You win or you learn. And I definitely didn't win this time.
And hearing 'these things happen' is not much comfort, actually.
The picture above jarred with me when I saw it, but only as of this week. You can work hard, be kind, and sometimes… Well, sometimes sh*t things happen.
If you follow me on social media, or indeed on LinkedIn (the one place it’s okay to be borderline offensively boastful) you may have seen my attempt at *some personal news*. (I’ve reposted it below ICYMI).
I didn’t go down the route of titling it that, you’ll be glad to hear, but a very personal post it was.
It detailed the past year, a year I spent at a dream job, as Head of Comms and Brand for Poco Beauty. Anyone who has read my pieces on Substack in 2024 will be acutely aware of how MAD about myself I was with this job. It just fit me so well, I was being paid a decent salary, I was thriving, enjoying myself, working bloody hard and seeing the fruits of my efforts in real time.
I felt properly respected, valued, heard and supported for the first time in my career. Anyone who spoke to me in 2024 will be aware of just how happy I was. It was, and remains, the best job I think I’ve ever had.
Had. Past tense.
Sadly, I no longer have it.
Although I didn’t allude to it at all (I don’t think) in my LinkedIn post, because on Professional Social Media I wanted to be completely professional. Not that I won’t be here, but I have more space to explain things here.
Short story long: I didn’t choose to leave my role. I was ‘let go’, as they say. And the only safe space I felt I could talk about why, and what exactly happened, was here.
I had never in my entire life truly understood what it meant to be speechless until that moment, last Monday week.
I sat across a coffee table from my boss – former boss, I suppose – just staring. It felt like an eternity, I was unable to speak a single word. I had plenty I wanted to say to him, lots I wanted to ask him, but quite literally I couldn’t get anything to come out of my mouth.