I was made redundant in December. Company restructuring, nothing I did, the usual story.
The financial reality is difficult but manageable — I had some savings, I've been doing some freelance work, things are tight but not catastrophic.
What is catastrophic is the shame. I haven't told most of my friends. I avoid conversations that touch on work. I have constructed a version of my days that sounds like I'm still employed. I cannot shake the sense that people will see me differently, that the image I had built of myself as capable and successful is now a lie.
I know this is not rational. I know unemployment is not a moral failing. I know many people I respect have been through this. Knowing it does nothing.
For people who have been through job loss — how did you handle the identity part of it? Not the job search. The internal story. The piece where your sense of who you are was attached to what you did, and then suddenly you couldn't say what you did?