I’ll get to the beef of it, I was laid off from Eddie Bauer a little over a year after starting as one of their content writers. It was annoying, devastating, and sad all at once. At the base of it, the experience was extremely odd and almost surreal, like an out-of-body simulation.
It was Tuesday, February 7th, 2023, and the sun was peeking through the clouds while the ocean air quickly warmed up. I woke up, made some coffee, and had a small breakfast similar to any other day. The Eddie Bauer staff was on high alert. Leadership had recently cut the Eddie Bauer Guide program, eliminating a handful of corporate jobs and leaving over a dozen athletes out to dry. I don’t know the nitty-gritty of this decision, but I can assume, since we kept our media influencers, that lea-
dership decided to abandon all hope of competing with the Cotopaxi, Arcteryx, and Black Diamonds of the world. Sure, it makes business sense, but it does make the brand a lot less cool.
I logged into my laptop. I had recently been upgraded to a 2022 MacBook Pro and was enjoying the experience much more than expected. Overkill for a writing job? Absolutely. I could have done the job on a 2015 Microsoft Surface, but that wouldn’t have loaded YouTube and simultaneously played 99% Invisible while using an archaic Content Management System. However unjustified a $3000 computer is for a writing job, it wasn’t my decision to make. My normal morning varied depending on the number of deadlines I had looming and how large the product content request queue was. On some mornings, I could enjoy a video update from ‘Not Just Bikes’ before getting into my work, and on other days I was on email #6 by 7:30 am. This day was one of the latter.
Since the marketing team had just gone through a series of layoffs, the content and brand team were thought to be relatively safe. The weekly check-in with my boss seemed ok, and all things considered, she seemed rather optimistic about the future of the company. This particular morning, I had planned to head to Seattle with my girlfriend and her friend before diverting and taking the light rail to the Eddie Bauer offices. I had only been to the offices a few times, seeing as it was a 90-mile drive one-way, but I tried to keep appearances up for professionalism and sanity's sake. However, at around 8:30 am, I was sent hyperventilating into a bag. 11:30 am meeting invite – Title: Check-In, Attendees; VP of Marketing, Director of HR.
My boss wasn’t online yet. My girlfriend was still in the bedroom (which doubles as an office). “I think I’m going to get fired today”. It didn’t make sense. I had a ton of work to get to, and I had been providing some of the best content of my life within the last few months. I was feeling comfortable, happy, and looking forward to the next year with Eddie Bauer. It didn’t make sense that they gave me three hours to stress over the next steps in life. The disappointment was inevitable, so I immediately messaged my boss and sent over my thanks, worry, and guilt all in one. I also canceled the trip to the Eddie Bauer offices.
I’ve been laid off before. In March 2020 I was in the dumps. Life was fine but I was beyond burned out physically and mentally. I had a good group of friends but being a transplant in Minnesota leaves little social options during the long & cold winter months. At the time I worked for an advertising agency, and come peak COVID, we had retail customers dropping large campaigns left & right, making huge budget shortfalls and the need to “trim the fat”. I wasn’t a bad employee; I was just burnt out in a shit job that underpaid and didn’t need me in the office 5 days a week. I was sick of being an office drone that would worry more about the traffic getting to and from work than I did about whatever meaningless task I had to do that day. When layoffs were announced, I asked to be let go. It’s been the best decision I’ve ever made.
However, February 7th, 2023, was one of the worst days of my professional life. My dream job was over, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I spent the day downloading some work examples to my personal computer and not doing any real work. At 11:30, I had a 2-minute conversation with the VP and a 10-minute conversation with the Director of HR about the next steps for getting severance and returning my equipment. Comically, I was allowed to finish out the rest of the workday. This allowed me to get invited to an all-hands meeting at 1:00 pm where they would have told the entire company that I and another handful of employees from the creative and brand team were let go. I didn’t go to that meeting. I chatted with my boss over text, we hadn’t spoken verbally since about a week before the incident. She sent her condolences and offered to be a professional reference. I reached out to a few impactful people I met at Eddie Bauer, but those people couldn’t convince the air-heads up top that my job and impact were worth saving.
A little after 1 pm, right as the meeting was starting, I messaged the brand and content team of about 15 people. For some reason, I was eager to let them know the news first. Maybe I thought it would have saved my job. As far as I know, I was the only person laid-off to do this, but I at least got to let them know before corporate did. The meeting happened, I wasn't there, and I immediately received condolences and incredibly nice notes from former coworkers. Later that day I filled out an unemployment claim, thanked my lucky stars that I didn’t live in Utah anymore, and started to poke around LinkedIn.
This was my first mistake. I hadn’t updated anything, including my cover letter, resume, and portfolio since getting hired at Eddie Bauer. Looking back, I can’t believe they hired me for the role with the paltry and poor experience I had. Bless their hearts. So, step 1 of coming back from being laid off? Update your stuff! I probably applied to over 40 jobs on that first and second day of being laid off, and I didn’t hear from a single one of them! It’s extremely easy to get carried away into thinking that once your income comes to an end, so do you. But, so long as you’ve paid rent for the month, you shouldn't need to worry about getting a job within 24hrs.
For me, step 2 was using my company’s equipment for as long as possible. As mentioned earlier, I was just getting used to the fancy new MacBook Pro and all the fun features it came with. The usability was off the charts, and after switching back to my personal laptop for a day to try and get out of the habit of opening the MacBook, I quickly went back and calculated how long I could keep it without potentially losing my severance. Why they didn’t just lock me out I don’t know, but with that computer, I was able to rebuild my resume’, build out some cover letters, and painlessly apply to jobs with newfound confidence. Since then, I’ve returned the computer, but not before stopping into a BestBuy, testing out at least a dozen laptops, and choosing the one that best resembled the MacBook without going over my weekly unemployment income.
Speaking of the hiring process, I’m amazed by how all these content writing jobs have you take a test or do a writing assignment. I’m on the second or first round of a handful of interviews, and all of them have given me a writing test. I’m hoping to get my 4th job as a professional content writer soon, and none of the first three required a writing test, funny enough.
Anyhow, if your step 3 wasn’t to spend $600 on a new laptop, then I can wholly recommend traveling. While gainfully employed, I sought out and spent a lot of money on an Alaska Airlines credit card to take advantage of their free mileage offer before a handful of weddings and trips I have planned this summer. One of those trips happened to be the weekend following my layoff and into the beautiful city of Boston, Massachusetts. In Boston, Crystal and I visited our best "couple-friends" from our time in Salt Lake City. I love and adore these people. I want them at every major milestone of my life, and I can only hope to be at theirs. This couple will bring the country into a new era, and they’re already positively impacting their community in so many ways. I love and adore them and wish them the best and can’t wait to see their smiling faces again. We only spent two nights and three days in Boston, but I won't forget that magical time for a long while.
And what do you do after packing in a lot of activity into a short & sweet weekend? Travel some more! Crystal’s new job didn’t start until February 27th, so we took advantage of some time off, hopped in the van, and drove down the beautiful Oregon coast towards the Redwoods. Big trees, small ferns, little dogs, powerful waves, and everything in-between awaits you on the Oregon coast. The only reason people travel to Florida is because they haven’t been to Oregon. Who needs sunny beaches when you have 300ft tall trees mere yards from the Ocean?! While travel is a fantastic way to forget your worries, it’s also a far-too-easy way to spend all of your hard-earned money.
So, what is step 4? Well, so far, step 4 is to be kind of sad and unproductive. But be sure to whore yourself out in interviews and sound like the best candidate for the job regardless of what the industry is, and don’t think too much about your quickly increasing credit card debt. Oh, did you remember that rent is due soon? And your lease is up in a month? Don’t stress. This too shall pass in due time. Step 4 is a work in progress, and I hope it passes soon.
Good news to come.
-Casey
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