Member-only story
The Dreaded News
Jan 25, 2024
I wrote this when I was “laid off” from a leading travel business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fatal blow is delivered via email
And a mandatory phone call
Just the right number of words
Peppered with corporate euphemisms
The well-practiced art of sounding humane
With minimum viable humanity
You devolve so quickly from
a trusted asset to a potential liability
To be
Contained
Silenced
And then terminated
It’s a rapid descent
With the finality of rejection waiting for you at its nadir
The puppeteer’s strings are finally gone
Unraveled and untethered
Laid bare from the blanket of doublespeak
It’s finally time to hit reset
