Going on the dole.

Maybe you heard. Maybe you didn't. I'm not divulging anything here that isn't public knowledge, but PayPal is, or is in the process, of laying off 2000 employees.

That's 7% of the total global staff, if I'm reading the press releases correctly.

Turns out my old jowel-ly 65 year old neck, was on the chopping block. 

I know other employees, and by other I mean all the ones who are younger than me, roughly 99.999999% of the company, are freaking out about this. I am not. At least not yet.

As someone who has been in the industry in 5 separate decades, I know it's the cost of being in this glamorous business. It's not my first rodeo. And as I was explaining to one of the younger women (again redundant) it's perfectly natural to get laid off/fired/terminated at least 2 times, sometimes 3, sometimes in the case of being over-opinionated (though always right), the axe can fall even more often than that.

Am I upset about it? 

Well, no one likes to get to told to get lost. And naturally I would have liked to leave the job -- and really how much of a job can it be when you work from home in your pajamas without ever shaving for the occasion -- on my own terms. 

But a little more than a year ago, I lost my wife of nearly 30 years. And that was after two grueling and emotionally-draining years of being her full time caregiver and another year and a half of caregiving for my crazy, impossibly cranky uncle. 

In other words, I've been put through life's pointy, spiky arsenic-tipped ringer and come out on the other side.

And now, as a man in his sunset years, I face the daunting task of finding a new job. Or new work. Or winning lottery tickets.  

Having read about the slew of tech employee slayings, I've taken some precautions. I've put my irons in other fires. To date I have not received one email back for the dozens of jobs I have applied for. Jobs I suspect I am thoroughly overqualified for.

I wonder if the other 691 candidates applying for the Creative Director job at Apple have heard anything back. 

I've also switched from Starbucks coffee to the less-tasty, less-expensive house generic brand of coffee -- I believe Pavilions Supermarket calls it Signature. Though I'm not sure Juan Valdez would sign his name to these beans.

Also, as I told the concerned Ms. Muse, "I embrace adversity." Mostly because it nudges me into survival mode, something my people know a little about (see yesterday's post). 

I've also rewired my brain to seek out the new, walk bravely into uncertainty, and put smiling cheery emojis at the end of anything I write that even has the slightest whiff of snark.

Good bye, PayPal. 

I wish you the best of luck. 😊😊😊