Red Letter Day
A cathartic poem about being laid off, with a call to change
looming
last-minute meetings
a quick fifteen, set first-thing
no agenda, “we can chat in the morning”
asking but really not-asking
for time, anyway
the night before
an inner knowing
special project teams
draw lines,
we read between
information beams
a quiet unease
light delayed and received
back-channel with no invite
subconsciously felt, but not seen
flashbacks to last time
the rains came
bits flip, chat names
evaporate in place
familiar faces fade
stamped: deactivated
a subtle, scarlet A
on private calendars, a red letter day
punctuated,
hands-off and inhumane
enterprise
inventing new ways to get laid
marching, on the way
automating
an end-to-end seamless process
If we can point out the inhumane ways we treat each other, and honor the way it makes us feel without looking away, maybe we can start to change.
I wrote this for the people who are feeling that eery quiet after the Zoom meeting ends, and the Slack and email access is cut off. Your presence is quietly de-emphasized from online spaces, face greyed out and stamped with a “Deactivated” label. A subtle death. You wait for the voices to come, from those that know how to reach you (and a few do, thankfully). But mostly, it’s quiet…and in the weeks after, the silence can be deafening. Weren’t these the people who cared? Are they afraid to speak out, or to even acknowledge what happened?
Why don’t we talk about the people who are quietly disappeared at work, and how we feel?
Who is helping the people who were “not affected” (but are psychologically very affected) by the looming axe of “what’s next?” and “where did my Coworker go? (the one who laughed with us at Team Week)”
Could it be that we are ashamed of the way we are treating each other?
Why do executives announce stock buybacks (and keep their jobs) in the same breath they announce layoffs? Do we want this to be normalized?
What are we really feeling here, and who else has something to say?
I also wrote a song last year about the experience of being laid off and struggling to find who I was without work. It’s called “925” if you would like to listen:
Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 6, 2025