“May I Take Your Pink Slip?”
February 4th, 2009 | 
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While waiting for my order to be confirmed (at the drive-thru of one of my favorite fast-food joints), I guiltily calculated the damage. I was cheating on my financial diet, but by the time I carried the one, I reasoned that I had done fairly well for the month. Hence, celebratory buttermilk biscuits were ok…dare I say, very necessary.
Gone is the motto, let the chips fall where they may. Now I am careful about where I knock them down, especially since the source of those chips decided to give gifts for the holidays. Layoffs.
The Prez of my company warned the flock a month before, but questions like “When?”, “How many?”, and again “When?” were left unanswered. That is, until December 8th. He said that we were having an office-wide meeting that morning, albeit vague about the time. We were instructed to clock-in by 9 AM.
On that Monday morning, I arrived at 8:50. I walked the halls to my desk, as if it were my funeral procession. As I willed one foot in front of the other, I observed my coworkers, entranced by the light emanating from their monitors. 9:10, nothing. 9:20, not so much as a cough. 9:30, gulps heard across the office as anxiety meds were ingested. The moment I decided to redirect my energy, I witnessed as some of my friends were quietly ushered away from their cubes, one by one.
The rest of us were called to another gathering spot. The Prez read from his script, “…if you’re standing in this room, you have survived the layoffs…” I cried. I’m no stranger to struggle, considering I’ve had to rebuild my life since August 29, 2005. But who really wants to be continuously tested on their survival skills?
A change was gon’ have to come. Much of 2009 would have to be spent resuscitating my emergency fund. I doodled on everything from scraps of used paper to napkins, massaged my spreadsheets, and set forth on the fantasy of added security. While devising ways to trim the fat off of my budget, I should’ve perhaps considered my celebratory dinners at that favorite fast-food joint. Unfortunately, the food sucked….dare I say, very unnecessarily. Motivation seems to come from the strangest circumstances.
S.TAE
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Don’t feel too guilty. I think we’ve all had a momment where a buttermilk biscuit was necessary. If you had gotten layed off, you couldn’t blame the biscuit. So enjoy!
I feel you on this one… my vice is the chicken nugget meal! You cant beat yourself up about this kind of thing… I allow myself one blunder a paycheck… i just set a limit and stick to it. It keeps me from impulse purchases on a regular basis(which I was very very guilty of).
I experienced something similiar at my job. Did you feel any “survivor’s guilt”?
Yes. The company decided to let go of one guy in my department and he was the one that had been there the longest. The math just didn’t add up…aside from the fact that it was cheaper to keep the rest of us.
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