Being laid off is hard enough in terms of the economic and emotional consequences without the added weight of secretly feeling: I deserved this. I wasn’t really a good performer and after all these years they finally caught up with me
“You thought you did a good job, but did you really? Were those performance evaluations really valid? Apparently not, because you got laid off…”
“There are constant reminders – your old drive to work, running into former colleagues at a restaurant. Old colleagues ask, ‘What ARE you doing now?’ Awkwardness ensues. Then over time former colleagues who were friends don’t call anymore. You wonder what the rumor mills are churning out about you at your former employer…”
“You wake up at 2 in the morning, unable to sleep because your reality has changed.