Corporate Semantics

Strange happenings in my world of the newly unemployed… Several months ago my managers at the mega corporation where I worked for ten years made the decision that my writing job was superfluous. I accepted my dismissal gracefully, along with 300 other employees whose positions were eliminated that day. Working in a corporation in the throes of hefty down-sizing is like working in a haunted house. Ghosts of the laid off reside in every cubicle while those still employed are waiting for the trap door to drop out from under their feet at any moment. I admit I was relieved to come out of the mournful shadows that company had become, and work in the light of day. If I hadn’t been so attached to my salary, I would have ended the craziness myself. Who knew there was a whole world of freelancing out here?

At any rate, last week I received a phone call from my ex-manager asking if I was interested in returning for a short stint as a contractor to help managers “catch up” on their backlog of documentation. So does this mean my job wasn’t really unnecessary or even eliminated? Obviously, it was dispersed among several managers already overloaded with responsibility.

My first reaction: are they kidding? Go back there after what they did to me? What nerve! But I worked hard not to take my lay-off personally so why start now? And let’s face it…it’s a writing assignment; it’s what I do. It’s gratifying to know my work was/is valuable. But the best facet of this opportunity is I’ll do it on my terms as an associate to the giant, not under its thumb. (And it’s probably silly, but it’s nice to know that (like my job) I’ve been gone, but not “unnecessary.”)