Laid off: Now what?
Well, it finally happened. After 16 years working for the same company, it all came to an end last week. The funny thing is…instead of being upset, angry or anxious…I kind of feel relieved, like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.
The company had it’s ups and downs over the years, but over the last few years specifically it had many more downs. The majority of my coworkers that I enjoyed working with over the years were no longer there, ownership changes had made things a lot less fun, and I had reached a point where I didn’t feel like I was being challenged, or learning anything new. Don’t get me wrong, I am still going to miss my work friends, and some of the conveniences that my company provided…but in the end, I think moving on will be best for me and my family.
I am also really looking forward to taking a month or two off, hopefully writing a few more blog posts, drinking a few new whiskies and doing some cleaning/organising around the house. It will be nice to have some extra time off around the holidays, hell I might even get my Christmas shopping done before Christmas eve (probably not). In my first 2 days of unemployment I’ve already accomplished quite a bit:
- Cleaned out & reorganised entire basement
- Set up home office
- Decluttered/cleared out cupboards/shelves in family room & kitchen
- Watched the Irishmen on Netflix
- Had brunch with my dad
- Wrote a blog post
- Initiated transfer of work Pension into direct investment account
We also have a trip to Mexico planned in January – so I probably wont start seriously looking for a new job until after that. In the mean time, I’m going to look into taking a couple courses and looking into seeing if EI will potentially pay for some. In my entire adult life I’ve never been on unemployment, or ever had a span of more than a week or two without a job, so it will definitely be interesting. Hopefully I don’t drive myself crazy.
Anyways, now you know the reason I haven’t been to active on Twitter lately, or written any new posts. Now that the home office is set up I hope to start writing a bit more – and I’m really excited to do a recap of the whisky tasting night I hosted a couple weeks ago.
In the meantime, if anyone has any movie/tv recommendations, online course recommendations, or xbox games to try…let me know in the comments. I got spare time!
Cheers