What's on your Thursday Menu?
Sorry again, Kelly. For your friend especially.
Is the job situation related to COVID or were they planning to cut numbers anyway? It's so nice and typical of you to say you wanna know how to help the people that are staying behind. I would have been so pissed that I would have said the heck with them. Hang in there. 
SW:261 6/26/17 GW:150 10/6/18
CW: 141.6
PGW: 140-142
Kelly, I am so, so sorry. I went through this once, and I feel like it's my duty to reach out to anyone who has been part of a layoff to tell you my experience so you know what you might go through. The fear and uncertainty at this time is just awful, and you have always been so dedicated to work, that this undoubtedly feels like a big slap in the face.
But you saying that you have been at your company for 18 years made me want to reach out with this story. I want to share that once, many years ago, I was part of a large layoff that was not performance based. For me, it was like a death. I had to process a lot of grief. I went from sadness (literally one night I woke myself up sobbing!) to anger (man I was pissed those first few days and weeks) to vindictive ("GOOD LUCK GETTING **** DONE WITHOUT ME!") back to sadness and so on. I think for me, the hardest part was reconciling how much I had put into work, and how I had really defined a lot of my value by my work. And then there was the ego part of it! How could I tell my family and friends - to whom I had always portrayed myself having a good career? I felt like a failure for a few weeks, until things started to turn around. I started to reassess how much I worked, how I put work above all else, and how that made no sense, given that I was so expendable. I started to think about what I might want to do in the future. I started to take a lunch break again, and reconnect with old friends. I planned a trip (ok, this might not be super possible right now, but still)! While at first it was hard to de-couple me from my workplace, since it had always been such a part of my identity, I realized that actually, I had a great identity OUTSIDE of work. I realized I didn't need to frame my usefulness as a person in terms of my job.
What I know as a FACT, is that as uncertain and tough as the last few days and upcoming days likely are, you WILL move onto something amazing and awesome. I really hope that you know your worth. You are motivated, intelligent, passionate, kind, hard-working, and you are an inspiration! I have no doubt that wherever you land, you will look back on this time a year from now, and think "leaving that company was a really good choice/a great thing for me". I know it's hard to see in the uncertain moments, but I have no doubt that the best is yet to come for you.
You have a whole lot going on, but we are here as your virtual extended family to support you. Sending you hugs and more hugs.
