Author | Lightnews

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

If you know anyone impacted this week, be compassionate. It’s terrifying and it hurts.

And if somebody dares to praise Target around you for such a “bold” move, calling them a soulless fucking asshole is entirely justified.

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Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

I love both my dogs, but I call Mikko the Labrador my angel boy. If it hadn’t been for him during some of my darker days, I think I might’ve just laid down and died.

I’d get notice of yet another job I’d been interviewing for being closed, and would shake with stress for hours while hugging him.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

The paranoia sticks with you. To this day, anytime a 1:1 is changed without an explanation my stomach drops and flips.

Those months after the layoff likely took a couple of years off the end of my life, and I’m not exaggerating. That level of stress is horrible on the body and mind.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

My savings were demolished, but thankfully I’d HAD savings.

Again…I WAS LUCKY.

Lots of others aren’t.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

I was making under half of what I had made before. Better than nothing, but it meant a steady drain on savings.

I stayed there for six months, and was very fortunate again to have an offer come up that allowed me to get out of that hole.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

If you’ve never had to experience the hell of health insurance exchanges, count your blessings. It is supposedly even worse now.

It is a terrible feeling to believe that you failed everyone who ever believed in you.

I was fortunate in the end. I found a job in my field, albeit underemployed.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

Job after job that I was interviewing for began to close. Positions were defunded, listings were pulled back. And the date of my health insurance expiring drew closer.

In the meantime, my emotional state deteriorated. I lost confidence, became paranoid, had breakdowns while hugging my Labrador.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

I then watched a “leader” from that company go on a gleeful globetrotting tour of all their worldwide offices touting the savings of the layoffs and posting it all on social media. Asshole.

I initially wasn’t too worried. I’d never had a a problem getting a job.

Cue Covid economics.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

Mine was a changed time for a 1:1 and when I signed in, HR was on the call. Zero warning. Accounts went dead during the call.

No explanation other than cost cutting. I got 60 days of severance and insurance for a little more than that. I was lucky. Some people don’t even get that much courtesy.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

Let me share how my layoff went down in 2022.

For background, I had never been laid off in my life. I’d just come off a solid first year with this company, made club as a sales engineer (sales types will know what I mean), and then that Tuesday happened.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

Call it Schrödinger s Paycheck.

It’s cruel.

The damage that a layoff does to a person cannot be overstated. The loss of income, of security, of confidence all add up to cause not just monetary problems, but physical, mental, and emotional ones as well.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

Consider a sports team when the entire team is under performing. Who is fired? The coach.

But in corporate America, the workers suffer, not the failed leaders.

I can’t imagine the stress that Target employees have been under this weekend to not know whether they will have a job after Tuesday.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

I’ve never worked for Target, although I’ve certainly had more than my fair share of friends who have. As have many of us in the Twin Cities, I’m sure.

It is beyond infuriating that when a company crashes and burns, the executives are rarely held to account for their failure.

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

So after seeing the umpteenth post about Target’s “bold move” in laying off 1000 employees, I’m going to rant on this and share my own layoff story from 2022.

There is absolutely nothing bold about laying off 1000 employees.

It is a total failure of leadership to wind up in that position.

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Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

Wow…I’ve seen and played a lot of basses but haven’t seen that before…

a man stands at a table in front of a stanley cup advertisement

Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

Hynes needs to find a new job.

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Reposted by Mark

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Deeply racist, yes, but also deeply stupid.

Rural counties have higher enrollments than urban ones. Some of the largest enrollment states are red ones like Louisiana, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Undocumented immigrants are ineligible. Most beneficiaries are required to work 80 hrs/month.

Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 1d

May I present a former clerk to Justice Gorsuch.

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Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

Ohhh, I’d forgotten about the drama in Dallas. I bet he’d love to take a run at them.

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Mark @theabstractgeek.bsky.social · 1d

Alt: John Tortorella at a press conference.

media.tenor.com