So little time, so many ways of saying "layoffs" and "being let go" in all languages. Even in English, there's a handful of ways to describe one of the most traumatic events in life: being terminated at your work, the awful realization that you are no longer employed. "Got canned," "packed my stuff, "laid off" all come to mind, except there are slight differences between being terminated for personal performance issues as opposed to "mass layoffs" as part of a company-wide cost-cutting measure. All the Asian languages have various ways to say it too, including getting "necked" in Japanese (probably similar to losing one's head in the olden days), "restructured" (リストラ) which is like the ultimate euphemism depicting a company's need to restructure its personnel structure. And the Chinese provide imagery as to how much of a small fish in a big pond the average employee is, as being let go is called "frying squid"(抄魷魚). apparently the story with squid is that people used to live on site at the factory they worked at and used quilts and blankets as a place to sleep, which they would have to roll up when they were let go, which looked like rolling up an octopus. What these terms all have in common is that the employee is not quitting or voluntarily leaving, it's a forced termination, and usually quite unexpected, leaving the employee a little shell-shocked and not knowing what to do next.
Currently in the legal industry (and a whole lot of other industries around the job world), lawyers are being laid off at big firms and in-house legal departments due to the lack of work from the onset of the coronavirus (clients delaying their cases, not paying their legal fees, rethinking the litigation or merger and acquisition they were planning on due to changing business needs), so the situation has become quite similar to 2009-2011 when I was in law school: lack of demand for lawyers, lawyers with no work to do and unable to bill enough hours, thus firms being unable to justify their cost and having to "restructure" them. It's a sad and unfortunate situation compounded by the fact that almost law firms are facing the same situation, so being laid off doesn't mean you will find a job and get right back on your feet soon, it's usually a lengthy delay to wait for the economy and the legal industry itself to turn around, and some people just leave the entire field entirely! Suddenly one's entire work routine is obviated, all contacts with co-workers and bosses severed, and worst, NO MORE HEALTH INSURANCE! Certainly I'm not trying to garner sympathy or pity for lawyers where many people are suffering much worse financially whereas lawyers hopefully have saved up some money during their time separating clients from their wealth, but that is a big discrepancy to go from making big law-figure salary to making zero. (Hopefully they got a severance package?)
I've been laid off more than once or twice in my life. Luckily for me, I'm used to it, and my initial expectation on the jobs I begin is not to work forever at that company, it's whenever I am no longer needed. I don't take getting laid off that hard, but then again I am in the unique position to be able to start the next job pretty quickly. I am, in many respects, like those workers rolling up their quilts at the factory, I don't think I do the usual desk decorations like putting family pictures up, getting my own orthopedic chair to improve my sitting posture (although, that's not a bad idea as I'm getting older, and I've always slouched).
Layoff could be a good opportunity to do something new! Learn a new language, start a blog, start a Youtube channel, start a vegan diet, I've done 2 of those things during this lockdown already. I think layoffs are indicative of the working world in the 21st century: Not always working at one company for one's whole life, and changing careers sometime midway through one's working life. MJ's already done it once; I've been lucky enough to not have had to change careers yet after 9 years of working in it, but it's definitely possible especially if my line of work gets replaced by automation/ computers (always possible for many jobs out there). That's why I go on reddit often to look up "what jobs do people have and how fast can you obtain them?" just to get some new ideas and look at the shiny toys that other people have, as the grass always looks greener in those other careers. Then I'll look at people who I knew in high school/ college who became (theoretically, on paper) more successful than me ("Always compare yourself to people better than you, not worse than you!" my parents always told young Robert when he complained about comparisons to family friends' children) and see that they've already weathered the long, steep climb to become a doctor and is a resident (fill-in-scientific-term-here)-ologist at a (pretty desirable location, usually urban city) hospital and I think what many people probably think when they look back and regret the college major they chose instead of biology," Ah, should have become a doctor."
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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