In a couple of days I turn eighty. That’s right the big eight zero. I still work about 24- 30 hours a week running an Access Television station in a small Massachusetts town. I’ll stay as long as I am able, and need the distraction. That’s right the distraction. I couldn’t bear sitting around all day. In addition I have a part time business as a marine woodcarver.
Frankly the income helps make a number of monthly payments, add to my retirement savings, and provide a bit of mad money for some of the side events I devise. Despite aging I attempt to continue dancing to my own tunes, keeping active and engaged.
Once upon a time I had a real career as an anthropologist. That terminated with Billy Bob Clinton’s Reinvention of Government. DOGE was a version of it on steroids without any reasonable constraints, and of very questionable ethical or legal worth. Just my opinion here.
In anywise when big career ending events happen you have to become creative and reinvent yourself. I was a woodcarver, and had done video as part of my job as an anthropologist, So I used my connections with people I used to work with in the marine industries and video and reinvented myself – Reinvention wasn’t just something the GOV could do. within a few weeks I was fielding telephone calls from the folks who had laid me off looking for free help. My reply? TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch! Pay up or no deal. I suspect that similar calls are being made right now to workers the idiots have displaced. My advice to them is to bleed the bastards dry!
In anycase between my age, employment in video and the litle business as a carver I no longer worry about my career as an anthropologist for the Gov. Would I entertain a job offer to consult? Well…I recall a line from the Musical Disney production Pete’s Dragon where the principal villain is going on about dragon scales, and dragon blood being “…Money, Money…Money by the pound!” Yup you got it -=-Draw Blood! Let’s see? Hundreds per hour?
And that’s my advice to anyone cut from their job because of DOGE or AI. Make the bastards bleed if they realize that they acted in haste.
As the old saying goes – “Pay Back Is A Bitch!”
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Here’s a recent lesson: I have an image of a role I want to play in others’ lives, and I have been wasting a lot of time trying to fulfill that role. Since I wanted to succeed in that role, I was getting that goal mixed up with what kind of person I wanted to be. Both were wants, and I had to pick the pieces apart to see the difference between being myself and being the person I imagine myself to be.
Was that confusing?!! ha ha. That’s why it took so long for me to figure it out. Now that I’ve realized the lesson, I no longer worry if I’m doing what the ideal version of Crystal would do. I just do what Crystal would do. It is bringing me peace.
Another one: I stopped asking “Can I do more?” and ask, “Should I do more?”
And hey!! I can comment again. WP finally gave me a message this morning “This site is not allowing you to comment because cookies are blocked.” So I went to settings and put in your URL to say your site is a safe one. Reloaded your page. Viola! It lets me be a part of your blog world again. Yay!!
Cookies were blocked? That’s a new one on me…chocolate chips?
Good points and something I’ve been cogitating recently myself.
Even without DOGE or working for the gubmint, my job was disappeared by a boss who just really hated me. I had a contract so he couldn’t just fire me. He “gave” an entire department (Business Communication) away to a different college in the university. The union couldn’t help us, either. Four of us were out of work. Two of “us” picked up a class in the new college (at the DW’s recommendation) one followed his heart and moved to Brazil. As for me? When I saw what was going on I retired. I did what I could to fight before that, though. Sometimes being shut out of a job isn’t such a bad thing.
As you say “Sometimes being shut out of a job isn’t such a bad thing.” if it leads you to better and worthwhile things, which it definitely did for you.
I’d have liked to retire at 65 but…I’d also have liked to stay in California, but… Sometimes our future is thrust upon us and turns out great.
I know you got snagged with the Clinton cuts. I’m not here to argue that they were all great and the right choices. But compared to the insane destruction of DOGE?!? As I recall, at least with the Clinton cuts they actually LOOKED at the departments and thought about it, at least as a photo op. DOGE? There the photo op was Musk drugged out and dancing with a chain saw, having herd of kids download everything. Clinton was a controlled burn while DOGE was a nuke. We have no idea what long-term mess all of that caused, nor how long it will take us to crawl out of it. And totally agree with your closing thoughts: Anyone who got sacked by DOGE/Ding Dong Donnie should make the ba$tards pay–even though technically that tax-payer money. I’d rather that than the gold plated trailer that DDD is turning DC into. [end rant… for now]
I agree The Musk Melon is nuts, but with the effects on careers and government function, loss of talent and other things they remain comparable. We had all our rights preserved, and I state the AI Bros and the Gob mint are going to need those people back, and I advise that the displaced make them bleed!
A big Bon Anniversaire to you!
A happy upcoming birthday to you!
Honestly the job scare is real everywhere. In India the government proposes self-reliance to youngsters, and that they should be the next generation of innovators but the irony is they do not have any capital to do so and in turn become unemployable.
It’s happening here too.