#013: Pandemic Lessons Part 3
Living with a Pandemic has really messed with our perception of reality, hasn’t it? There we were, just out there shaking hands with people or even hugging, using salad bars and eating from buffets, and not at all concerned about how many rolls of toilet paper we had in the house.
Funny how things change.
Here was a BIG one for me: once and for all, I needed a permanent break from being an employee. I had tried several times before, and always ended up going back.
But the pandemic magnified the things I hated about working as an employee, and they went from being super annoying to completely intolerable. So when it looked very likely that I would lose my job (you can’t exactly do outside sales to hospitals, doctors offices and other healthcare related businesses when there’s a lockdown going on), I didn’t do anything to try and stop it.
I took every opportunity I could to take my skincare side business more seriously. Luckily for me, the product line was transitioning away from an MLM model (thank God), so I really could treat it as a fresh start.
Which I did.
Of course it’s not alway easy to be self-directed. I struggle with balance. But I love what I do. I love my product line. I love that I get to choose who I work with. I love that my mistakes are mine alone, not because some corporate weenie-head (as my friend Ruth used to call them) had some bone-headed idea that became everyone else’s problem.
And on my last day in “Corporate America”, I was reading one last email from the company COO about how employees were not being careful enough while away from work and they were mostly responsible for spreading the virus to the residents (of the assisting living facility) they took care of .
It was exactly the type of email that would infuriate me. So on my last day, I decided to reply, and said exactly what I wanted to say. And of course burning my bridge with the Chief Operating Officer, I wrote, “how dare you blame the aids and caregivers who come to work every day for $10 an hour to take care of YOUR residents, all while you sit safely at home completely unaware of what’s happening in the communities. Maybe instead of blaming, you could just say “thank you”. “
And that was the very last corporate email I will ever send.
