What I Would Give to be a Pilgrim About Now

A little less than 200 hours ago I became a statistic. I and my colleagues were ushered into the windowless conference room and informed that we were terminated. Effective immediately. I became one of the 6.5 percent who is unemployment. I felt like one of the car plant workers in Michigan that I have been hearing about for months. I have never been laid off or unemployed for more than a week. The concept of being unemployed was foreign to me, but I embraced it – if 6.5 percent of the able-bodied population is doing it, it must be chic.

It could be thought that my first step after being laid off would be to clear out my work area. Not exactly. Somehow I was laid off on Monday, but I continued to work in the office during the days to follow. Maybe it is the Protestant Work Ethic ingrained in me, or maybe it is simply an unorthodox approach to unemployment. Either way, my lay-off has been a slow breakup. When I went to file for unemployment I wanted to ask my fellow unemployed citizens if they were experiencing the same tedious separation, or if they were able to make a clean break. The all-business nature of the folks filing for unemployment next to me made me assume that they were not on speaking terms about the issue.

I left the Department of Labor without any unemployed camaraderie, or even laughs of an awkward moment. All I left the Department of Labor with was an online appointment on Thanksgiving to clock my unemployed hours for the past week. It baffles me that I have to document my unemployment hours after 5 pm on Thanksgiving. I want to know what the Pilgrims would think of this. I am assuming, giving their feisty nature, that they would take issue with this, maybe revolt.