The Beginning of a New Chapter

Sometimes life throws things at you that you don’t expect and can’t plan for. Sometimes you get a little warning ahead of the curveball, and sometimes it comes out of nowhere. But inevitably, those unexpected events lead to decisions, and the bigger the event, the bigger the potential impact is on your future.

This summer has been one of those times of change for me, but after having some time to digest the news, I’m actually looking forward to what this might mean for my future.

If this all sounds vague, it’s because I haven’t talked about it outside of close friends and family and a few hints in my newsletter. I haven’t gone into any real details publicly prior to this, mostly because I didn’t have enough information yet.

So let me start from the beginning. I’ve been working for the same company for almost nine years, and prior to this year, I felt it was a great place to work. There were the usual ups and downs—biotech is notorious for that—but the core group of people at the site I work at are some of the best I’ve ever had the privilege of working with. And I like our site’s management team (which is a huge bonus, given my previous job.) I was planning to stay there until my writing stuff took off enough that I could walk away.

Yes, that last sentence was in the past tense.

There were some executive transitions in our company back in May, which then led to hints of sweeping changes that did not look good for our particular site. We were officially told in June that a reorganization was coming, and not long after some of the key work our site was doing was abruptly stopped. At the beginning of August, we were informed that there would be significant staffing cuts, and they’d notify the impacted employees in 3 weeks. Rumors started to swirl that our site was going to be decommissioned. Information was passed on that some people would be cut immediately on that fateful date, while others would be asked to stay on for a few months longer while activities were completed.

I’ve never worked anywhere that announced they were planning layoffs on a specific date, and believe me when I say the wait was awful. Having been through layoffs multiple times previously, I can say with certainty that it’s much less stressful when you don’t know ahead of time. It sucks just as badly in the end, but without that waiting period, it feels somehow better.

All of this is to say that I was given notice on August 26 that our site was officially going to be decommissioned, and everyone there will be moving on. A few people were cut immediately, but the bulk of us are expected to stay until December 31. (And before you get too excited and tell me that I should just quit now, there’s a clause in the severance paperwork that requires me to stay or I get no severance at all. With as long as I’ve been there, I want my damned severance package, so I will be staying until the end of the year.)

But as I said at the beginning of this post, I’m not really upset about the situation anymore. I’ve been wanting to move on for a while. I’ve been hoping to find a reason to leave so I’d have more time to focus on my books and writing.

And I think this was the push I needed to move forward with that plan.

My husband and I have discussed the possibility at length. While I’m not sure yet if this means I will be writing full time, or if I will be taking a part time job somewhere, I know I won’t be going back into biotech after this. I’m tired of the constant cycle of layoffs that have punctuated my career.

I’m looking forward to what the future holds. I have a few months to figure out what my plan will be, but I foresee more books ahead, no matter where my path ultimately takes me.

And I’m optimistic about the beginning of this new chapter.