Requiem for a Career

A corporation and career are intricately woven into our search for meaning and pursuit of physical and mental well-being. This is a reflection on my journey.

Picking an image was a conundrum. What picture captures the complexity of a career? We don’t go to the office or on corporate travel with the mindset of capturing it like a family vacation. Why not? So please indulge me and make some deep inference about the metaphorical road of life and how windy and strange it is.

I was recently severed from my company, along with dozens that I had close relationships with, hundreds that I worked with on a regular basis over my career, and thousands overall. From the thousands, a broad variety of tenure was represented, but I don’t know any off the top of my head that were 10 or fewer years with the company. I also don’t know many that hadn’t built their career from the ground up, myself included.

I asked for the severance. It is what my family and I wanted. For others it was unwanted, and for others it was that and a surprise. In all those scenarios, it is disorienting and challenging. It is easy to talk about work-life balance and not investing too much of your worth into your work, but I don’t think that is realistic. Life is messy and so are careers.

I see encouraging posts on LinkedIn (and post some myself) about how a person’s worth isn’t how their company treats them or their position at a company. It is a common refrain to “avoid giving too much to a company”, they won’t take care of you in the end.

I am guilty. I did that. I gave a lot of emotional energy to the company. I tied my worth up with the company.