I'm a long-time member and user of a social media, career site called Linkedin. The primary purpose of the site is for jobseekers to have a place to organize their career experiences in the hopes of landing future roles with other companies. I've of course had mixed success with the site but nonetheless I keep my profile there updated. They've been a presence on the internet landscape since 2003 and I've been a member since May 8, 2008. It was around that time when my first long-term company I worked for started laying off folks. What I didn't know at the time was that I would wind up staying there a little more than 9 years later from that date before finally getting laid off from there myself.
One of the staple categories of posts seen are ones that can best be summarized as "Open To Work". Linkedin even has a banner for it you can paste on your photo. The struggle to find new roles whether one was laid off, fired, or looking for a change is real. I've been part of that struggle as well for a spell. I'm grateful that I have a decent paying job again though I am inching towards the "looking for a change" category. In this present job market, the threat of being laid off is a constant presence. So you always have to keep your Linkedin profile and resume (which you can attach on your Linkedin profile) updated in the event of that eventuality.
So there was one post this morning that caught my attention. It was from a person who was ceremoniously laid off from his position having been there for less than 60 days. I've seen posts like that time and time again. Some of the impacted are those who fell into the looking for a change category. They job hopped to another role that sounded promising only to get the ax a short time later. Sometimes the grass looks greener on the other side until you get to the other side.
This particular person shared how he had just told his spouse that he was thinking of how he could grow in this new role and then he got laid off. He shared a brief quote which I had never heard before so was sweet and concise and one that I wound up using in my title for this post. The phrase was 'We Plan, God Laughs'. In short we make all these plans thinking things will go from Point A to B. But then life leads you to Point C or you get to Point B but wind up taking a different path to get there. God already knows that's not in the cards but we don't realize it till later.
Life gives us plenty of 'We Plan, God Laughs' moments. I only need to look at my old blog and refer to the various guys I encountered during that time that I just knew was going to advance to something more serious. Or at least a regular fuck buddy. But God knew none of those guys were right for me and they all revealed themselves one way or another to prove God right. I think of all the jobs I applied for and got rejected or ghosted that I hoped would be the one. Some of those rejections (umm redirections...LOL) and ghostings may have proven to be for the best. For example a popular insurance company starting with the letter Z had absolutely no diversity in their staff (predominately Caucasian with a sprinkle of Indian). Would I have really been happy working there? I think not. But I didn't realize it at the time until I thought about it further.
My intentions this month were to try and keep my credit card purchases to $2000 or less. But car insurance payments and an unplanned out of town work trip derailed that goal. Last month it was a flat tire. But I'll keep trying. I'm hopeful that the planning will go off without a hitch one day...LOL.
It seems life is just a series of chess moves that we calculate hoping for one outcome but most of the time ending with another. Until one day your time is up. When, where, why, or how your time ends, we will never know. But God does.
But we'll continue to plan. After all the alternative isn't all that great.
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