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Career Help and Advice

In reply to the discussion: My layoff story [View all]

slightlv

(4,806 posts)
11. If you ever figure out how to get rid of the bitterness,
Mon May 27, 2024, 02:13 PM
May 2024

let me know! Mine was around election time, 2018 (gods, I can't believe it's been that long!). I am disabled. I worked for DoD, doing a job I loved, and that was appreciated by the soldiers I served, both in country and in Iraq/Afghanistan. I'd worked it for just a few months shy of 20 years. It was so involved.. so intricate... I actually wrote an SOP before leaving, so whoever took the job after me would have something to go by. Turned out to be over 100 pages long, typed. Did it like a Dummy book. Coworker who's still there kept a copy, in case she had to pinch hit.

All I wanted was a two-day remote telecommute. But we lost our tech supervisor, and the supervisor who was left was conflict avoidant. Our big department head was very old school, anti-telecommuting, so although other departments were given free latitude, I couldn't even get it with it a doctor's note! So, I ended up retiring at my next lupus flare.

I was lucky in that I -could- retire, altho it was early retirement. I kept my healthcare until I could get on medicare. But since I've been retired, my disabilities have gotten worse. I am SO bitter about the way it all went down. You see, whether I was sitting at home behind top notch computer equipment, or sitting at my office desk with connections that rarely worked well, I was on WiFi, working from the Cloud. Not being able to telecommute made NO logical sense!

And then, to boot, here comes Covid and EVERYONE was telecommuting. I'm 68 now. Thought I'd found a remote position a couple of years ago. Turned out to be a scam, luckily I was tech savvy enough to figure it out. Even went to the police about it. Now, I'm so turned off from the online job ads, and no one wants to hire someone my age, like me. period. And I haven't figured out how to get rid of the bitterness, or what to do to bring joy in my life... other than my critters. We don't have enough money to travel, because hubby's job was cancelled just before my salary was slashed by 2/3's when I went DoD from contracting. We were lucky to hang on to the house!

Mine wasn't due to economics, like yours was... but it was politics that did mine in. The fact I am female just made it easier for them in that environment, even though I am a veteran. I echo your sentiment that it's all bullshit. I fought the patriarchy for 20 years in that job, but in the end, it still got me.

My heart goes out to you. I can empathize so much. You do everything right, and it still doesn't work out. The American dream that I've called the American Nightmare for years now. {hugs}

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