Tuesday, February 5, 2013

A Word on Words

There's been something on my mind lately. A very specific something. Its the use of the term "let go" by many, if not most, companies when they layoff employees. I, myself, have been recently laid off and  I couldn't come to terms with that phrase. Let Go.

It has a certain implication of restraint. As if the employer had been holding onto you, holding you back from bigger and better things. As if they are doing you a favor by "letting you go." I'm not sour at all, of course. Shocked, but not bitter. I did, however, quite enjoy having a paycheck at the end of the week and a purpose for my days. I even liked having something to complain about over dinner. So that particular wording weighs on my conscious as false. A double-speak term employed to mislead our former coworkers that they have nothing to worry about since we weren't pushed out. Rather we had finally succeeded in our campaign to escape.

The only thing left now, I suppose, is to make it true. We will have to use our resources and cunning to make it on to bigger and better things. Escape the drudgery of not having a place to go everyday and make our days into something exceptional.

I know so many of you out there have also been let go by your employers, whether recently or not. I hope by reigniting this blog as a traveler's log on my journey through unemployment and underemployment we may find the answers to success. However that may be defined by you.

So cheers, my friends! A toast to new beginnings and 'letting go' of employers passed.

-EPB