Article October 24, 2011 Issue

A career with no shelf life

By Lynde McCormick

It felt surreal.  

The person in front of me was speaking in a normal tone, in a normal office environment, but the magnitude of what she was saying was way out of sync with “normal.” Because the young woman seated across the tiny desk from me was telling me my job was over. In 30 days, I would be gone. No reason given, other than that my contract permitted the company to make this decision. And I would be expected to put in a full day’s work each day until my last day.

Color me “shocked.” The performance reviews had been good. My professional skills had made steady gains. All my co-workers liked me.