat financially. At one point, I worked from 3:30 in the afternoon until 8 AM the next morning five days a week.
That’s taxing for a man in his forties.
In the middle of all that, I got fired from a job at a call center. I got the news when I arrived at work. I was sent out the door with two days pay and an offer to interview for another call center job.
