I keep telling this story because I think people deserve to know what it actually feels like so they're not blindsided like I was.
The invite was titled 'Quick sync with [HR name].' No agenda. My manager wasn't on it. I knew. I think I knew the second the notification hit.
Seventeen minutes later my Slack was gone, email was gone, laptop was a brick. They overnighted a shipping label for the hardware. Very efficient.
What I wasn't prepared for: how loud the house was. I sat at my desk for like forty minutes just kind of... not doing anything. It wasn't grief exactly, more like my brain refused to process what had happened.
If you're reading this from that place right now: the to-do list can wait a few hours. The unemployment claim, the COBRA paperwork, the LinkedIn update. None of it is so urgent that you can't sit with it for a minute first.
5 replies
quietquit_quincy
the 'quick sync' invite is basically a universal signal at this point. i've seen people refuse to join the call because they knew. company had to send a follow-up email with the letter.
the badge-stops-working part is so dehumanizing. like you're a process that got terminated.
laidoff_lena
exactly. and nobody tells you in advance. you find out you're locked out when you try to open something and get a login error. there's no dignity in that design.
veteran_vance
been through three of these. the first one i sat in my car for two hours before driving home. didn't want to explain it to my wife until i'd processed it myself a little.
you're right that the paperwork can wait. the one thing i'd say doesn't wait: file for unemployment that same day or the next morning. states have waiting periods and the clock starts from when you file, not from when you were let go.
de_derek
seconding the unemployment thing. i waited almost two weeks because i was embarrassed, and i lost those two weeks of benefits. file immediately, even if you're not sure you'll need it.
infra_ines
I'm sorry. That 40 minutes you described, sitting in the quiet. I know exactly what that is.