Blog Dis
Don't burn your bridges
2026-02-10
It has been three weeks and a bit since my role was phased out at the firm where I've contributed my professional expertise as an Executive Assistant for nearly two decades. Not because of performance issues, rather like many corporations, a review of total coverage across offices had resulted in restructuring.
I don't believe in burning bridges. When you burn your bridges, you ensure that you don't have a way back, should the landscape of your life change again, and should you end up being invited back to play once more, or if new opportunities find their way to you as a result of your previous situation. This is what it means to me to avoid burning my bridges. Sure, sure we each want to think of ourselves as indispensable. Reality is reality, no matter how you slice it or try to place it into the deep bucket of fantasy. We each are replaceable. You shouldn't doubt this reality given that one day you'll perish from planet Earth, and life will go on quite merrily without you. It is simply a fact of life... er dying.
I said my goodbyes to the team, putting special thought into wording my email to the group. I wanted them to understand that I don't dwell on the past in a way that prevents me from embracing my future. For 17+ years, I earned a salary, paid out regularly, without fail, to include benefits, and this is one of the reasons why I had stayed with the firm, as long as I did. Time flies, for the love of all things chocolate.
I valued the work ethic required to excel in a fast-paced environment that delivers professional services to the global community. I'm not trying to convince anyone in this post to swallow the Kool-Aid. I've many friends who've hopped from one role to another, rarely staying longer than one or two years, and never really allowing themselves the time needed to build skills. In some firms, such as the one where I worked, your skills are tested daily, along with the requirement of completing online testing to meet the International and Domestic requirements with regard to protecting client information, data privacy fundamentals, to include most recently a thorough course on the potential pitfalls of AI. The annual online testing, in some cases, took hours to complete, with each course requiring individual test-checks for every finished module, to be followed at the end with a final exam. Yep. The testing challenged me, and it also made my brain click, to be sure. My spirit would typically soar when I scored 100%. Yes!
According to the Canadian Employment Standards Act, in Canada, one week's severance is paid out for every year served. This rule is only waived if the corporation in question (domestic or foreign) has a payroll that dips below $250,000 per annum. When you receive severance, it means you won't starve, and it'll allow you wiggle room to get your head straight. I'd been applying my habit of frugality for years, so having more added to my little extra nest-egg will surely help. This makes a solid case for all young employees to realize that it's in their best interest to save as much as they can with every pay, and to do so consistently for years on end. Save for your retirement with your very first pay-check and never stop saving.
If you're reading this post, know that having your role phased out, due to restructuring, will happen to you in your career. I guarantee you. And now, we have the impact of AI that has yet to be fully realized, in terms of replacing some jobs, not all, but apparently a good many. Time will tell on this prediction. Analysts acknowledge that we'll see the greatest impact on the global business community within the next two years, while simultaneously these same analysists are now admitting that AI's evolution has slowed down, rather than to pick up speed as it continues to evolve.
When I turned in my company laptop, on my last day, the IT tech said that he'd been let go seven times in his professional career. He pointed this out to me with the nonchalance of water rolling off a duck's back. This time around represented my fourth experience. I was complimented by my manager for my professionalism in handling the news. I didn't miss a heartbeat. Deep down I've held one all-important distinction in life: there are problems and then there are inconveniences. Allow me a moment to explain: A problem is being told by a top dermatologist that your skin cancer is deeply imbedded, and requires immediate plastic surgery or you'll die. Whereas, an inconvenience is being handed your notice that your work situation is ending. One is life-threatening, while the other is life-changing.
The Universe, too, if you're inclined like me to think this way, will remove an element from your life. And, though it may feel violent at the time, in the end a vacuum has been created, that is to say the space needed in order that something equally as important can fill it.
Believe me when I say there are degrees of endings with every layer of commitment, that you choose to invest in your life. When a colleague and I had been let go from our employment situation, back in 2008, as a result of the stock market meltdown (thanks to the fall-out of mortgage-backed securities, if you recall), the company had filed Chapter 11, bankruptcy protection, and we were booted out without a single penny of severance. I didn't cry in my bowl of soup back then, any more than I'd cry now. You pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on.
If I had young children, however, and a mortgage, car payments, a spouse — all of whom relied on me to support them, I'd no doubt take a different view of my situation, because this occurs to many.
For now, as I catch my breath, I continue to get up in the mornings to inhale my protein shake of fruits and antioxidants and such, to be followed by my workout. I see no reason to change my routine, having observed a five-day work week for decades. I have, however, shut off my alarm to allow my body and mind to wake up when it's ready. Truly, it feels liberating, to a degree, though I can't account for the wild, wilder, wildest dreams that my brain is throwing down, such as two nights ago. I dreamt that I was scaling a mountain in bare feet, and I made it to the top, only to realize that I had to figure out a way to climb back down. Even my unconscious, sleeping brain wonders what the frack is going on. Then that delightful dream was usurped the other night with me beginning a new work situation, and I arrived into the office topless. HaHaHa! Nobody needs to have the girls on display in a professional environment.
When you take your foot off the pedal, adrenaline stops being produced at the same levels formally when going to work. So, I felt utterly exhausted for the first two weeks, when I had stopped. This surprised me. I thought I'd be bursting with energy, though apparently my body has allowed itself to wind down, until I rev myself up again.
The bridge depicted below is an artist's rendering of the new Gordie Howe International bridge that'll connect Canada and the USA, at the Windsor-Detroit access points. I'm scratching my head now at POTUS who apparently has his knickers in a twist that Canada is yet again taking advantage of the USA, despite Canada footing the bill for the cost of this new bridge, in excess of $1 Billion. This binational deal was reached after years of legal battles and political resistance on the US side of the border. In 2012, under the Canada-Michigan Crossing Agreement, Canada agreed to finance, build and operate the bridge. We'll all be watching now to see how Prime Minister Carney will settle this latest issue of POTUS and his threats to block its official opening. Being the megalomaniac that he's proven himself to be, he no doubt wants to see his own name to appear on the bridge, rather than a Canadian hockey legend.
Some politicians are devoted to burning bridges, while others build them. Will we ever be set free?
I don't believe in burning bridges. When you burn your bridges, you ensure that you don't have a way back, should the landscape of your life change again, and should you end up being invited back to play once more, or if new opportunities find their way to you as a result of your previous situation. This is what it means to me to avoid burning my bridges. Sure, sure we each want to think of ourselves as indispensable. Reality is reality, no matter how you slice it or try to place it into the deep bucket of fantasy. We each are replaceable. You shouldn't doubt this reality given that one day you'll perish from planet Earth, and life will go on quite merrily without you. It is simply a fact of life... er dying.
I said my goodbyes to the team, putting special thought into wording my email to the group. I wanted them to understand that I don't dwell on the past in a way that prevents me from embracing my future. For 17+ years, I earned a salary, paid out regularly, without fail, to include benefits, and this is one of the reasons why I had stayed with the firm, as long as I did. Time flies, for the love of all things chocolate.
I valued the work ethic required to excel in a fast-paced environment that delivers professional services to the global community. I'm not trying to convince anyone in this post to swallow the Kool-Aid. I've many friends who've hopped from one role to another, rarely staying longer than one or two years, and never really allowing themselves the time needed to build skills. In some firms, such as the one where I worked, your skills are tested daily, along with the requirement of completing online testing to meet the International and Domestic requirements with regard to protecting client information, data privacy fundamentals, to include most recently a thorough course on the potential pitfalls of AI. The annual online testing, in some cases, took hours to complete, with each course requiring individual test-checks for every finished module, to be followed at the end with a final exam. Yep. The testing challenged me, and it also made my brain click, to be sure. My spirit would typically soar when I scored 100%. Yes!
According to the Canadian Employment Standards Act, in Canada, one week's severance is paid out for every year served. This rule is only waived if the corporation in question (domestic or foreign) has a payroll that dips below $250,000 per annum. When you receive severance, it means you won't starve, and it'll allow you wiggle room to get your head straight. I'd been applying my habit of frugality for years, so having more added to my little extra nest-egg will surely help. This makes a solid case for all young employees to realize that it's in their best interest to save as much as they can with every pay, and to do so consistently for years on end. Save for your retirement with your very first pay-check and never stop saving.
If you're reading this post, know that having your role phased out, due to restructuring, will happen to you in your career. I guarantee you. And now, we have the impact of AI that has yet to be fully realized, in terms of replacing some jobs, not all, but apparently a good many. Time will tell on this prediction. Analysts acknowledge that we'll see the greatest impact on the global business community within the next two years, while simultaneously these same analysists are now admitting that AI's evolution has slowed down, rather than to pick up speed as it continues to evolve.
When I turned in my company laptop, on my last day, the IT tech said that he'd been let go seven times in his professional career. He pointed this out to me with the nonchalance of water rolling off a duck's back. This time around represented my fourth experience. I was complimented by my manager for my professionalism in handling the news. I didn't miss a heartbeat. Deep down I've held one all-important distinction in life: there are problems and then there are inconveniences. Allow me a moment to explain: A problem is being told by a top dermatologist that your skin cancer is deeply imbedded, and requires immediate plastic surgery or you'll die. Whereas, an inconvenience is being handed your notice that your work situation is ending. One is life-threatening, while the other is life-changing.
The Universe, too, if you're inclined like me to think this way, will remove an element from your life. And, though it may feel violent at the time, in the end a vacuum has been created, that is to say the space needed in order that something equally as important can fill it.
Believe me when I say there are degrees of endings with every layer of commitment, that you choose to invest in your life. When a colleague and I had been let go from our employment situation, back in 2008, as a result of the stock market meltdown (thanks to the fall-out of mortgage-backed securities, if you recall), the company had filed Chapter 11, bankruptcy protection, and we were booted out without a single penny of severance. I didn't cry in my bowl of soup back then, any more than I'd cry now. You pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on.
If I had young children, however, and a mortgage, car payments, a spouse — all of whom relied on me to support them, I'd no doubt take a different view of my situation, because this occurs to many.
For now, as I catch my breath, I continue to get up in the mornings to inhale my protein shake of fruits and antioxidants and such, to be followed by my workout. I see no reason to change my routine, having observed a five-day work week for decades. I have, however, shut off my alarm to allow my body and mind to wake up when it's ready. Truly, it feels liberating, to a degree, though I can't account for the wild, wilder, wildest dreams that my brain is throwing down, such as two nights ago. I dreamt that I was scaling a mountain in bare feet, and I made it to the top, only to realize that I had to figure out a way to climb back down. Even my unconscious, sleeping brain wonders what the frack is going on. Then that delightful dream was usurped the other night with me beginning a new work situation, and I arrived into the office topless. HaHaHa! Nobody needs to have the girls on display in a professional environment.
When you take your foot off the pedal, adrenaline stops being produced at the same levels formally when going to work. So, I felt utterly exhausted for the first two weeks, when I had stopped. This surprised me. I thought I'd be bursting with energy, though apparently my body has allowed itself to wind down, until I rev myself up again.
The bridge depicted below is an artist's rendering of the new Gordie Howe International bridge that'll connect Canada and the USA, at the Windsor-Detroit access points. I'm scratching my head now at POTUS who apparently has his knickers in a twist that Canada is yet again taking advantage of the USA, despite Canada footing the bill for the cost of this new bridge, in excess of $1 Billion. This binational deal was reached after years of legal battles and political resistance on the US side of the border. In 2012, under the Canada-Michigan Crossing Agreement, Canada agreed to finance, build and operate the bridge. We'll all be watching now to see how Prime Minister Carney will settle this latest issue of POTUS and his threats to block its official opening. Being the megalomaniac that he's proven himself to be, he no doubt wants to see his own name to appear on the bridge, rather than a Canadian hockey legend.
Some politicians are devoted to burning bridges, while others build them. Will we ever be set free?
