TLDR; Other people’s bottom lines: this is likely where we’ll part ways.

My most recent lay off, (from my highest paying gig,) was March of 2023. I saw it coming and was guilty of waiting for it, hope beyond hope. My first lay off, back in 1998, seemed like a launch pad into entrepreneurialism, and while my independence didn’t last long, I sure enjoyed the severance and the unemployment benefits. At all of the layoffs in between, (six others!) I’ve made rules for myself, but they’ve done no good.

My shrink will tell you that these lay offs are more of an indication of the industry and profession I’ve chosen, it’s volatility and fickle nature. But I’ve struggled to not internalize all of them as personal failures of my own work: the quality, the quantity, the relationships I did or didn’t develop.

Now that there seems to be a glut of User Experience Design Researchers on the market, every single job posting I’ve seen has been shared dozens of times, and has comments saying “pick me!” to scroll through. Too many to count.

And if I am being honest with myself, I don’t want this kind of work anymore anyway. It’s time to pivot, as they say in corporate America.

At large companies, there’s a saying that a friend of mine coined: Your Craptitude does not map to My Aptitude. And off he would go to his next scientific endeavor, on purpose. I guess I am adopting this way of thinking, because deep down, I mostly believed mine was a Bullshit Job anyway.

But man, it sure was nice to collect those paychecks.

“Santa Got Laid Off!” by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com is licensed under CC BY 2.0.