Job Insecurity

My husband works for one of the major record companies here in the Nashville area. Last week, 29 people in his building of employment and multiple other employees of the same company located throughout the country lost their jobs. Luckily, he was not one of the casualties. Not this time.

I don't think I ever realized how stressful a day like that would be on him and on me--and he didn't even end up losing his job. I also used to work in that building, and when he sent me that e-mail telling me that layoffs were happening, it felt like we were waiting for people we knew to be picked off by snipers. They were picked off one by one. It was awful.

It was horrible to hear the names of friends and old co-workers on that list. People of all levels were cut, from assistants to managers and everything in between. I thought of the single income families. I thought of the girl who recently got engaged. I thought of the people who have children and babies...and it just made me sad. I am genuinely sad for the people who were asked to leave their jobs. A friend of mine who has been through a job layoff in the past told me that it feels very much like a divorce.

A few days have now passed and we've had time to process it all, but it's taken it's toll on us. My husband has had trouble sleeping. I am trying to fight off a cold, but I think I am losing. It seems all we really want to do is sit in front of the TV and try not to think about it--but we still do.

Change is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it opens new doors for people. I just hope that for the majority of these people, these changes are just God's way of pushing them towards another door that they otherwise would have walked past.

May many doors be opened...