Business love

I love my employer -- as an employer. And it (a company, never forget) loves me -- as an employee. 

But never forget what business love means. It means the employer finds it profitable to use your labor to ... make profits. 

They use you to make profits. You use them to make your own income. 

There's nothing wrong with that. It has unlocked limitless potential from human beings, by making work exchangeable in the form of money. Money = work done, in this sense. Work done = money. Fair. 

But the very quarter your employer (or mine) finds it unprofitable to keep paying us to work? Guess what? They essentially have to let you go. Some keep some of us on, for a time. They hope their revenue will improve, maybe. But eventually the demands of their bills, and their bottom line, and their survival, means that they have to let you go. 

The unjust layoffs and firings are even worse. Everyone knows people are let go unjustly. They're more senior. They have more experience, better skills. But for some personal or cultural prejudice, they're the ones let go. 

That's a naked, scary feeling. It's terrifying.

Even imagining it is  like a cold blade in the solar plexus. But it can happen.

I'm not trying to scare you. I'm just acknowledging reality. 

The loss of a job = loss of income = the loss of everything you buy with that income. 

It used to keep me up at night. Especially after I saw rounds of layoffs in my industry. And then in my company, and in the very TEAM I work in. 

I had panic attacks. 

Layoffs are fair enough. I'm not complaining. Layoffs feel bad -- for those let go, and for those who have to let us go.

But the employers have no real choice. They have to look out for the company's best interests. 

Now you can look out for YOUR best interests too

Leaving aside all that is done (and the more that should be done) in our society to look out for people who are laid off through no fault of their own, there is something you can do right now. For yourself. 

And that is to get your feet wet in a side-gig that is always needed and always lucrative (at a middle-class level, at least  -- $50/hour to $100/hour). 

Of course I'm talking about copywriting. It's something you can pick up and put down as you like. It's an EASY skill to learn (if you have basic writing ability), and the gigs are EASY to land when you know how to approach clients. 

I have slept VERY SOUNDLY ever since I dipped my toes into copywriting and saw how much I could make after hours. (And how much I could make all day long in the event my employer ever needed to let me go.) 

You don't have to fear the layoff -- you can reduce its power by 75% to 99%. 

Here's how:

You can get your feet wet in a side-gig skill that could replace most or all of your lost income from a lost job -- until you found another job. Or maybe you'd decide to just become a full time freelance copywriter, which is as solid a career as any middle class earner could want.