Some days, we just have to write from the dark side.  These kinds of days are like tears, an attempt to cleanse the psyche of the negativity we find there. This letter is for all my unemployed comrades out there -most of these apply to all of us who find ourselves in this position.Try to remember that I write as honestly as I can – it would be untruthful of me to not admit to feeling these things during my time of unemployment.  These may be too raw for you, so proceed carefully.

To whom it may concern:

This brief letter is to bring to your attention a number of details, that you may be unaware of, which you have in effect created in my life.  I feel that it is important to articulate these items as I am sure you did not and may not ever in the future think about them -that is until you are terminated.

Up until the fateful day,when the distressing news of my termination was given to me, I was operating under the same employment guidelines as you.  I was a recipient of regular pay, life insurance, disability insurance, health, dental and vision insurance, retirement contributions, colleague interaction, and interaction with our consumer.  The same as you. Yes, we both came to work that day with the same framework and one of us left with that framework in tact. That was not me. And since you allowed my framework to be splintered, I thought I would mention to you some of  what you have taken away in my life.

1. You took away some element of my self worth and integrity. You allowed someone to tell me that I was not valuable. You minimalized my past work with you and decided that my input was not important. In termination, all that you had  asked to accomplish, was now going to be undone.
2. You took away my ability to keep my family, home and church financially safe. By removing the funds and benefits that I gave you 40+ hours a week to earn, you have placed my home in a precarious position.  The mortgage depended on my income.  You have limited the financial influence I can have in my families lives.  Without my income, there is no extra helping hand from their parents. You reduced my ability to help keep my church afloat as the decrease in family income you created, has decreased my tithe.
3. You took away my ability to reach into my society and make a financial difference.  No longer can I lend a helping hand to someone who needs it, or who would benefit from the financial gift. There is no pay it forward from me any longer.
4. You took away my ability to have safety in retirement. All of my retirement was in the state sponsored retirement plan, and since you terminated me, I no longer can pay into this fund. It stops growing by contribution, thereby greatly limiting my retirement funds that I was planning on living on after my work days were accomplished.
5. You took away my opportunity to find challenging work in this field. Oh you protected yourself legally from me crying foul regarding the fact that I am a female approaching 60 and so does every employer where I interview.  Never is a word spoken about my age, but it is apparent by the questions asked.  I will most likely never have the chance to enter the workforce in this arena again.
6. You took away my ability to earn a competitive wage.  As in so many fields, you must be on the inside to move up, therefore, coming from the outside of a company limits my opportunity.  The positions that are open, I am overqualified for, the ones I might qualify for are given to worthy internal employees.  This forces me to a lower wage position.
7. You took away my ability to protect my health. Yes, I am sure that I will eventually find a job. One that pays much less, and requires much more of me physically such as standing for long periods of time, etc.  These positions, starting them at my age, will only aggravate the health issues that I have.  Issues that were not impacting the office job I had, but will definitely impact the hourly wage position I will be forced to take. This job, will at least make my life more physically painful and at worse, shorten my life span.  This impacts how I get to spend time with my family.
8. You took away my ability to mix with people I had developed relationships with.  No longer is it entirely safe for my former workmates to visit with me, go out with me or for me to stop in and see them. There is always the unspoken of what should they share and not share, and who might see us together. And while I was never told to not return to the company to visit, or celebrate a colleagues achievement, you have made that too awkward for me to do.
9. You took away a means to provide for my final arrangement by taking away my life insurance.  Now that burden will fall squarely on my survivors.
10. You took away my trust.  I will never again work for anyone that I trust. I will always be watching over my shoulder, seconding guessing each directive or comment. I will always wonder if my head is on the chopping block, even when there is no current evidence to support my fears.

I am sure that as you sat behind closed doors, and discussed my future with your company, that you didn’t give any one of these abilities a moment of thought.  I am sure that at no time did you put yourself in my position and wonder exactly how you would address this massive change in your own life, should it be you.  I am sure, in fact, that you sat there and thought about yourself.  How to protect yourself. How to tell yourself that the series of bad decisions you made, behind these very same closed doors, were good decisions even though the facts didn’t support your hypothesis. I am sure that you decided to cut your losses and not deal with the truth, because the truth would cost you. Instead, you passed that cost onto me. Shame on you.

I hope that when you look in the mirror each day, that you see exactly how selfish you are. I hope that you see, that because of a series of bad decisions that you were a part of, that you have curtailed my life, while you continue to live yours unhindered. I hope you see a person that you no longer like. But most of all , I hope that you see someone who should and will change. Someone who will speak up for what is right, someone who will not go with the “company line”. I also hope that you don’t find yourself on the other side of this table. That someday, the group meeting behind closed doors might not include you.  You might be the one to get conflicting messages about performance. You might be the hunted instead of the hunter. You might find your position given to another or outsourced. I want you to be prepared. Prepared to have your abilities taken away.

Thank you for this opportunity to share with you some of my concerns.  I am hopeful that as a supervisor, your future will hold less termination decisions and more sacrificial ones. I am hopeful,  you will desire to be truthful with yourself and with your employees.  I am hopeful you will not bow to the pressure of quick fix solutions and  you attempt to make fair decisions. I am hopeful you will think of others before yourself or your company.

Sincerely,

Your former employee