As I cross the 1-year mark in this organization I am currently part of, I would like to share a few learnings. During the pandemic after my Job loss, I joined this organization back on 4th May 2020. It feels as if it was yesterday. But I have come a long way and I am wiser and stronger than I was in last year May. These what I share are learnings that I had along the way. I am happy but sad at the same time, thinking about all the people that had lost their jobs during the year. Anyways, the intent is to share a bit of positivity and hope. While sharing the story of my job loss to depression to scariness maybe I can inspire someone. At a time where we have so much negativity going on due to the situation.
I remember vividly the time when I got the offer in Feb 2020 and then resigned from my previous organization. Due to the pandemic situation, all the organizations decided their employees to work from home. And for the same reason, my joining date was pushed one week to Apr 2020. I was already feeling the pressure as I was anticipating that I am going to be jobless, insurance less, hopeless.
Then as if it wasn’t enough the situation went so bad that in the next few days, I heard that the new joining has been put on hold until further notice. I heard from friends, seniors and juniors about the cases like these and at the time organizations were taking back the job offers as it was a bad situation business-wise. Then, I started wondering whether organizations would appreciate the offers they released.
Knowing this I reached out to my previous organization to see whether the last date could be extended. Rather unexpectedly, since I was already serving my Notice Period, I was denied that under the circumstances even if I wanted to, I could not take back my resignation nor the last date could be extended.
And then it came true what I was fearing all along. Finally, I was jobless. Started applying everywhere with nowhere to go and everyone impacted. 2 days into my jobless life I was depressed and scared of what would happen to my family who depends on me. What would happen to my future Even more so how would I lead my life the way I used to and pay the EMIs that I have been paying etc.
Thanks to my freelancing experience with Upwork and other freelancing websites before, I was able to get a small part-time Business Management Consultant role. From this website, I was able to get a few WordPress website development projects and content writing opportunities which helped me get through at least for a month.
By that time, even though I attended few interviews and cleared them I had to deny joining them. As I felt that I was underpaid and felt that those organizations/HRs were taking advantage of the situation. At the time, I politely had denied joining a couple of organizations for the same reason. I already presumed that I am not going to get another offer even if I was still trying.
And then one fine day the hiring manager and HR manager called to inform me that my joining will be on the first week of May. The organization has decided to honour every offer that was released. I was relieved and so was my family.
I would say I was in a pretty bad shape of mind, knowing I do not have a Quote UnQuote Job but then I was not stressed out either. Because I was able to figure something out so that I could get through with my life. Then the D Day came, and I joined.
Even after joining, there were so many other issues like laptops being assigned and not delivered. Technical issues while logging in through personal laptops to organization network and other remote work issues that we all know of. Even after all this, the organization supported every bit of the way and kept us informed of what is going on. It was not easy for the organization, nor us, or for the people who were working on the ground to make it happen.
But I learnt some big life learnings that I never could have learnt otherwise. Since the pandemic life has taught me more lessons than what I learnt in 9 years of my career in IT or 20 odd years of my living life.
Please do share this and share your thoughts in the comments below. I would like to know if you were in my shoes then how would you have handled the situation any differently.
If you feel that this has the ability to inspire someone then please do share this. And would love for you to let me know. It would mean a lot. Thank you for reading. Here are some of my other articles that you might be interested in:
I am a 33-year-old gentleman from a lower-middle-class family hailing from a small village Narasinghpur in Cuttack, Odisha, INDIA. I have a post-graduate degree in M.Tech from BITS Pilani. I started blogging back in June 2014. You can check out my journey and all that I have learnt all these years on my website.
This post was last modified on June 23, 2023 7:16 PM
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