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I left the workforce with one minute notice at the start the Great Resignation of 2021.
I left the American workforce with the intention to never return. I shut down my laptop, scheduled to meet the CFO to return all employer equipment the next day and scheduled a call with my CEO & CFO for the following week. I spoke my truth to them.
I have an incredibly strong work ethic. I have always excelled at whatever my job was at the time, and, I have had my fair share.
I spent a little over a decade in the American workforce.
In early 2021, I joined the Great Resignation. I took a giant leap of faith.
Leaving the American workforce is by far one of the best leaps of faith I have made. That says a lot, because I follow my intuition & take many risky assessed pivots entirely too often. I find a way to land on my feet. Trust your gut. Follow your intuition. Let it steer you. Even when it is scary. Especially when it is scary.
I also have a knack for having some more dramatic endings to employment.
I interned in an all-male, minimum-security prison during my junior year of college. The justice system has always captivated me. I implemented a fairly innovative, family focused program for the inmates in my 4-month internship. It was an eye-opening, incredible experience.
I knew the warden was involved in a scandal & learned later that there was another questionable circumstance involving a correctional officer and an inmate. The CO’s husband also worked at the prison.
It was 20-year-old-Laura that was escorted out of the prison I interned at by armed prison guards. They marched me across campus, through the barbed wire fencing & to my car. I was being let go. This horrific memory occurred on the very final day of my internship.
I was told I was too attractive to be working at an all-male prison facility. I looked the same I had 4 months prior which is when they met me to interview me for the internship. It was also my final day of the internship. I had 2 hours left.
Power play.
When I worked at Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago, I had just received my 2nd promotion within 2 years and was a top performing Sales Manager that was ready to move into a larger role/market. Six months later I was fired. IL is an at-will state and no explanation is required to terminate employment. I know why I was fired. So do my coworkers & close friends at the time.
Power play.
I joined the movement of the Great Resignation at the very end of February 2021.
I thought I had finally found my forever home in terms of ideal employers and positions. That was my one and only year of professional experience in fundraising. I loved every single thing about my job and employer when I started. Our chapter had their highest revenue year since inception, in 1985.
In January 2021 everything shifted with my direct leadership. My boss, who had become a mentor & friend soon after I started; began to treat me differently. After concepting the first virtual event for MAWI, rocking out end-of-year giving & and then being denied my first vacation request to take a couple of days off the first week of January | I sensed the tides were shifting.
I was also in the midst of trying to treat my debilitating chronic pain with a new medical team | “You Are a Medical Quandary” | To Experience Chronic Pain as a Woman in America. In the middle of January, I was directed to start an oral steroid.
That oral steroid rocked my mind. I could tell within an hour of ingestion. I told my boss. I told my CDO. I told my coworkers. We made some accommodations to my hours for the one week I was required to take the steroid tablets.
A few afternoons later, the effects were significantly worse as the afternoon/evening wore on, I was asked by my boss if I was a safety risk to myself or others. This took me aback completely.
I have been asked this question countless times in the years my mind was tormented by internal demons. The question was justly asked in those times. This felt unfounded & inappropriate.
The next weeks are a blur of realizing that my mental & physical illnesses, my invisible illnesses, were once again, being used against me.
The power play felt eerily familiar.
My resignation to the American workforce is incredibly liberating. I now pour more of me into the causes that are at the fiber of my being. It is incredibly liberating. Empowering.
I trust my own worth. I know my work ethic. I have a vision & believe in my potential to achieve it.
The Great Resignation of 2021 | I cannot wait to see where our dreams & visions for a better future take us.
