Last Monday ended up ranking in my top 3 stressful days at work listing. It took a while for me to figure out if it ranked ahead or behind getting fired.
The list:
- Having a coworker unexpectedly die, August 6, 2003.
- Having my company acquired, January 28, 2019.
- Getting fired, November 11, 2013.
You may be wondering how an acquisition could rank above getting fired. All things considered, this was the nice kind of getting bought out; the executives fell in love with each other, realized there were synergies here, and decided to make it official. People at work were generally excited about it when it broke. I had no idea why.
Getting fired was a single event, but at least there was a kind of runbook of what to do afterward.
- File for unemployment.
- Start job-hunting.
- Keep job-hunting.
- Keep the unemployment office happy.
- Grin and bear it for the weeks between the offer and the start-date when unemployment isn't coming in.
It had an emotional toll, but at least the what next question was answered. The emotional side was more of a diassociated stun.
Getting acquired was something I had no baseline expectations for except bad. It took me most of the day for me to figure out if the happy-happy I was seeing was corporate-koolaid or if people were honestly happy about it. My reaction was to become a giant stressball of anxiety. I had no baseline. I had no way to predict what was going to happen next. And I had a remote job, which even now take longer to find than on-prem jobs. Even dealing with the sudden death had a bit of a runbook to it.
They were honestly happy about it. It turns out that had to do with what was going to happen to our stock-options. A big check for a lot of us, including me. As I mentioned on a private social network on Tuesday:
This looks like a lottery-win. My cynicism doesn't know how to deal with this.
It took me a day and a half before I stopped being a gigantic stressball about the whole thing. That night I slept for absolute crap. By the end of the day I was feeling better since most of my pressing questions...
- Are you serious about the options thing? (Yes. Holyshit.)
- What about benefits? (infodump, far more comprehensive than we get now)
- What about trans coverage? (Somewhat TBD, but it looks better than I have now by a fair piece)
- What job will I have? (4% raise, plus a 20% bonus opportunity, and a drop in title; I lost 'Staff')
...got answers, and that meant my stomach wasn't threatening to ulcerate. All in all, a nice improvement. But for those two days, oh boy was I not fun to be around.