I thought I was getting a promotion...

I thought I was getting a promotion... I was actually walking into my termination meeting. Story time I walked into my termination meeting at my last job thinking I was getting a promotion. I remember sitting in a cafe that Friday for the 4:30 pm call, which started off like any other weekly check-in with my manager. Until we were at 10 minutes left in the call. "That's why we've decided we're parting ways with you, effective immediately after this call." Those words echoed in the silence as I was at a loss for words, a loss for any feeling at all. Because my expectation that I was going to bring up my promotion during this call was so different from this reality. When I could finally muster up the ability to speak, I blubbered out something like "Thank you for the opportunity to work with you guys." Even though what I really wanted to say was "Why? Why was I given no heads up at all?" What I really wanted to do was to fight for myself, but what society tells us to do is to end things with dignity and not burn any bridges. So that's what I did. I stayed silent, until now. I've stayed silent that I was actually so bitter and traumatized about how I was let go for many months afterward. It wasn't until recently that I've found closure by realizing it was precisely the difference between my own expectations vs reality that was the root of my pain: I falsely thought I was doing a great job and my role was safe because I was 1 out of 6 people in the company, but the truth was the complete opposite. For most people dealing with job loss during this recession, it is not your fault nor could you have done anything to prevent it. But if there is one grave mistake you can prevent, it's being foolish enough to believe in the myth of job security.