Why Circumstances Don’t Create Your Experience — Your Thinking Does
What Downsizing Really Feels Like
Being let go due to a downsizing process is a strange experience.
It’s not as simple as “I lost my job.”
It feels layered.
There is the practical layer — contracts, HR conversations, timelines, formal words like “restructuring” and “overtallighet.”
But underneath that, there is something more human.
At times, I have felt:
Discarded.
Overlooked.
Replaceable.
Devalued.
Not because anyone said those words directly.
But because when a role disappears, it’s easy to let the mind translate that into: Maybe I wasn’t essential.
There is also a feeling of powerlessness.
Decisions made above you.
Processes already set in motion.
A train that was leaving the station whether you agreed with it or not.
And then comes the identity layer.
When your work is not just a job but part of your craft, your calling, your contribution — losing it can momentarily shake your sense of self.
Who am I without this role?
Where is my value now?
What is my place?
But something else has been present too.
Clarity.
Because when the noise settles, what remains is this:
My competence is still here.
My experience is still here.
My passion for service design, facilitation, and leadership is still here.
A downsizing process can remove a position.
It cannot remove capability.
It cannot remove character.
It cannot remove contribution.
What I am learning is this:
Feeling rejected is human.
Taking it personally is optional.
There is grief in endings.
And there is space in endings.
And sometimes, space is exactly what growth requires.
What Downsizing Really Feels Like
Being let go due to a downsizing process is a strange experience.
It’s not as simple as “I lost my job.”
It feels layered.
There is the practical layer — contracts, HR conversations, timelines, formal words like “restructuring” and “overtallighet.”
But underneath that, there is something more human.
At times, I have felt:
Discarded.
Overlooked.
Replaceable.
Devalued.
Not because anyone said those words directly.
But because when a role disappears, it’s easy to let the mind translate that into: Maybe I wasn’t essential.
There is also a feeling of powerlessness.
Decisions made above you.
Processes already set in motion.
A train that was leaving the station whether you agreed with it or not.
And then comes the identity layer.
When your work is not just a job but part of your craft, your calling, your contribution — losing it can momentarily shake your sense of self.
Who am I without this role?
Where is my value now?
What is my place?
But something else has been present too.
Clarity.
Because when the noise settles, what remains is this:
My competence is still here.
My experience is still here.
My passion for service design, facilitation, and leadership is still here.
A downsizing process can remove a position.
It cannot remove capability.
It cannot remove character.
It cannot remove contribution.
What I am learning is this:
Feeling rejected is human.
Taking it personally is optional.
There is grief in endings.
And there is space in endings.
And sometimes, space is exactly what growth requires.