A few years ago, a recruiter saw my resume and said it looked like I was two different people. My CV outlined a decade or so of work in corporate communications, and another few years of non-profit management. In the middle, I had earned a master’s in social work. So, I could see her point: there are a couple of different pathways there. 

Fortunately, I found a job that acted as a bridge between paths. As I wrote in this post several years ago, I joined a corporate foundation, and my role took advantage of all my skills and multiple networks. I regularly told people it was the best-fitting job I ever had. 

In this job, I learned to find ways of connecting community strengths and business strengths. I got to engage a company’s employees and they told me it brought more meaning to their “day jobs”.

I was honoured to support community-based organizations doing amazing work across the country, and I learned a ton from them. I saw the real-life side of all the community development and social work theory I had studied.

I helped a team navigate our personal and professional needs – individually and collectively – in ways that made my group one of the most supportive teams I’ve ever come across. 

I came to realize that one of my favourite things is facilitating groups of diverse people to work together on something – for something. 

I listened and heard about many ways that the philanthropic sector could do better in supporting the charitable sector, and then my team and I implemented several of those things. 

In short, this job has been rewarding, fulfilling, and full of hope – during what’s felt like a particularly hard time in modern history. 

A few days ago, that job came to an end. In a brief conversation, I was told that despite making significant impact in my role, it was a role that was being eliminated due to budget cuts and restructuring at the company that funds the foundation. 

During last year’s cuts for similar reasons, I wrote a message for the many colleagues who had to leave. Re-reading it this morning alongside the many emails, texts, calls, and messages I’ve received over the past few days, I know my words from last summer now apply to me and my other colleagues who lost their jobs this past week. And I know – as I suspected back then – that these words are also not quite enough. 

Fortunately, I think time will be enough; we can always count on time to help work things out. 

I first worked at this company in 2004; I first walked through the doors of that big tower more than 20 years ago. In those years, most of the formative and consequential things of my adult life happened – either with that place as a backdrop, or directly because of it. Many friendships formed and remain. Many hellos and goodbyes have been said. Successes have been celebrated, losses mourned. 

As I often tell others, all things eventually come to an end. In a forest, after trees and plants die, they become sustenance for the next cycle of life. Similarly, with where I am right now, I know the relationships, skills, and ways of knowing from my recent jobs will grow into something full of life and strength in whatever comes next. 

Thank you to everyone who has helped seed these experiences. I appreciate you, and I hope we can move forward together.