I Got Laid Off And It Was The Best Thing to Ever Happen to Me
On August 10th, 2015, I woke up as my husband was leaving for work. I checked my phone, like I always do first thing to see what messages and tasks I have, and that's when I saw it, the email that changed my life forever.
I had only worked with the virtual assisting company for just a few days shy of 6 months. I loved my job, my co-workers, and my clients. I held my head high when I talked about what I did because I was proud. I had my dream job and I did a damn good job at it.
We were broken up into teams by region and each team was led by a team leader. My team leader was Alyson and she was wonderful. She was always swamped and under immense pressure but she still did a damn good job. She oversaw about 10 of us and between her own clients, she had to find time to supervise us. I respected the hell out of her, and still do, for being able to operate under the stress but she did it so well. I wanted to become a team leader too. I was looking forward to it and as new employees were coming on, Alyson looked to me to help train a few of them. She was thrilled with my work and thought I could be someone to help them. I was honored to hear that and I thought it would be the start of a glimpse into what being a team leader could be like. I tell you all of this, not to brag, but to truly get across how much I loved my job and anticipated a future with them. At least for the next 5 years.
Then on August 10th, we all awoke to find ourselves without a job. All of us. The company had folded in the span of a weekend. Our last day had "officially" been August 7th and we had no idea. According to other sources, new clients were being signed up just 13 hours before!
“I saw it and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ We had no idea this was coming.”
My team scrambled to communicate. At our normal scheduled check in time, we started a team meeting, in Google Hangouts, exactly how we met with each other twice a week. We discussed the collapse and panicked. I won't lie. There were tears from all of us. Some of my co-workers had kids to support and some were the sole income earners in their household. We were very worried. While this was happening, all of the laid off employees scrambled to get everyone together in a Facebook group (that still exists as a resource) to help each other. People were offering others to help with logos, websites, writing content and deciding on contracts and rates for the independent businesses. I was moved by how we all came together. I cried a lot that day but more of it was because of happy tears and joy than being sad about our situation.
I sent an email to my clients because my fear was that they thought I might have known about this in someway. I was just as shocked as they were and I was devastated. I had been working with these people for nearly 6 months and I was going to miss them. In the CEO's email to everyone she told us to take our clients with us, despite an NDA we all had signed. Although many people blame her for the way she handled the company and overlooked a massive money leak, I commend her for trying to help us in the only way she could at that time. It saved most of us. The email replies from my clients started pouring in and made me cry harder than I did when finding out I just lost my job. All of my clients were incredibly supportive, all of them offering to continue working with me. They gave me time to get things in order, others offered resources, and one client HIRED me as an employee with her company. I have never felt so supported and loved before in my life. It was incredible.
We were given no warning, just like clients. Shame they'd do this to their employees but the clients who have prepaid or renewed.. #Zirtual
— Randi 👽✌🏻 (@randiftw) August 10, 2015
I spent the next week gathering all of the info I could on running a business, to LLC or not to LLC, sat in that Facebook group to learn more like handling money and utilizing the tools that we used at our last job, and I even held a webinar on how to Install WordPress. Then once it was all together, I began working with my clients exclusively. I could do more of the work I wanted but was considered "out of scope" before. I was able to help with web and graphic tasks and my clients were happier for it. Things are much better now because I am my own boss and my relationship with my clients is fantastic.
I had said before that I didn't want to be a freelancer and I applied with that company because they were employees. I thought that there would be security in that. If that's not a life lesson, I don't know what is. So now, I make my own security. I am responsible for myself and I prefer relying on myself than someone else.
It's now been over 3 years and I am still working with a majority of the clients I left with and a couple more. When I opened that email, in that moment, I knew my life was changed forever. I just didn't know that it was going to be the best thing to ever happen to me.
I still work with the clients I left with and now, in 2019, I am putting more focus on my business to build it up. I want to get to know more people, take on new tasks, and learn new things.
I just recently filed Off Your Desk as an Limted Liability Company. I've been under a sole proprietorship until now. It feels like it's finally a step in the right direction. I just feel like now my business is "legit" and I'm very proud of how far I have come and I'm excited to see how far I go.
I was featured in the Las Vegas Sun and BuzzFeed for my thoughts on the collapse of Zirtual.
