Imagine the shock when the entire corporate communications staff, except for me, was let go. Management told me to pack up and move out of our corner offices, which had a killer window view, into a new office space they carved out for me. And that ‘new office space ‘? It was a closet. Literally.
My new office was a large windowless storage closet with the four Macintosh computers left over from our writer, producer, and assistant. Every day, I had to walk by our old office, which was getting filled up with boxes and turned into storage. Occasionally, my boss would check in on me, and we would talk about the archiving I had to do, but my job was essentially over.
It was my first salaried position out of college, and I had never experienced a broad corporate purge of employees. Being left in a closet with no exact indication of what would happen to me and no idea what I would do next if I quit was stressful. I remember feeling a mix of confusion, fear, and determination. I was unsure about my future, but I was not ready to give up.
I stuck it out. I dug in and found that in my storage closet office, without any distractions or much work, I could get busy learning the new software on my Macintosh IIsi and begin formulating a plan.
One thing was crystal clear in my mind: I would not quit. I was determined to see this through, no matter what.
As it turned out, the writing was on the wall for me at Datapoint, as was the entire company. Luckily, I was young and resilient. That was my first taste of what it means to be resilient in your career: you have to learn how to recover quickly and move forward.
I didn’t have a clear picture of what I wanted to do next; I had no view at that point in my career in the storage closet, but I knew this was another stepping stone on my professional journey. Accordingly, I did what I knew best: I got busy taking the necessary next steps to find another opportunity and keep going.
When my boss opened my storage closet office door one day after a month of working on my next steps and asked me, “Do you want to get laid off?” I smiled and said, “Yes.”
I didn’t quit. I had won, and I was moving on with a severance check.
This check was not just a financial reward, but a symbol of my resilience and determination. It was a testament to the fact that no matter how challenging the circumstances, if you stay focused and keep moving forward, you can come out on top. Cheers!
