“I’m on my fifth job in eleven years. It’s not that I don’t do...

“I’m on my fifth job in eleven years.  It’s not that I don’t do good work.  The layoffs have always been tied to company performance, or just being in the wrong position at the time.  But the instability has caused me to rethink my relationship to work.  My first job out of college, I lived and breathed work.  I managed a team.  I was always available.  I’d answer emails at midnight.  I took work calls on my wedding day.  And I never minded.  I felt like the magical cog that kept everything going, and that indispensability was a big part of my confidence.  So I took it pretty personally when I got laid off.  Dozens of people lost their job that day, but I still saw it as a personal failure.  After that I was forced to separate my identity from work.  I’m trying to measure myself on how I interact with friends and family.  Or how well I support my husband.  I’m not checking emails right before bed anymore.  Or right when I wake up.  I’m offline during the holidays.  Because I know the company will be perfectly fine without me.  And the work will always be there when I get back.”